The city of Madison is often referred to as “70 square miles surrounded by reality,” but for the Minnesota State women’s hockey team, it was their trip to Madison that returned them to reality.
After winning seven straight games, including a sweep of the University of Minnesota last weekend, the Mavericks lost 8-0 to the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday afternoon at the Kohl Center and were swept by the Badgers on the weekend.
Wisconsin controlled the play early on, getting goals from Meaghan Mikkelson at 3:48 of the first period, and Meghan Duggan at 6:15 of the first period.
“They’re deadly when they get a lead,” said Minnesota State head coach Jeff Vizenor.
The Badgers got one more goal from Heidi Kletzien at 16:27 to close out the first period. The Badgers never looked back after that and added two more goals in the second period and three more in the third.
“They played like the top team in the country,” said Vizenor.
Leading the way for the Badgers was standout senior Sara Bauer, who scored assisted on the first two Badger goals, and the last Badger goal, with two goals of her own in the middle to finish with 5 points. Linemate Meghan Duggan had two goals and two assists.
Perhaps the biggest positive for Minnesota State to come out of this series is that it is over. After facing Minnesota and Wisconsin on consecutive weekends, the Mavericks will face an easier schedule in 6th place Bemidji State, 7th place St. Cloud, and 4th place Ohio State to close out the regular season. Only Ohio State is a ranked team, at 10th in the country.
“Obviously we’d love to be 4-0(in our last 4 games),” said Vizenor, “but if you had told me two weeks ago that we’d be 2-2 against two ranked teams, I would have said ‘Alright’ That’s the way we have to look at that series.”
