The Wisconsin women's hockey team hopes to continue its strong play when it heads to Minnesota-Duluth to play the Bulldogs in a weekend series.
The Badgers, sporting a 10-game winning streak, have won six of those 10 games on the road, and will need a sweep of Duluth this weekend if they want to contend for the WCHA regular season title.
Right now, Wisconsin sits eight points behind Duluth in the standings for first place, but the Bulldogs have played two more games than the Badgers. Wisconsin trails Minnesota by one point for the second spot in the WCHA.
The two teams battled earlier this season during a weekend series from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, and Duluth came out of Madison with a sweep. The second game was especially tough for Wisconsin as the Badgers entered the final minute of the third period with a one goal lead.
But Duluth freshman forward Iya Gavrilova scored with 25 seconds left and scored again 15 seconds into overtime to complete the sweep for the Bulldogs.
We're already marking down our calendar when we get to play them up in Duluth, Wisconsin junior goalie Jessie Vetter said after the series.
Now, that time has come. The Badgers look to be a much different team than when they last played the Bulldogs, but they still have to get the job done in Duluth. The Badgers will need a sweep to win win the regular season conference title.
Much of Wisconsin's lack of success against Duluth comes from the fact that it could not win close, low scoring games, which it has not been able to do all season. The Badgers are 20-0-0 when scoring three or more goals, and 0-6-2 when scoring two or fewer.
Luckily for the Badgers, they have been able to score at least three goals per game since the Duluth series.
Last weekend, Wisconsin swept North Dakota by scores of 6-1 and 5-2 at the Kohl Center. In the first game, freshman forward Hilary Knight notched a hat trick, while sophomore forward Meghan Duggan did the same in the second game. This was the fifth time the Badgers recorded hat tricks in consecutive games.
Minnesota-Duluth is coming off of a sweep at Ohio State. The Bulldogs trailed the Buckeyes late in the second game, but scored twice in the final 10 minutes to seal a 3-2 victory in Columbus, Ohio.
The upcoming series will feature the top two goaltenders in the WCHA. Vetter leads the conference with a 1.33 goals against average in WCHA games, while Duluth sophomore goalie Kim Martin trails her with a 1.35 GAA. However, Martin leads Vetter with a .952 save percentage, with Vetter sitting at .925.
Each game begins at 7 p.m. at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
