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Badgers pegged as WCHA preseason favorites

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Abby Roque

Fresh off winning its fifth NCAA title, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team has been picked to win its eight WCHA regular-season title, according to the league’s annual preseason coaches’ poll that was announced Wednesday.

The Badgers earned 36 points and six first-place votes, while Minnesota earned 31 points and the other first place vote.  The two Border Battle rivals will rekindle their rivalry with a series on Nov. 2-3 in Minnesota and a series Jan. 24-25 in Madison.

Abby Roque was named the Preseason WCHA Player of the Year along with Ohio State forward Emma Maltais.  Roque, who was the league’s forward of the year in 2016-17, was second on the Badgers last year with a career-high 43 points.

The Badger forward was one of four Badgers named to the Preseason All-WCHA Preseason Team along [Read more…]

Wisconsin women’s hockey captures WCHA tournament title

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The Wisconsin women’s hockey team earned the top overall seed in the 2019 NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Championship and will host Syracuse in a tournament quarterfinal on Saturday at LaBahn Arena.

The Badgers captured the WCHA Tournament Championship earlier in the day on Sunday, knocking off the Minnesota Golden Gophers 3-1 at Ridder Arena.

Sophomore Caitlin Schneider, freshman Britta Curl and senior Annie Pankowski all scored for the Badgers (32-4-2, 18-4-2-0 WCHA) in Sunday’s contest to lead UW to its eighth WCHA tournament title, the most of any school in the league.

Wisconsin now has won 17 of its last 18 WCHA postseason games and holds a 51-15-0 all-time record in conference playoff games.

The Badgers, who have the country’s best record of 32-4-2, enter the quarterfinal looking to advance to the NCAA Frozen Four for the sixth-straight year.

Syracuse is making its first NCAA tournament appearance after winning the 2019 CHA Tournament, winning three games in three days to claim its first conference title.

Pankowski’s hat trick lifts Badger women

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Annie Pankowski (Photo by David Stluka).

Annie Pankowski’s hat trick gave the second-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team a 8-0 win over St. Cloud State and a sweep in the opening round of the WCHA playoffs on Saturday.

Pankowski, who has been named one of three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier award, now had 21 goals on the season.  She is the third Badgers player to score 20 goals in each of her four seasons, joining Hilary Knight and Meghan Duggan.

Pankowski’s three goals left her with 199 points in 148 career games.  One more point, Pankowski will become the sixth Badgers player to reach 200 points.

With the win, the Badgers head into the WCHA’s Frozen Faceoff semifinal against 10th ranked Ohio State on Saturday in Minneapolis.  Top-seeded Minnesota meets Minnesota-Duluth in the other semifinal with the winners to meet for the WCHA Tournament Championship.

The Badgers are looking for their fourth playoff title in the last five years.

Badger women’s hockey skates to a second tie, settles for second in WCHA

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LaBahn Arena

The top-ranked Wisconsin Badger women’s hockey team battled to a 2-2 tie against number-10 Ohio State on Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout at LaBahn Arena.

Freshman Sophie Shirley and senior Emily Clark scored for Wisconsin (28-4-2, 18-4-2-0 WCHA) in Saturday’s matchup.

The Buckeyes (18-12-2, 12-10-2-2) got on the board just 23 seconds into the contest off a shot from Ohio State’s Emma Maltais to take an early lead.  Ohio State would score again in the second period on a power-play at the 12:13 mark of the frame to extend the lead to two.

The Badgers found life in the third period as Shirley scored just 4:29 into the period.  Clark followed by putting the puck past OSU goaltender Andrea Braendli to send things to overtime on senior day.

After a scoreless extra time period, the Badgers fell 2-1 in the shootout and the Buckeyes stole the extra point in the WCHA standings for the second consecutive game, ending the regular season.

Friday’s 1-1 tie with the Buckeyes gave Minnesota the WCHA regular season title, ending the Badgers three-year run.

The Badgers will host St. Cloud State next weekend in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.  The best-of-three series begins Friday at 4 p.m. at LaBahn Arena with Saturday’s game to follow at 3 p.m.  If a third-place game is necessary, it would take place on Sunday, March 3 at 2 p.m.

 

Badger women’s hockey rebounds to win Saturday at Bemidji State

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The Wisconsin women’s hockey team rebounded from a 2-1 loss on Friday night to beat Bemidji State 4-0 on Saturday in Bemidji, Minnnesota.

After a scoreless opening period for the Badgers (24-4-0, 14-4-0-0 WCHA), senior Sam Cogan got things started.  Cogan received a feed from freshman Sophie Shirley heading towards the net and sliced the puck past the BSU (10-16-2, 7-9-2-0 WCHA) netminder just a minute into the second period that gave the Badgers the first lead of the day.

Cogan struck again at the 8:39 mark, followed by a goal by Britta Curl.  Maddie Rolfes added an empty netter in the third for the final margin.

The Badgers return home to LaBahn Arena to host Minnesota State in a two-game series.  The first game is Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.  Sunday’s second game is also a 2 p.m. faceoff as UW will celebrate the retirement of head coach Mark Johnson’s jersey by the UW men’s hockey program.

