The last time the Wisconsin women’s hockey team won the WCHA championship was in 2012, a year before this year’s senior class came to Madison. Since then, archrival Minnesota has dominated the conference, winning the title the last three years.
But Minnesota’s reign is over, and its end came at the hands of Wisconsin and its eight seniors, who clinched the conference title on senior day, after sweeping Minnesota State.
To accomplish this feat, especially for the seniors, was very exciting, senior captain Courtney Burke said.
“Obviously [winning the conference title] is pretty awesome, we haven’t won it since I’ve been here, we’ve only won the WCHA tournament, so this is a pretty cool accomplishment.”
Being a senior was not a requirement to enjoy this title, as sophomore forward Emily Clark, who scored twice in the win, was equally elated to bring home the championship.
“It’s amazing, obviously an emotional weekend for everyone being senior weekend, so to do it on home ice in front of a sellout crowd was pretty special,” Clark said.
The end goal of the season is to win a national championship, but Burke believes winning the conference title is actually more difficult than winning the national championship.
“This is a whole season, it’s six months,” Burke said. “[Head coach Mark Johnson] keeps saying we worked six months for this, and we all believe that, we’ve worked our butts off all season, and I think this is just the reward for us.”
It’s been a long year for the Badgers, as their first game of the season took place Oct. 2 of last year. Since that date, Wisconsin has won 30 games, beaten and swept Minnesota for the first time since 2011, set the NCAA record for the longest consecutive shutout streak and now has finally wrestled the conference championship away from the Gophers.
En route to achieving so many impressive accomplishments, this Badger team has also had a lot of fun, and that’s what Johnson thinks makes them special.
“We’ve talked quite a bit about their chemistry,” Johnson said. “They like each other, they get along, they like hanging out. In our sport, where you are around each other for a long period of time, sometimes that can cause problems, but with this group they embrace it, they enjoy being at the rink, they enjoy doing things together. And if you have that, that’s a pretty good recipe to start success.”
But the season is still far from over. There are still a lot of important games left to be played, and Johnson isn’t going to be making too big of a deal out of this title with so much still at stake.
“[The conference title] won’t sink in for coaches because we’re always worried about what’s next,” Johnson said. “And when there’s something next that’s what you start thinking about, starting with our final series up in Minneapolis.”
Wisconsin still has to pay a visit to the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis for the last series of the regular season, and even though the pressure might be somewhat alleviated for the Badgers, it will still be an important series, Clark said.
“I think having the pressure off us will definitely be a factor,” Clark admitted. “Having that weight off our shoulders, but those games [against Minnesota] are basically playoff games and I think that will be important in preparing us for the playoff push next weekend.”
It didn’t take long for the team to start looking past this championship, but Johnson believes this will be a very special accomplishment for the players for the rest of their lives.
“Eight to 10 years from now when they look back, especially the seniors, they did something special in their last year,” Johnson said. “It’s a tough trophy, maybe the toughest trophy to win in women’s hockey because it takes the longest to get there. You have to be consistent, you don’t get many nights off in the regular season. Eight to 10 years from now, nobody knows who has scored goals in this game, nobody knows how much people played, but they know they are a part of a championship team and that’s something they got in their back pocket, so I’m happy for them.”
