After dismantling North Dakota at home in the quarterfinal round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, the UW women's hockey team (24-3-1 WCHA, 34-4-1 overall) will head north for the semifinal and final round of the tournament. The foe this time around is St. Cloud State (13-14-1 18-17-1l) who swept its quarterfinal series against Ohio State.
Despite St. Cloud State's losing record in the WCHA, this is not a team to be overlooked as it is ranked No. 10 in the nation. The Huskies upended the Badgers earlier this year 1-0. This time around, however, the game will be played on a neutral ice surface at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. Although, the game will be played on neutral ice, UW realizes what it is up against.
Well, the last five or six weeks they really have put themselves in a position to not only get where they are at now, but get in the Top 10 in the country as far as our rankings are concerned,\ head coach Mark Johnson said.
An interesting match-up to look for this weekend is how UW plans to attack the goalie of St. Cloud State.
""Our job is to throw as many pucks as you can,"" Johnson said. ""And you hope to get four or five because we're pretty confident that if we get up to those numbers, we have a real good chance at winning.""
In the three games that the Badgers won against the Huskies, they were able to score the puck. With efforts of five, three and three goals, they were able to handle their business. However, it only takes one afternoon to run into a hot goaltender, find yourselves not able to find the back of the net and end your hope of a conference playoff championship.
""But at this time of year it's just an exciting time to play,"" Johnson said. ""If you win, you move on. If you lose, you're back on the bus coming home.""
With spring break just around the corner, and the mental aspects that nag on a player at the end of the season, the Badgers are trying not to put any more pressure on themselves than they have to.
""You have to do things within practice to make sure that you don't over-coach, you don't overwork them, and you really try to push the right buttons at the right time now, because, like I say, things can end real quick or else you can move on,"" Johnson said. ""So it becomes a little game of putting a puzzle together.""
If Wisconsin was to win on Saturday, the team would play for the WCHA playoff championship against the winner of the Minnesota-Minnesota-Duluth semifinal Sunday afternoon. \
