‘Cats ready for Wisconsin

The University of New Hampshire women’s ice hockey team will travel west to take on the University of Wisconsin Badgers for two games of non-conference play. The games will be held at Madison LaBahn Arena, where game one will take place Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. and complete the series on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 3 p.m.

UNH comes into the game with an overall record of 3-2-0 including a 1-2 record in Hockey East play in the early stage of the season, while UW comes into the game with  a 3-3-2 record overall with a 1-3-2 record in WCHA  play.

New Hampshire is coming off a tough loss to conference foe Boston College, who defeated the ‘Cats 5-2 Sunday night at Chestnut Hill. The game depended highly on offense as BC fired 5 goals past UNH goaltender Vilma Vaattovaara on 27 shots. The UNH notables in the game were freshman Kristine Horn and Jessica Hitchcock, who bothhad a goal in the game.

In the end, BC held the lead from the get-go scoring the first 2 goals of the game within two periods off the sticks of Kate Leary and Haley Skarupa. Horn hit the back of the net in a rebound goal off a shot by Senior Kristina Lavoie to give the ‘Cats a chance only down 2-1. However, BC struck back scoring two more goals in the span of two minutes by Ashley Motherwell and Kristina Brown to secure the Eagles a victory.

The key players to watch for in the UNH squad include freshman standouts Jonna Curtis (6 points), Sara Carlson (6 points) and senior Kristina Lavoie (6 points) who returns for the 2012-2013 as the leader in career goals (49) and points (87) among active UNH players.

Wisconsin is coming off a nail biting victory at home where the Badgers defeated Bemidji State 2-0 in a shootout to grab an extra point in WCHA standings. Brianna Decker and Madison Packer scored for the Badgers in the shootout to lead their team to victory.

Key players to watch for on the Wisconsin squad are senior forward Brianna Decker who leads the team in goals (7), assists (6) and points (13), Junior forward Madison Packer who is second on the team with points (8) and junior goaltender Alex Rigsby who holds a 3-3-2 record in net and a solid goals against average of 1.75
After the two-game trip out west, New Hampshire will travel back home where they will host two non-conference games against Lawrence on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3. The first game will be at 7 p.m. on Friday night, and the second game will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.