Badgers drop in polls despite blowing out Minnesota State before bye week
· Yahoo Sports
The Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team bounced back in a big way after being swept by Ohio State, heading home and putting a hurting on Minnesota State over 120 minutes of hockey. Despite the sweep and a 12-goal outburst last Saturday, the Badgers fell another spot to No. 3 in the most recent USCHO rankings.
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Ohio State retained the top spot after a split last weekend, but Wisconsin (6-2, 2-2 WCHA) now slots in behind No. 2 Minnesota, who took a game from the Buckeyes on home ice last Friday.
The new ranking is hard to argue, honestly. The two teams ahead of Wisconsin each have only one loss, and the Gophers did what the Badgers couldn’t by beating Ohio State. That said, I do not believe Wisconsin is anything but a top-two team in NCAA women’s hockey.
The Badgers won’t get their first look at Minnesota until their trip to Minneapolis on December 4. There is plenty of hockey to play beforehand, but Wisconsin will have to wait until Halloween weekend before they suit up next against No. 9 St. Cloud State.
Last time out, the Badger offense was impressive. Charlotte Pieckenhagen opened the scoring midway through the first period, and Wisconsin was registering plenty of shots on goal, but they entered the third period of game one tied with Minnesota State. Then, the floodgates opened.
The Badgers poured in four third-period goals while registering 20 more shots in the frame, a stark contrast to their closing efforts against Ohio State in the prior series. The goals kept coming in the second game as Wisconsin raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, capping it off with a six-goal third period on the way to a 12-1 win.
Freshman Rosalie Tremblay returned to action after missing the Ohio State series, and boy did she have a positive impact. Tremblay was kept off the scoring sheet on Friday, but netted four goals and an assist in Saturday’s win. She also won 27 of 42 faceoffs over the two-game series. Wisconsin is undefeated with Tremblay on the ice, and her knack for causing commotion around the net was sorely missed against the Buckeyes.
Tremblay was named WCHA Rookie of the Week and named to Canada’s IIHF World Championship roster last week.
Fellow freshman phenom Nela Lopušanová is also really coming into her own. She leads the Badgers with 10 assists and is looking like the productive top-line winger everyone thought she would be, especially paired with senior Cassie Hall at center. Lopušanová trails only Hall for the team lead in points, largely due to their connection with each other.
Minnesota State is obviously a few rungs below Ohio State, but Wisconsin’s 51 shots in game one and 62 shots in game two show the message was received after failing to get pucks to the net against the Buckeyes. There is enough offensive firepower throughout the Badger lineup that it’s not just the first shot opposing teams need to defend. It’s the second and third chances Wisconsin generates off rebounds and loose pucks.
Though she faced a lower shot volume, Ava McNaughton posted a performance Badger fans have come to expect from the senior netminder, allowing just one goal per game and posting a .952 save percentage over the weekend.
She hasn’t been unbeatable early this year, but McNaughton’s play has been very solid. The five-goal spurt from Ohio State helps offset her season stats, but she’s still allowing just 1.88 goals per game and ranks 10th in the NCAA in save percentage among goalies with at least 100 minutes played. McNaughton will face St. Cloud State, St. Thomas, Bemidji State, and Union before the Minnesota series, and I think it’s a safe bet that her stats will look even better once we get to December.
This stretch of the schedule is a little stop-and-start for the Badgers, who receive another bye after next week’s trip to St. Cloud. Mark Johnson is sure to put that time to good use, especially with the bulletin board material after watching Minnesota steal a game against Ohio State last week. The Gophers did Wisconsin a favor, tightening the WCHA standings where the Badgers now just sit one game back, but far be it from me to tell anybody how they should feel about Minnesota winning a game in any sport.
Nobody should be scoreboard watching at this point anyway. The WCHA has plenty of time to sort itself out. I’ve said ad nauseam that the most important thing for the Badgers in the first couple of months would be their development, and aside from a slip-up against the best, most experienced team in the country, Wisconsin is certainly trending in the right direction.