Game One Coverage
Friday, Oct. 18 | 2 pm CT — Syosset, NY
Game Two Coverage
Saturday, Oct. 19 | 4:30 pm CT — Uniondale, NY
SYOSSET, NY -- The top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team steps out of conference play to take on the upstart LIU Sharks this weekend on Long Island.
This marks the first time the Badgers will face LIU as the program is in its first year of action. The Sharks will compete in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance, which was recently approved as a NCAA Division I conference.
UW and LIU will meet on Friday in a 2 p.m. CT contest at the IceWorks Arena before wrapping up their series on Saturday with a 4:30 p.m. CT game that will be held at historic Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the home of the New York Islanders.
1. SHIRLEY IT'S ANOTHER WIN: Wisconsin is coming off of a milestone weekend sweep at No. 9 Ohio State as UW blanked the Buckeyes, 3-0, in its conference opener before earning a 7-3 win Saturday.
Sophomore
Sophie Shirley notched her 50th career point Oct. 12 while her sister, Grace, recorded her first career point on an assist.
Sophie improved to 14 points this season, thanks to four goals and 10 assists in six games, tying her for second most points on the team next to
Abby Roque.
2. TIMEOUT WCHA: The Badgers dominated WCHA's players of the week as
Kristen Campbell,
Mekenzie Steffen and
Daryl Watts earned conference honors following the Ohio State sweep.
Senior goaltender
Kristen Campbell leads the NCAA in wins (6) and shutouts (3) while her goals-against average of 0.88 and save percentage of .948 rank in the top-10 in the country. She earned her third shutout for the season Friday against OSU after stopping all 17 shots.
Senior captain
Mekenzie Steffen is coming off of a sensational weekend as she scored three goals and added three assists in the sweep of OSU. She enjoyed a career-high five point game against the Buckeyes Saturday while scoring the game-winning goal in the process.
3. DANG, DARYL: Daryl Watts, who earned her first ever WCHA player of the week honors as a Badger, is coming off of a seven-point weekend at Ohio State as she scored two goals and added five assists. It marks her second-straight seven-point weekend for UW.
Watts has now scored in six-straight games for the Badgers, which is tied for the 10th-longest streak in program history.
The 2018 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner leads the NCAA in scoring this year with 18 points thanks to seven goals and 11 assists.
4. POWER PLAY POWER UP: The Badgers are on point on their power play game, scoring on all four of their opportunities on Saturday in their 7-3 win over OSU.
Wisconsin leads the country in power-play success with a .520 clip while its 13 power-play goals pace the country.
Britta Curl tipped one in to tie up the game at 1-1 with less than seven minutes remaining in Saturday's first period.
5. THAT MARK'S 500: UW head coach
Mark Johnson is already the winningest coach in NCAA women's hockey history in his 16th season with the Wisconsin women's hockey team. Last weekend though, this all around Badger reach a level few collegiate coaches have ever obtained by breaking a new career record of 500 wins.
The 3-2 post-season WCHA Final Faceoff with Ohio State last year marked the game that pushed Johnson over the top to be the winningest coach in Badger history, passing UW men's hockey legend Jeff Sauer, who won 489 games during his tenure at UW.
Now, last weekend's victory series at Ohio State pushed his career record to 500-87-43.
Johnson humbly expressed the milestone is not about him, "You're thankful of your assistant coaches, our entire support staff. You thank the players that we've had over the course of my time here that have made that commitment. We've lost a lot of games, it's not about me, it's about the program and trying to do things the right way and if we do it long enough and you're successful, eventually these numbers come around, so it's a good day."
But senior captain
Mekenzie Steffen had other ideas.
"Coach is obviously a guy who comes with a lot of experience," Steffen said. "He just brings so much passion to the locker room, between periods every game, and it's honestly such a milestone for him to get that 500th win. He'll never admit it to anyone, but he has so much to be proud of. He's created a legacy here at Wisconsin, so it's awesome."
