Women's Hockey Travels to Minnesota State
October 21, 2005 | Women's Hockey
The second-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team (3-1-0, 1-1-0 WCHA) hits the road for the first time this season making the trek to Minnesota State (3-1-0, 2-0-0 WCHA). The teams will take to the ice Friday and Saturday at MSU's All Seasons Arena in Mankato, Minn.
The Badgers are unbeaten against the Mavericks, allowing just one tie in a 23-0-1 series. The tie match came from a 3-3 finish, battled in Madison, Wis., in 2002.
Besides improving their conference record for the season, this weekend's match-up poses another opportunity for the Badger team. If UW sweeps this Friday and Saturday, Wisconsin will have 100 all-time wins with the WCHA; a milestone for the Badgers just four conference games into their seventh season in the league.
The Badgers are coming off a weekend shutout sweep against Vermont at the Kohl Center. UW dominated Vermont, 5-0 in the non-conference shutout Friday evening, putting 68 shots on goal and tying the program record for shots in a game.
Saturday night the Badgers came out attacking as junior Sara Bauer (St. Catharines, Ontario) connected with Jinelle Zaugg (Eagle River, Wis.) for a goal just 29 seconds after the drop of the puck. Four more Badger skaters scored on the night making it another 5-0 victory.
Minnesota State received votes in both polls this week, the most of all unranked teams. The Mavericks opened the 2005-06 WCHA portion of the its schedule with a 3-1 home win over North Dakota Friday night and a 3-2 victory Saturday.
On the second night of competition, scoring for MSU was junior forward Shera Vis (Thunder Bay, Ontario) after intercepting a pass from UND defenseman in front of the net. Less than a minute later, sophomore forward Kristina Bunker (Blaine, Minn.) put MSU on top with her first goal of the season on feeds from linemates Andrea Herold (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Amanda Stohr (South St. Paul, Minn.).
The Maverick's goaltender, Sophomore Brit Kehler (Mitchell, Man.) is expected to be a key component on the UMD defense this year. In the first game of the season against, then-No. 5 Mercyhurst, Kehler had 44 saves in the 2-0 shutout. Mercryhurst battled back salvaging a series split. Both the WCHA and U.S. College Hockey Online recognized Kehler as the defensive player of the week for her shutout performance against the Lakers.
New freshmen forwards for the Mavericks' have been stepping up early in the season. In particular, Maggie Fisher (South St. Paul, Minn.) who collected the rebound from her first shot and pocketed her third goal of the season to get the Mavericks on the board against UND in last Friday's match-up.
This weekend marks the first time this year the two Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams meet in competition. The puck drops at 7:07 p.m. Friday and 2:07 p.m. Saturday.