 

Top Ranked Badger women’s hockey sweeps St. Cloud State

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The top-ranked Wisconsin Badger women’s hockey team came back from an early deficit to knock off St Cloud State 3-1 on Saturday, earning a weekend sweep of the Huskies at La Bahn Arena in Madison.

Freshman Britta Curl, junior Abby Roque and senior Emily Clark all scored for Wisconsin (23-3-0, 13-3-0-0 WCHA) in UW’s series-finale in front of a sellout crowd of 2,273 fans.

Wisconsin fell behind early in the opening period, but fought back with a three-goal run to beat the Huskies (8-18-2, 3-14-0-0 WCHA).

The Badgers continued their fast start tendencies.  They have out outscored their opponents 31-12 in the first period.

Bucky outshot the Huskies, 53-13, marking the fourth time this year UW has fired more than 50 shots on goal in a game.

The win was also the 19th-straight for Wisconsin over St. Cloud State, and the 41st in the last 42 meetings with the Huskies.  UW leads the all-time series 78-8-2.

The Badgers travel to Bemidji, Minnesota, for a series with WCHA rival Bemidji State this coming weekend.  Puck drops on Friday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m., while action Saturday, Feb. 2 begins at 2 p.m.

 

Top ranked Badger women blank St. Cloud State

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The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team dominated from start to finish en route to a 5-0 win over St. Cloud State on Friday night at LaBahn Arena.  It was the Badgers fifth shutout of the season.

Junior Alexis Mauermann opened the scoring for the Badgers (22-3-0, 12-3-0-0 WCHA) less than six minutes into the game, collecting a blocked shot between the circles and firing it past Huskie (8-17-2, 3-13-0-0 WCHA) goalie Emma Polusny.

The Badgers also got goals from senior Sophia Shaver, Freshman Sophie Shirley and a pair of tallies from Junior Mekenzie Steffen.

Junior goaltender Kristen Campbell recorded 14 saves on her way to her 17th career shutout, tying her for fifth place on UW’s all-time list.

The win was the 18th straight for Wisconsin over St. Cloud State, and 40th in the last 41 meetings with the Huskies.

The same two teams close out the series at LaBahn Arena on Saturday night at 6 p.m.

 

Badger women’s hockey sweeps UMD, remain unbeaten

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Wisconsin Badgers Head Coach Mark Johnson (Photo by David Stluka)

After giving up an early goal to 4th-ranked Minnesota Duluth, the 2nd-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team bounced back, scoring three unanswered goals to take down the Bulldogs, 3-1, on Sunday at LaBahn Arena on Sunday afternoon.  Wisconsin swept the two game series.

Sophomore Natalie Buchbinder, junior Alexis Mauermann and sophomore Brette Pettet all scored for the Badgers (6-0-0, 2-0-0-0 WCHA) and helped UW head coach Mark Johnson become the all-time winningest coach in NCAA National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey history with 465 wins.

Johnson passed Mercyhurst head coach Michael Sisti and Harvard head coach Katey Stone for the top spot in NCAA National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey history with his 465th career win.

Wisconsin’s offense was relentless on UMD goalie Maddie Rooney, outshooting the Bulldogs 11-3 in the second period.  Rooney, the 2018 Olympic gold medalist for the U.S., held her own for most of the second until a quick-strike goal off a face-off from junior Alexis Mauermann with 6:04 left in the frame to put UW up 2-1.

The Badgers also earned their 100th win at LaBahn Arena and the Badgers are now undefeated in their last 33 games on home ice.

The Badgers outshot the Bulldogs 43-12 for the game and 87-28 in the series.

 

Badger women’s hockey team picked to win WCHA

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Badger women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson (Photo by David Stluka)

The Wisconsin women’s hockey team is picked to win the WCHA for the fourth-straight year.

The Badgers earned 33 points and four first-place votes in a vote by the league’s coaches.  Minnesota also received 33 points and three first-place votes,  The two rivals battle it out on two separate occasions this season with a two-game series in Madison on Oct. 27-28 and another two-game series in Minneapolis on Jan. 18-19.

Senior forwards Emily Clark and Annie Pankowski were named to the Preseason All-WCHA Team in addition to senior defenseman Mikaela Gardner.

The WCHA poll and preseason honors announcement comes a day after UW checked in at No. 2 in the preseason USCHO.Com National Poll.

Top-ranked Badger women’s hockey falls in WCHA title game

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Despite outshooting the Golden Gophers 32-24, the No. 1 ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team dropped a 3-1 decision to No. 7 Minnesota in the championship game of the 2018 WCHA Final Faceoff Sunday at Ridder Arena.

After going down 1-0 early in the first period, Wisconsin (30-4-2) freshman Delaney Drake buried a rebound to notch her first collegiate goal to even the game at one.

But the Gophers (24-10-3) forward Taylor Williamson scored the game-winner in the opening minutes of the second frame to put the gophers back up by one.

The Badgers had several scoring chances in the third period. but Minnesota forward Nicole Schammel scored an empty-net goal with 14 seconds remaining to put the game out of reach.

Wisconsin, which won the WCHA’s regular season title, now awaits its NCAA tournament fate as the NCAA will announce the eight-team field on Sunday at 8 p.m. CT in a selection show on NCAA.com.