The Wisconsin women's hockey team sent a clear message to the rest of the country this weekend: They are back.
With a pair of shutout victories over Rensselaer Polytechnic Friday and Saturday the Badgers seem to have put the struggles of last season far behind them, and look poised to reclaim their place atop the college hockey hierarchy.
After struggling to score throughout the 2009-'10 season, Wisconsin found the back of the net 14 seconds into the first period of Friday's season opener. Junior forward Carolyne Prevost and sophomore forward Brianna Decker found themselves on a two-on-none breakaway just after the opening faceoff, with Prevost scoring the first Badger goal of the season.
Prevost attributed Wisconsin's success to a better vibe in the locker room.
""It was such a different atmosphere today going into the game,"" she said. ""Everyone is so excited for a new, fresh start.""
A few minutes later junior forward Hilary Knight scored for the first time in her return to Wisconsin after she missed last season to play with senior forward Meghan Duggan and head coach Mark Johnson on the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Less than a minute after that, freshman forward Brittany Ammerman scored the first goal of her collegiate career on a shot from the low slot.
Within the first five minutes of the 2010-'11 season the Badgers had taken four shots on goal and scored three times, with each goal coming from a different line.
Ammerman added another goal later in the period—the Badgers would score five times before the first intermission—to make her Wisconsin debut on the ice even sweeter.
""It's a great way to start off college,"" Ammerman said. ""Every freshman is nervous but they're also excited, and once you get that first shift out of your system you're good to go. And once you put the puck in the net it doesn't get much better than that.""
A stingy Wisconsin defense held RPI to 11 shots on goal, keeping the pressure off of sophomore goaltender Becca Ruegsegger and helping her to a shutout. The strong play that led to Friday's 7-0 victory was on display once more Saturday night, as the Badgers completed the sweep with a 6-0 win.
Wisconsin's offense had a slower start in the series finale, taking a whole 33 seconds to score its first goal.
Knight continued her stellar return to college level Saturday, scoring the first two goal of the game and assisting on each of the next three. Johnson said he moved Knight around all night, having her play on the wing and center as well as with different line combinations, and she stepped up everywhere.
""She was definitely the best player on the ice tonight,"" Johnson said. ""It didn't matter where she was playing tonight, she had the jump and the bounce.""
The Badger defense shut down RPI's offense once again, holding the engineers to 10 shots on goal Saturday night and again helping freshman goaltender Alex Rigsby to a shutout in her Wisconsin debut. Johnson said earlier in the week he would start both Ruegsegger and Rigsby in the opening series and was impressed by both players' performances.
""It's good to have a situation where you've got two goaltenders you can rely on,"" he said. ""Right now it looks like we're in pretty good shape at that position.""
