BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Just as adversity presents you with a challenge, it also grants you a choice.
You can be meek and be devoured by its forces, or you can be assertive and find a way to persevere.
It's clear which path members of the Wisconsin women's hockey team elected to follow this season.
The Badgers have been ranked No. 1 in the nation for six straight months, secured a second straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season title and a third consecutive league playoff crown.
They have lost but twice in 37 games and emphatically avenged both setbacks. They are the top seed in the eight-team NCAA tournament and have every intention of securing the fifth national championship in program history later this month.
Yet none of those achievements represent their greatest triumph this season.
That was born of tragedy when the season was young and carried through a series of calamities — on ice and off it — that would have razed many a program.
"We've taken a lot of hits this year and we've really pushed through," senior left winger Sarah Nurse said.
"We've come together. We see the end goal. We know that if we stick together and we have confidence in each other, we can reach it."
Wisconsin (31-2-4 overall) hosts Robert Morris (24-4-6) in a NCAA quarterfinal game Saturday at sold-out LaBahn Arena. The survivor advances to the Frozen Four, which will be staged March 17 and 19 in St. Charles, Missouri.
UW owns a 20-game unbeaten streak (17-0-3) not to mention the most prolific offense and stingiest defense in the country. Its power play and penalty-killing unit rank among the top four nationally.
It's an impressive package of skill, intent and experience, but its journey to this place has involved moments of sorrow, pain, frustration and danger.
"Things you could never imagine or prepare for," senior defenseman and assistant captain Jenny Ryan said.
On Oct. 2, sophomore winger Sophia Shaver learned that her younger brother, 17-year-old Drake, had passed away in Wayzata, Minnesota.
A week later, long-time director of hockey operations Paul Hickman learned his father, 73-yard-old John of Oregon, Wisconsin, died of a heart attack while attending a WCHA game pitting his beloved Badgers vs. Ohio State at LaBahn.
"They hit everyone differently," senior center and captain Sydney McKibbon said of the tragedies.
Support for Shaver and Hickman was instantaneous and lasting. The players wore helmet stickers in tribute to the two families and junior winger Baylee Wellhausen wrote a moving tribute to Shaver at uwbadgers.com.
The Badgers' seniors — (L-R) Jenny Ryan, Sydney McKibbon, Mellissa Channell (back), Mikayla Johnson (front), Sarah Nurse and Ann-Renée Desbiens — take an on-ice group photo with the WCHA trophy.
Meanwhile, the six seniors — Nurse, Ryan, McKibbon, defenseman Mellissa Channell, goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens and winger Mikayla Johnson — embarked on an extended crusade to make sure everyone in the UW dressing room had someone to lean on.
McKibbon and Co. opened their apartments to the seven freshmen, who were somewhat isolated in the dorms.
"They took things a little harder and understandably so," Nurse said of the newcomers. "We wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable and they had a place to turn to if they felt like they needed it."
Rookie defenseman Mekenzie Steffen joked that her and freshman center Abby Roque have spent so much time at McKibbon's place that an air mattress stands at the ready.
"The seniors have been incredible to us," Steffen said. "I've never been part of a team that's this close together. We really have a special group."
Sleepovers gave way to dinners which gave way to homework sessions which gave way to unbreakable bonds.
"The one big thing about our team is that whether you're a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior, everyone's friends on this team and everyone gets along," McKibbon said. "There's no hierarchy. Everyone's involved and everyone's really close."
Ann-Renée Desbiens hands Baylee Wellhausen the team's hard hat award in the women's hockey locker room after the Badgers defeated Minnesota Duluth Feb. 12 to clinch the WCHA regular-season title.
Ryan noted that in the wake of the two funerals, UW players seemed to linger in the dressing room after practice because there was comfort in company.
"The support that we all showed one another, that instilled a trust and a respect with each other from the very beginning," she said.
Another moment to mourn came Feb. 2 when Jeff Sauer, a former UW men's coach who championed the creation of the women's program in 1999, died suddenly after a bout with pancreatic cancer.
One of Sauer's assistants was Mark Johnson, who became the women's coach in 2002 after Sauer retired. Johnson has guided the women's program to remarkable heights, winning 426 games — which ranks third all-time — and guiding the Badgers to eight Frozen Fours.
Johnson's players were on hand Thursday night when a celebration of Sauer's life took place at the Kohl Center.
UW lived up to its No. 1 ranking every week even though two of its marquee talents had issues.
Junior winger Annie Pankowski went from the season opener Sept. 23 to Nov. 18 — a span of 13 games — before she scored her first goal. Though the two-time Patty Kazmaier Award nominee struggled, the Badgers went 11-1-1.
Meanwhile, Desbiens, a two-time Kazmaier finalist and NCAA record-holder for career and single season shutouts, missed four games with a concussion and another due to a knee injury. Wisconsin was 4-1 with freshman backup Nikki Cece starting in goal.
One of the most unusual moments in program history came Jan. 6 and 7 during a non-conference series at Lindenwood University in Wentzville, Missouri.
During the opener, UW players and coaches began experiencing nausea, breathing problems and headaches, symptoms that veteran athletic trainer Denny Helwig alertly linked to dangerously elevated levels of carbon monoxide inside the arena.
The lobby of the team hotel became a triage area as members of the Wisconsin entourage were tested for carbon monoxide poisoning by St. Louis-area paramedics.
One player, Mikayla Johnson, the coach's daughter, was hospitalized for four to five hours after her test results were ominously high.
The series finale was cancelled after 18 Lindenwood players reported similar symptoms.
"What are the odds?" McKibbon asked rhetorically. "You still can't believe something like that happened to us."
The cumulative effect of the all these incidents — their power and impact — can be seen every day.
"The biggest part that helped us was how we came together rather than spread apart," Ryan said.
"It's definitely brought us closer and made us stronger as a team," McKibbon said.
After a successful win and packing the Kohl Center for 2017's Fill the Bowl, women's hockey players Mekenzie Steffen, Sydney McKibbon and Ann-Renée Desbiens celebrate by singing Varsity with the crowd.
"We all have trust in each other and count on each other," Steffen said. "I think it really plays out on the ice."
Nurse said the culture at UW sets it apart from other programs.
"We have so much on-ice ability, but there are so many teams that have on-ice ability," she said.
"What I think separates us from other teams are the things we do off ice — how we treat each other and how we get along. When (challenging times) happen, it shows the heart of our team and shows why we've gone so far."
Did it ever get to be too much?
"That's a thought that's gone through everybody's head, that 'I can't do this anymore,'" Ryan acknowledged.
"A couple of those nights it was like, 'We don't need anything else to happen,'" McKibbon said. "There were definitely points where I was just like, 'I don't know if I can deal with one more thing.'"
It seems clear that the Badgers have been fortified through adversity.
"We all worked together," McKibbon said.
Wisconsin sophomores (L-R) Sam Cogan, Sophia Shaver and Mikaela Gardner hold the WCHA regular-season trophy after defeating Minnesota Duluth at LaBahn Arena.
Steffen became emotional when recounting Shaver's sorrow and its ongoing effect on who inhabits the UW dressing room.
"I've never been on a team where everyone gets along like this," Steffen said. "We literally love each other so much. We'd do anything for each other, on the ice or off the ice."
That makes for some a pretty powerful force heading into the NCAA tournament.
"Looking from where we are now, we're still standing and a lot stronger than when we started," Ryan said. "That's a big plus for us.
