It’s been quite a roller-coaster season for the Wisconsin women’s hockey team. The pre-season expectations were high for the squad as they always have been since head coach Mark Johnson took over at the helm.
The Badgers entered with a No.2 ranking in the country and were destined to unveil a new state-of-the-art arena. The season went south much faster than anyone would have ever expected, however, when the team suffered the program’s first three-game losing streak early in the conference play. Despite stumbling out of the gates, the Badgers have come on strong as of late and positioned themselves for possible home-ice advantage in the early rounds of the WCHA tournament.
Moreover, Wisconsin (11-9-2 WCHA, 15-9-2 overall) will have a golden opportunity this weekend to improve its stock in the standings as it hits the road to take on a struggling St. Cloud State squad (4-17-1, 8-18-2) Friday and Saturday.
With three series left in the regular season, each series will be crucial for the Badgers as they are part of a cluster of teams neck-and-neck battling for the No. 2 through No. 5 seeds. In fact, as it stands today, North Dakota is alone in second place with 39 points while Minnesota-Duluth, Ohio State and Wisconsin all trail the Fighting Sioux by two points. Out of the aforementioned teams, Wisconsin probably has the most favorable schedule remaining, as two of its final three series are against the bottom of the conference, and they host UMD. On the other hand, the Buckeyes will have their work cut out for them as they have to play Minnesota and North Dakota back-to-back weekends.
“With only six games left, each victory is going to be crucial, it’s going to be important,” Mark Johnson said.
“The way I look at it—obviously Minnesota has won the league—so now it’s trying to finish second or third. There’s a big difference between finishing [second or third] and finishing four or fifth.”
Johnson also alluded to the fact Wisconsin essentially controls its own destiny for home-ice advantage if it can finish the season on a positive note.
“This part in the season, with six games to go, there’s a lot at stake for teams jockeying for position in regards to the [WCHA] standings,” he said. “If we’re able to [take care of business], we put ourselves in a pretty good position to have home-ice advantage.”
After a devastating and frustrating series against Minnesota two weekends ago in which UW was held to one goal on its home ice, it could be expected the team would come out sluggish in practice. But Johnson thought his team responded well during the bye week.
“Last week and this week we’ve had some great practices. The tempo has been good,” he said. “The focus has been good. The work habit has been good.”
While Johnson spoke confidently about his squad’s mentality throughout the week, fans can only hope the good week of practice will transcend into some momentum offensively, as the unit has been rather hot and cold thus far, averaging 2.7 goals per contest compared to 4.5 a season ago. However, despite the ups and downs, sophomore forward Karley Sylvester does not think the statistics reflect their offensive talent.
“We don’t have that many points put up, but it’s more about the wins we come out with. If we win by one, we win by one,” Sylvester said. “We’re not really looking for who has points [offensively] or what not. As long as we get the win, that’s the big thing.”
No matter who scores for Wisconsin, victories at this point in this season are all that count for the Badgers as they make a final push for another WCHA tournament crown.
