The No. 4 Wisconsin women's hockey team (11-4-1 WCHA, 15-4-3 overall) is taking on the No 9 Minnesota State - Mankato Mavericks (6-5-3 WCHA, 13-7-3 overall) in a conference showdown this weekend at the Kohl Center.?? The Badgers, who are 17-0-1 all-time against the Mavericks, enter the game five points behind the WCHA leading Minnesota Golden Gophers.??
The Badgers are coming off of a strong showing against St. Cloud State, and hope to carry that performance into this series.??The Badgers combined to score 10 goals over the two game series against St. Cloud, but will have to work hard and get a few good bounces to duplicate that performance against a good defensive Minnesota State team.
The defense's heart and soul is senior goalie Shari Vogt, who is allowing a scant 2.02 goals per game.?? \The goaltender, Vogt, has been a world class goaltender for the four years she's been at Mankato,"" said Head Coach Mark Johnson.?? That could be a problem for the Badgers who have had trouble scoring all season, shooting only .084.?? Johnson said the women's team had to ""keep shooting, keep working on accuracy, quickness and create opportunities ... things tend to work out; you just have to ... make sure you don't get frustrated.""
Freshman forward Sara Bauer has played a big role in creating opportunities for the rest of her teammates all season.?? The forward out of St. Catharine's, Ontario, leads the team in both points and assists, with 18 and 14, respectively.?? Bauer was also named the WCHA rookie of the week after notching two goals and three assists against St. Cloud.?? Bauer, and senior forward and assistant captain Meghan Hunter will have to have a good series if UW is going to come away with their seven game undefeated streak intact.?? ""We know [Minnesota State's] a hard working team; they have a really good goalie.?? We have to attack the net,"" said Hunter.
One way Wisconsin hopes to attack the net is by taking advantage of the Kohl Center's big rink.?? ""We ... have to play the game at a high tempo and move the puck,"" commented Johnson. ""The faster the tempo is, the better it is for us.""
The biggest challenge for the Badgers' defense will be stopping the Mavericks' forwards sophomore Devon Nichols and junior Melanie Salatino.?? Nichols leads Minnesota state with 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) and Salatino is the leading goal scorer on the team. However, Wisconsin feels that if they play their style of game, they can shut both Nichols and Salatino down.??
""We're not going to do anything special [to try and contain the two forwards],"" Johnson said. ""I'm more concerned with how we play. We have a system in place; we trust the system. We have faith in the system.??We try to play within that.""
The Badgers will be playing short-handed this weekend as three of their players, Jackie Friesen, Meaghan Mikkelson and Bobbie-Jo Slusar will be spending the weekend playing for Canada's National Women's Under-22 team.?? This team will be competing in the 2004 European Air Canada Cup against teams from Switzerland, Germany and?? Finland.?? The cup is taking place this weekend in Germany.
