Previewing No. 1 Wisconsin at No. 2 Ohio State

Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski look ahead to the WCHA series between No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Ohio State. The rematch of the 2023 NCAA championship game will be played in Columbus on Friday and Saturday.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Hi, everyone, Welcome back tothe podcast. This is an extra special
episode of this week's podcast because wealready gave you one episode, that one
dealing with the history of NCAA women'shockey, but we are back with a
special one. My name's Todd Maleskiand Nicole Haseer is with me. We're
talking about the number one versus Numbertwo matchup that's coming this weekend in Columbus,

(00:31):
Ohio. That's number one Wisconsin againstnumber two Ohio State, early control
of the WCHA on the line,a rematch of the twenty twenty three NCAA
Championship game, and on and onand on. So many subplots to this
really important series for the week beforeThanksgiving. This is a one that I

(00:52):
think has been circled for a lotof people for a lot of reasons.
Nicle and I wonder if you wantto get into maybe some of those in
will we'll kind of touch on allof them as we go along here for
this brief episode. But what's thebig one that stands out for you?
Well, I think it's Wisconsin's firstbig test, right, Like, Ohio
State came out and played Colgate inthe first weekend and split that series,
and it kind of let us knowthat both those teams are or where they

(01:15):
wanted to be to start the season. Wisconsin hasn't really been pushed back on
this year, so you know,their first big test to prove if they
really should be the number one teamin the country of particular. Note,
now that KK Harvey is injured,that just really changes the dynamic for them
on offense, on defense, onspecial teams, just in every part of

(01:37):
the game. She's that impactful.So I think it's just a really important
game in terms of sort of gaugingwhere these teams are and who should be
at the top. And you know, Ohio State has continued to get some
votes in the polls, and soI think, yeah, I think a
lot of people are thinking, youknow, this will help figure things out.
The likelihood is will probably be asplit and we won't be any further

(02:00):
closer to finding anything out, butit will be interesting. And these teams
played, you know, a sixto five overtime game and the final weekend
of the regular season last year andthen turned around and played a one ozer
game in the National championship game,So you never quite know what you're going
to get both teams look different thanthey did last year. Who do you
think are going to be the playersto watch to that are gonna, you

(02:22):
know, sort of decide how thismight go well a couple. I think.
One on on the Wisconsin side thatI'm looking forward to see if she'll
play is Anna Wilgren, who iswent out injured. Didn't play the last
game of the Badgers series at SaintCloud before last week's break. She I
went back and looked she took apretty rough tumble into the boards and kept

(02:43):
playing afterwards. But it didn't gothat the next day and it's she was
in practice but with a non contactjersey this week. So for for her,
you know, like you mentioned,the Badges are already well without KK
Harvey. She won't be playing thisweek. This will be I think six
and seven straight games the Badgers haveplayed without her because of a knee injury

(03:07):
she suffered against Bmidge State back inOctober. And so being out without your
top defender is one thing. Ifyou take out your your second defender,
uh, that would be a bigloss for for a Badgers team, you
know, going into a series againsta really strong offensive team, one that

(03:27):
can you know, play the puckpossession game just as well as Wisconsin can,
and so it kind of gets intothat who does it better is the
you know, the thing that endsup standing out on the Ohio state side
of it. I mean, youcould take your pick, because they,
like Wisconsin, they've had just thisremarkable spread of players contributing. Wisconsin has

(03:50):
is fairly top heavy, but they'vealso had a lot of players go down
the line and get goals along theway just because they've they've scored so many.
Like your point earlier, there firstten games of the season, we're
all against unranked teams. They didplay Saint Cloud State as their first ranked
opponent. But you know, youlook at the you know, is it
Caleb Barnes kind of weekend to shine? Is it a Jen Gardner, you

(04:15):
know who always seems to make animpact in in big games. Is it
her her point to prove this weekend? I think those are a couple of
the names to watch. Obviously,Wisconsin has the the cast of of you
know, stars at the top ofthe lineup that is really seemed to be

(04:38):
uh on fire earlier this season againstsome you know, as you mentioned,
as we've talked about some some weakercompetition and you like you said, this
is this is the big test forthem. So what's what's I guess from
Is there a matchup or a personnelgrouping that you're looking at in particular going

