50 // VARSITY March 20, 2014
A
fter the Wisconsin women's hockey team
fell to top-ranked Minnesota in the Fill the
Bowl game in front of a NCAA record crowd
of 13,573 last month at the Kohl Center, senior cap-
tain Alex Rigsby made it clear how her and her team-
mates felt about losing to their Border Battle rivals.
"I haven't beaten them since my sophomore year,"
Rigsby admitted. "To be honest, I'm tired of losing
to this team but it is going to bring a determination
to us. We are definitely going to face them again, no
doubt. Hopefully we are able to capitalize on our op-
portunities."
Rigsby prediction came true, as the school's all-
time wins leader and her Badgers teammates will
get another chance to face their rivals to the west.
But the latest meeting won't be staged in the Land
of 10,000 Lakes or America's Dairyland. It will take
place in Hamden, Conn., the site of the 2014 NCAA
Frozen Four.
Despite losing all four games to Minnesota this
year and the past 10 in the series, the Badgers' fo-
cus is squarely on Friday's 4 p.m. semifinal at the TD
Bank Sports Center.
"We're not far off," UW head coach Mark Johnson
said. "You look at the magnitude of the game, the im-
portance of the game and I'm excited to play. If you
say we're going to play them five times this year and
you're only going to win one, which game do you
want to win?
"This is the one you want to win."
The Badgers have come close to defeating Min-
nesota this year, as Wisconsin played a tightly-con-
tested opener in Minneapolis before falling 2-1 on
Oct. 11 and 2-0 one night later. The low-scoring se-
ries marked the lowest scoring output in a series by
Minnesota all year ― the Gophers lead the nation,
scoring an average of 4.77 goals per contest.
In the teams' most recent series, UW led Min-
nesota after the first period, but the Gophers came
back and defeated the Badgers 3-2 on Feb. 14. The
Gophers spoiled the Badgers' Fill the Bowl night on
Feb. 15, shutting out UW, 4-0.
DAVID
STLUKA
