Following a thrilling double-overtime victory in the Big Ten opener against Rutgers, the Badgers (1-4-0 overall, 1-0-0 Big Ten) will look to keep the momentum going Saturday against St. John’s (1-5-0) in the fourth and final game of a road trip before returning home for their next three contests.
The Red Storm are also coming off their first win of the season, a 1-0 shutout over Siena, as they head toward their conference opener. Like Wisconsin, St. John’s struggled to find the back of the net at the outset of the season, as both teams were shut out in their first two matches.
With goals proving difficult to come by at times in the young season, the Badgers will once again look to turn in another strong defensive showing. While head coach John Trask has already turned to three different goalies to start a game this season, the latest performance earned sophomore goalkeeper Adrian Remeniuk Big Ten defensive player of the week honors.
“He showed poise, he made the saves that he needed to make look easy and he made a couple other great saves to keep us in it,” Trask said.
To put up another clean sheet, the Wisconsin defense will have to contain freshman forward Filippo Ricupati. Through six games, Ricupati leads the Red Storm in both points and shots, with three and 14 respectively. Freshman forward Mike Prosuk is also off to a fast start, starting all six games thus far and leading the way with seven shots on goal.
On the offensive side, the Badgers will once again look for a strong performance out of sophomore midfielder Mike Catalano. One of four Badgers to tally a goal thus far, he’s among the team leaders in minutes played and points, while topping the list for most shots on net.
Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. Saturday in Queens, N.Y.
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
