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Wisconsin women’s hockey sweeps Minnesota State

Badgers reach best WCHA start in history behind Kepler and Campbell

Two sellout crowds welcomed home the top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team this weekend after a five-week break. In turn, the Badgers gave those fans two dominant, shutout victories (6–0 and 4–0). Senior Claudia Kepler tallied three total goals this weekend and sophomore goaltender Kristen Campbell earned a pair of 16-save shutouts.

Excluding about 10 minutes of lackluster play on game 2 of the series, the Badgers (23–1–0) were as sharp as you could expect any team after such a long break from competition.

Wisconsin is now 14–0–0 in WCHA play and has a commanding lead in the conference. This is the best conference start in program history, which is quite amazing in an Olympic season and given the Badgers’ consistent success.

Take a look at some of my favorite highlights from the series:

A few notes from this series:

  • Once again, the band did not show up at LaBahn Arena. That’s 12 games that they have snubbed the No. 1 ranked team in the country.
  • Badger goalie Kristen Campbell has recorded four straight shutouts, and she made some spectacular saves along the way.
  • Senior transfer Claudia Kepler has quietly scored 14 goals this year, second-most in the WCHA.
  • It clicked for me this weekend; there are no players on this team who are great at everything, but everyone is good at a couple of things. When this team plays in harmony, they look like world-beaters. However, when they aren’t quite in sync, they look very beatable and their weaknesses are way more exposed. That said, when they have been out of sync, Campbell has usually been able to bail them out.

The Badgers travel to Bemidji next weekend and will return to Madison to play St. Cloud Jan. 27–28. All remaining home games are sold out; however, you have a small chance to find a ticket or two if you show up at LaBahn.