Wisconsin announces women’s hockey schedule

Last week, Wisconsin released its women’s hockey schedule. Wisconsin will start the season in the middle of a seven game winning streak (and a 14 game unbeaten streak), which included its fifth national championship.

The Badgers will kick off its season on the road at Lindenwood. Fans may remember the last time Wisconsin visited Lindenwood, but not for the 5-1 victory in January 2017. Instead, folks probably recall that 18 Badgers went to the hospital due to concerns about carbon monoxide poisoning (Editor’s note: home ice advantage is getting out of control). Mikayla Johnson, coach Mark Johnson’s daughter, was hospitalized after “her carbon monoxide level was found to be at a dangerous point,” Todd Milewski from Madison.com reported. Yes, I will continue to cite this every time Wisconsin plays Lindenwood.

Here’s to hoping that Lindenwood doesn’t poison Bucky this time around.

Wisconsin’s home opener will be a non-conference matchup with Penn State, which is a fun and unique sentence to pen.

After that, Wisconsin will head to Columbus and then to LIU. I don’t know who LIU is, and, frankly, I’m not going to look it up. Wisconsin was supposed to play Princeton, but they backed out because the game was going to be played before their season started? Goodness, Princeton, get it together, or you’re going to slip behind Cornell.

Overall, the schedule is one of the best in recent memory. Most of the critical home games (against OSU and Minnesota) are in the Spring portion of the schedule as to not conflict with football. Obviously, those will be critical games.

I am most excited about Wisconsin’s trip to music city over Thanksgiving weekend. It will take on Harvard on Friday, but more interestingly Boston College on Saturday. 2018 Patty Kazmaier Award winner and new transfer to UW Daryl Watts will have an opportunity to square off against her former squad. It’s going to be lit.

If you haven’t gone to a women’s hockey game, you have to get to one. LaBahn is a gem, but small, so it sells out quickly!