It’s not often that Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson faces a team for the first time. With more than 15 years of experience — and fewer than 40 women’s Division 1 teams — Johnson has the luxury of knowing most of the programs he faces inside and out.
But that advantage won’t be present this weekend, as Wisconsin’s No. 2-ranked women’s hockey team (2-0-0 WCHA, 6-0-0 overall) welcomes the Princeton Tigers (0-0-0 ECAC, 0-0-0 overall) to Madison.
“I’m looking forward to the competition, it should be fun,” Johnson said.
Wisconsin will be without the services of top-line center and 2018 Olympian Emily Clark, who sustained a leg injury in the opening minutes of last weekend’s series against Minnesota-Duluth. Beyond ridding the Badgers of one of their most talented scorers, Clark’s injury has also thrust several players into new, bigger roles.
Senior forward Annie Pankowski replaced Clark as the top-line center with immediate results — a goal and an assist in Saturday’s win. Johnson said he was happy with Pankowski’s production from the center slot and how the role change allowed her to be around the puck more often.
Further down the lineup, sophomore Maddie Posick — who played in 28 games last season but had seen no action in 2018-19 — made an appearance on the fourth line. Posick didn’t get on the scoresheet but played an energetic and defensively sound game.
“What we saw on Saturday was very good. I thought Annie was one of the best players on the ice, she had a very strong game,” Johnson said. “When [Clark] went down it changed some things and the changes we made worked out pretty well.”
Even without Clark’s elite scoring ability, Wisconsin had success getting pucks past Duluth goaltender Maddie Rooney, one of the NCAA’s best players. The Badgers got pucks to the net — 87 shots in two games — and were able to create rebounds and screens that led to goals.
They’ll need to emulate that performance again this weekend against Princeton goaltender Steph Neatby. The junior netminder had a breakout freshman campaign two years ago when she amassed a .950 save percentage and 1.52 goals against average en route to being named United States College Hockey Online's Rookie of the Year.
Neatby had a down year in 2017-18, but she still enters the season as one of the presumptive best goaltenders in the country.
Up front, Princeton should be much improved offensively as the Tigers return 96.2 percent of their scoring from last year. Leading the pack is junior Carly Bullock, who scored 24 goals and ranked 7th in the nation at 0.75 goals per game. No other Tiger reached double-digit scores in the 2017-18 season, but all the returners could give Princeton a deeper and more balanced attack.
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday at Labahn Arena, followed by a noon rematch on Sunday.
