Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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E very week or two, Wisconsin's Brianna Decker will get in touch with a couple of her women's hockey rivals, Minnesota's Megan Bozek and Amanda Kessel. In this case, it's a text-friendly rivalry. "We're all similar in age and that's what is fun about it,'' said Decker, a senior from Dousman, Wis. Bozek is a senior from Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Kessel is a junior from Madison. "I keep in touch with them weekly or on a twoweek basis. I also see them on the national team. It's just friendly conversation. I'll tell them about how excited I am to play against them. "There's nothing intimidating about it, no trash talking. I'm not that type of a player. It can come back and kick you in the butt sometimes.'' Still, there will be no shortage of motivation Friday and Sunday for Decker and the Badgers when they take on No. 1-ranked Minnesota at LaBahn Arena. Sunday's game is already sold out. The Gophers have matched the NCAA record for the longest undefeated streak ― 32 games ― which was accomplished twice by the Badgers (2006-07 and 2010-11). "Their confidence is high,'' said UW coach Mark Johnson. Rightly so. This season, Minnesota has outscored opponents, 140-19, while senior goaltender Noora Raty, a native of Espoo, Finland, has a 0.94 goals-against-average and a .956 percentage. "So people have asked, 'Do they have a weak point?''' posed Johnson. "Their special teams are good. They defend well and they score a lot of goals. They don't really have a lot of weaknesses.'' Johnson can relate to being in such a commanding position with a dominant team. "As we found in the past,'' he said, "when you're No. 1, when you're undefeated, when you're defending national champions, usually a team will give you their best shot.'' But there's also a common denominator. "Whether you're 32-0 or 0-32, you're trying to find different ways to get your group to become better,'' Johnson said. "In our business … you never get comfortable. 32 » VARSITY JANUA RY 24, 2013 "Whether you're 32-0 or 0-32, you're trying to find different ways to get your group to become better,'' Johnson said. "In our business … you never get comfortable." "If things are rolling along and you're on an extended winning streak, you're not comfortable because you want to make sure you keep challenging your players and motivating them.'' The Badgers are coming off a hotlycontested split at North Dakota. Johnson didn't want to call it physical series, but he did anyway. Especially Saturday night's game. "I think that's how you could describe it,'' Decker said. "About half our team had ice bags after the game. But that's what we expected going into the series. We knew it was going to be a battle.'' Johnson feels like the last two series ― a sweep of Ohio State in Madison and the split with UND in Grand Forks ― has been the equivalent of playoff hockey because of the intensity. "Ohio State prepared us for North Dakota,'' said Decker, "and now North Dakota is preparing us for Minnesota. It's tough to have three weekends in a row like this. "But it also helps out because you don't sink to other team's levels.'' As such, the Badgers need to play up to Minnesota, which already swept them in Minneapolis. "In the first game, we fell asleep three to four minutes and they capitalized,'' Johnson said of a 4-1 loss to the Gophers in the opener. "Our second game (a 2-0 loss) was 1-0 most of the game.''