BY AJ HARRISON
UW Athletic Communications

MADISON, Wis. — After a tumultuous weekend in Missouri that resulted in a game between the Badgers and Lindenwood being cancelled, the No. 1 Wisconsin women's hockey team returns home to begin a six-game homestand with a series against St. Cloud State.

UW began its series with Lindenwood with a 5-1 victory on Friday, but during the game many players felt ill, were losing their breath and dealing with headaches and fatigue. After the game, the rink was tested for carbon monoxide and was closed after a high rating was detected.

"The game got real slow and real ugly in the third period," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "I couldn't figure out why other than the fact that it was our first game in a month. So you look at it that way. But as we got back to the hotel you could sense something was more serious than not playing for a period of time.

"We're fortunate enough that the fire department, the EMS, the police department set up enough people that all of our players, instead of having to go to the hospital, all got tested right in the lobby of the hotel at 12:30 at night. A couple kids were worse than other kids and one of our players had to go to the hospital.

"It was a dangerous situation and fortunately all of the people that were involved in it got tested."

The Badgers returned to Madison on Saturday afternoon feeling better and all the players were back at practice on Monday to prepare for their weekend series against St. Cloud State that begins the UW homestand.

"The first half of the season featured a lot of road trips," senior Sarah Nurse said. "It's comforting being at home because we love playing in our rink in front of our fans."

The Badgers step back into league play to take on a St. Cloud State team that just defeated No. 7 Colgate 7-4 last weekend before battling to a scoreless draw in the series finale.

"They've had a few high-scoring games recently, so I'm expecting them to have some offensive power and really test us defensively," Nurse said.

 
UW begins its series against St. Cloud State with a 7 p.m. contest at LaBahn Arena before moving to the Kohl Center for its "Fill the Bowl" game on Saturday at 4 p.m. UW looks to surpass its NCAA women's hockey single-game attendance record of 13,573 fans set at the last "Fill the Bowl" game.

"Saturday will be very exciting for all of us," junior Maddie Rolfes said. "We're expecting a huge crowd that will fill the Kohl Center with energy and will make playing unbelievably fun."

"I'm excited about the energy that will be in the building," Nurse said. "LaBahn is always loud so I can't wait to add a couple extra thousand into the mix at the Kohl Center.

"It's going to be a lot of fun and it's a game that's been has been circled on our calendars all year."