With eight games left to play in the regular season, it could be hard for the Cardinal and White to stay hungry, as it was announced Monday that the No. 2 Wisconsin women’s hockey team (18-1-1 WCHA, 24-1-1 overall) secured home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs. The playoffs will start at LaBahn Arena Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 27 at 4 p.m., with a third game being played on Sunday, Feb. 28 if the series is split.
This weekend, the Badgers finish out January in Madison versus an improved St. Cloud State Huskies squad (8-10-2, 12-10-2), which they upended in October by a two-game score of 7-0.
The Huskies’ record doesn’t jump off the paper, and they’re riding a two-game losing streak, but they’ve shown the ability to win close hockey games versus quality opponents. The Huskies are led by 2012 Minnesota Ms. Hockey finalist Molly Illikainen.
Earlier this season they defeated top-10 ranked North Dakota by a score of 5-4 in addition to pressuring No. 3 Minnesota last week, even though they fell short despite a valiant 4-2 showing. This is not a team to sleep on.
Head coach Mark Johnson has taken notice of the opponent’s development and mentioned St. Cloud State’s improvement at a Monday press conference.
“They’re playing up better, second year with their coaching staff,” Johnson said. “They seem to be connecting, you know, on power plays and be playing more confident and more comfortable, and certainly it will be a big test.”
Wisconsin junior goaltender Anne-Renée Desbiens also took notice of St. Cloud’s upward pointing arrow.
“They’ve been improving every single game since we played them,” Desbiens said. “I know we played them a long time ago, so I know they are going to be hungry too. They want to beat us for sure.”
The Wisconsin defense, led by Desbiens, has played a large part in the Badgers’ success so far this season. Although she is currently leading the nation in nearly every goaltending statistic, Desbiens still continued to preach a group mindset, even after being named WCHA defensive player of the week for the fourth time this year last Tuesday.
“I’ll say as a group, as a defensive group, we’ve been better at eliminating a lot of scoring chances,” Desbiens said. “Making sure the other team is staying on the outside, and personally I’m just keeping things simple, not trying to do too much. Just staying in my own game.”
With all that being said, UW statistically dominates the matchup on paper coming into the weekend. Wisconsin has scored 105 goals to St. Cloud State’s 51, while the Badger defense has only allowed 16 goals to the Huskies’ 75.
Sophomore forward Annie Pankowski, who leads the Badgers with 41 points, spoke with confidence regarding the upcoming matchup.
“We know that our forwards are a little more skilled than their ‘D’ are right now, so I think we are going to try and exploit that and use that as much as we can,” Pankowski said.
The puck drops at LaBahn Arena at 2 p.m. Saturday and 12 p.m. Sunday.
