The UW women's hockey team successfully opened the season this past weekend with a display of talent that has shown fans they could be in for another exciting season. Upon completion of their two game sweep of Vermont, the Badgers are confident leading into this weekend's series in Orono, Maine. The upcoming series marks both the first meeting between the two teams as well as Maine's first game of the 2003-'04 season.
Maine is coming off of a 2002-'03 season which saw them place third in the Hockey East League with an overall record of 12-15-4. The Black Bears return 13 letter winners led by seniors Meagan Aarts and Karen Droog who led the team in goals last season. With little knowledge of what potential Maine has, the consensus on the ice is that this game cannot be taken lightly.
\We have to go into this game expecting them to be as good as any other team, there's not much else you can do besides that,"" freshman Meaghan Mikkelson said. ""If you go in there thinking that they're not that good then you're going to get beat. We just have to stick to our game.""
Second-year Coach Mark Johnson has a similar outlook. ""We don't really know anything about [Maine],"" Johnson said. ""I'm more concerned with how we play and trying to improve on what we did last weekend, if we are able to do that then it will be a successful weekend.""
Since the team has already played two games together, they have started to get a feel for each other and what needs to be done in order to win. ""The games against Vermont finally gave me a chance to see the players in action. Now we'll work on things this week and see if we made progress,"" Johnson added.
With two convincing shutouts under their belt, UW is prospering with a lot of talent on both sides of the puck.
??""This year we have a very strong defensive unit, they are playing very well so far,"" Mikkelson said. ""We have a lot of strength and skill which gives us to potential to perform very well this year.""
Complimenting their strong defense, the Badgers proved this weekend they have plenty of offensive firepower as well. The series against Vermont produced two-goal performances by Mikkelson and sophomore Nikki Burish, as well as three-point performances by Burish and junior Molly Engstrom.
Even though the offense showed potential, Johnson thinks there is still room for improvement. ""We need to work on puck movement and capitalizing on opportunities,"" said Johnson. ""We had a lot of quality chances but the puck didn't go in. I want to see the puck go in on a regular basis.""
Coming away with victories in Maine this weekend would leave the team undefeated for their always- anticipated rivalry games against Minnesota at the Kohl Center in two weeks.
