Following a bit of a rusty start last week against Minnesota Duluth, the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team traveled to St. Thomas and took care of business, posting a pair of 5-1 wins over the weekend.
The Badgers suffered a tie against Duluth last weekend after a long break, conceding a goal in the first 1:33 that ultimately led to a 1-1 draw and shootout loss. That was not a mistake Wisconsin was willing to make again, as Emma Venusio started the scoring just 46 seconds into the series
opener, and the Badgers never looked back.
It was Wisconsin’s first visit to St. Thomas’s new home, Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The Tommies opened the new $183 million venue last fall, bringing the hockey teams back onto campus and providing a nifty new 4,000-seat venue for the hockey program’s home games (up to 5,300 for basketball games).
Wisconsin (21-1-2, 15-1-2 WCHA) must have enjoyed the view from the new venue; they consistently peppered St. Thomas goaltender Julia Minotti in game one to the tune of 40 shots, pretty evenly split between all three periods. St. Thomas (10-14-0, 5-13-0 WCHA) mustered only 14 shots on Friday, and only two in the first period as the Badgers built their lead.
Saturday afternoon was more evenly distributed from a shots-on-goal perspective, but the Badgers used a roughly three-minute spurt in the middle of the first period to establish a three-goal lead following goals from Cassie Hall, Lacey Eden, and Kelly Gorbatenko.
Gorbatenko has been on an absolute tear lately. After scoring only one goal in Wisconsin’s first six games, Gorbatenko has scored 16 goals in the last 18 contests and is tied with Lacey Eden atop the team with 17 goals this season.
Eden recorded two goals in each game, good for four on the weekend. They were her fifth and sixth multi-goal games this season, the most on the team, and she is the first Badger with back-to-back multi-goal games this year. Cassie Hall joined Eden with a multi-goal game of her own on Saturday, now sitting at 16 goals this season.
In her last nine games, Eden has posted 21 points. She’s been a steady hand and will need to continue her offensive output once Wisconsin loses its Olympic players to Team USA (and Team Czechia, in the case of Adéla Šapovalivová). The good news is that three of the four leading goal scorers on the roster will not be making the trip to Italy (Eden, Gorbatenko, Hall). The bad news? Three of the top four assist producers will (Harvey, Simms, Edwards). Mark Johnson will need to experiment with some lineups to try to mimic that production in the weeks to come.
Wisconsin will soon be without its backstop, Ava McNaughton, who has been as good as they come. McNaughton has not surrendered multiple goals in a game since November 21. She has regained the NCAA goals against average lead, allowing just 1.236 goals per game, and is tied for third with a .943 save percentage.
The crease has belonged to McNaughton for nearly two full years now, and she split time with Jane Gervais as a freshman. With McNaughton destined for Italy, Wisconsin will have to survive without the NCAA’s top goaltender. All signs point to freshman Rhyah Stewart being the leading replacement, though it remains to be seen if senior Chloe Baker will earn some run during McNaughton’s absence.
Badger fans will get one more look at the complete roster in the regular season, as Wisconsin hosts Bemidji State next weekend and will celebrate Senior Day before Saturday’s series opener. In addition to the seniors being celebrated, I would imagine the Olympians will receive a spirited sendoff as well.
Fortunately, it won’t be the last time we see them in Madison this season. The full roster should be back in time to host WCHA First Round action beginning February 27. There will, however, be four series against ranked teams between now and then, which will be a great chance to assess how deep this Badger roster truly is.
