INSIDE
WOMEN'S HOCKEY
BY AJ HARRISON
@BADGERWHOCKEY
SCHEDULE (14-2-2, 10-2-2-1)
COMING UP
Jan. 3
at St. Cloud State
Jan. 4
at St. Cloud State
Jan. 11 #4 North Dakota
Jan. 12 #4 North Dakota
U.S. and Canada to face off
three times before Olympics
Six with UW ties look to earn spots on Olympic rosters
ith less than 50
days until the start
of the 2014 Winter
Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the
United States and Canadian
women's hockey teams will
play three times in a span of
12 days as both squads look
to finalize their rosters before
the Olympic games.
Five Badgers are currently
represented on the U.S. Wom-
W
62
//
VARSITY December 19, 2013
en's National Team, as UW alums Brianna Decker, Meghan
Duggan, Hilary Knight and Jessie Vetter, along with incoming
freshman Annie Pankowski,
make up over a fifth of the U.S.
national team. Meghan Mikkelson is the lone Wisconsin
alum on the Canadian squad.
The United States is coming
off of an impressive 5-1 triumph over Canada last week
7 p.m.
3 p.m.
2 p.m.
3 p.m.
in Calgary, Alberta, as Duggan, Decker
and Knight all lit the lamp for the Red,
White and Blue. Decker's goal in the second period turned out to be the gamewinner, and Decker's two points on the
night paced the American squad. Vetter
stopped 15 of the 16 shots she faced.
The U.S. and Canada square off on
Friday at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in
Grand Forks, N.D., in a 7 p.m. contest. The
game can be seen live on the NBC Sports
Network.
The two teams will meet again on Dec.
28 in St. Paul, Minn. in a 3 p.m. contest
that will also air on NBCSN before wrapping up the series on Dec. 30 in Toronto.
The final U.S. Olympic Women's Hockey team will be announced during the
second intermission of the NHL Winter
Classic on Jan. 1, 2014, live on NBC. The
team, which currently has 23 players on
the roster, will be trimmed to 21 players,
three of which will be goaltenders.
Mikkelson is one of 24 Canadian players that remain in centralization, as Canada will also trim its roster to 21 players
before the winter games.
In addition to the six players with UW
ties, former Wisconsin and Canadian
defensemen Carla Macleod, who won
two gold medals with Team Canada,
will serve as an assistant coach for the
Japanese Olympic Team. Team Japan
spent a few weeks in the U.S. earlier this
year playing exhibition contests against
WCHA schools, including Wisconsin who
shut out Team Japan 3-0 on Sept. 23.
