MADISON, Wis. — The top-ranked Wisconsin women's hockey team looks to defend its undefeated start to the season as the team heads to Mankato, Minnesota, to take on Minnesota State this weekend. Friday's puck drop is set for 3 p.m. and Saturday's game will start at 2 p.m. Both games at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center can be seen online through B1G+.
1. LAST TIME OUT: The Badgers extended their unbeaten run to 10 games after earning a sweep of No. 2 Ohio State at LaBahn Arena. UW won the first game against the Buckeyes, 3-1, on Saturday before collecting a 2-1 overtime triumph on Sunday to hand Ohio State its first two losses of the season. Â
Grace Bowlby,
Casey O'Brien and
Daryl Watts each scored goals on Saturday while
Nicole LaMantia scored both goals on Sunday to help the Badgers win in overtime. Goaltender
Kennedy Blair allowed only two goals and made 52 saves over the weekend.
2. REPEAT HONOREES: Kennedy Blair and
Nicole LaMantia both earned WCHA weekly honors for the second time this season. Blair earned WCHA Goaltender of the Week accolades after allowing only two goals and making 52 saves against No. 2 Ohio State. LaMantia earned WCHA Defender of the Week honors for the second consecutive week after scoring both Badger goals on Sunday, one of which was a sudden-death overtime game-winning goal.
3. TOP-LINE TAKES IT ALL: Casey O'Brien,
Daryl Watts and
Makenna Webster have proven themselves to be one of the strongest lines in the nation. The trio leads in a handful of statistical categories, combining for 27 goals and 63 points through 10 games this season. Webster, O'Brien and Watts are ranked No. 1 (22), No. 2 (21) and No. 3 (20) in the NCAA in points this year while Watts leads the NCAA in plus/minus (+20) and O'Brien and Webster are tied for second (+19). Webster also leads the nation in assists with 14 while O'Brien paces the country in goals with 12.
4. MAVERICK MAKEUP: Wisconsin leads the all-time series against Minnesota State 91-3-3. In Mankato, the Badgers lead 40-1-2 as this will be the fifth and sixth-consecutive meeting between the two programs at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center. The Badgers earned a sweep of MSU last year, earning a 3-2 win in the first game before blanking MSU 1-0 in the series finale. This season MSU is 5-3 and were idle last weekend. Minnesota State's top scorer is Brittyn Fleming as the Oregon, Wisconsin, native paces the team with four points.Â
5. GONE STREAKING: The Badgers are currently off to a 10-0-0 start to the 2021-22 season, marking the fourth time in program history that the team has started 10-0-0 or better. Dating back to last season, UW enters this weekend on a 16-game winning streak, which is the fourth-longest streak in program history. The school record for the longest winning streak is 19 games, which happened twice in program history from Feb. 1, 2006- Oct. 21, 2006 and Jan. 29, 2011- Oct. 14, 2011. The current win streak dates back to Feb. 27, 2021 when Wisconsin beat Minnesota Duluth 4-3 in OT to clinch the WCHA regular season title.