(04:59):
in the well, I think abig question mark or a big sort of
turning point for Wisconsin will be goaltending. Right like they Ohio State has Amanda
Teeley. She has been strong forthem, even you know, when she
was less strong her sophomore year orlast year than the year before, you
know, she she still is.They have had had that solid presence with

(05:21):
Wisconsin, splitting time with the twogoalies between Jane Gervay and Ava McNaughton.
Ava is a rookie. On topof that, it will be really interesting
to see how they just handled themselvesin this in this situation and their sort
of first big you know, oneversus two tests. And I think then,

(05:41):
you know, coming back to talkingabout defenders, if both Wilgrin and
kk are out, like those twoare going to see a lot more action
in net so I think, youknow, the focus for Ohio State is
going to be really putting the pressureon and really getting up close, getting
in front of the net, makingthe goalies make saves, trying to force
the defenders to make mistakes. Imean, sort of all the things they

(06:03):
would already be doing. But Ithink that's just gonna be a little more
heightened knowing that, you know,it's a more precarious situation for the Badgers.
You know, it's always we talkedabout this, you know, in
our first episode. It's Wisconsin hasscored so many goals against some of these
opponents that it's difficult to compare theoffenses head to head. But you know,
Aiho State is still averaging like fivegoals a game, and as you

(06:27):
said there, I think probably theirscoring depth is a little deeper, or
at least they're utilizing their scoring depthmore in a way that they didn't necessarily
in the best they're always had,you know, as you mentioned some of
the players that you know could likea Jen Gardner or even you know,
Kenzie Houseworth or some of those playersthat we're capable of, but we're not

(06:48):
called upon as often. And soI think we're seeing, you know,
they're going to have that depth acrosslike three full solid lines and all of
them are have been regularly scoring.So I definitely think the game will probably
be one or lost for Wisconsin.Right there in front of the night,
I was looking through some stats thisweek to try and you know, find

(07:11):
some way of comparing things and howthings have gone for Wisconsin in Columbus recently.
I think it's four in a rowthey've lost. They were swept in
the last two seasons. They're atOhio State. Going back, it's it's
a longer thing. You know,we've known Ohio State and in years previous
has had just a remarkable penalty killand you know last year maybe that the
numbers weren't as as remarkable as theyhad been in the past. But the

(07:35):
last eighteen games between Wisconsin and OhioState, Wisconsin has only scored a power
play goal in one of them,and that's that's pretty remarkable, just you
know, when you consider the Wisconsinteams that they've been able to put out
there. Power play has been alittle finicky for Wisconsin in previous seasons.
This season, they they've I thinkthey're over forty percent. It's somewhere around

(07:58):
forty four percent, second in thecountry, which if the fact that that
second in the country, it isstill kind of a little mind boggling,
but I think it's Coldgate with thetop one right now if I'm remembering it
right. But so that is aninteresting thing for me to watch, uh
in this series that Wisconsin has hasgotten great production office powerplay, regardless of

(08:22):
the person they've had at at thepoint. You know, it was k
Harvey at first, and Wilgren steppedin, and then when Wilgrin was out,
Vivian Jungles moved into that role.And uh, you know, the
Badgeries didn't necessarily look great on thepower play with with the five on the
ice again Stint Cloud in that secondgame, but they got the winning goal

(08:43):
on the power play late in thethird period. So uh, for me,
that's a key. Uh, thethe Wisconsin power play against the Ohio
State penalty kill if it comes tothat. This is one of those series
that you never really know how it'sgonna be called either is there gonna be
a a good amount of special teams? Is there not? We'll wait and
see, I guess. I alsothink that the Ohio State offense looks different

(09:07):
this year in that you're not seeingas much play up from the point because
of the lack of Sophie Jakes itis a different approach. I mean,
Kayleb Barnes also obviously plays a verygood, you know, blue line offensive
game, but it is just different. And so if the Badger's go in
there thinking if the players that haveplayed Ohio State in recent years, I

(09:28):
think that it's going to look thesame. Obviously they'll have watch tape and
that sort of thing, but Ithink that it will be interesting to see
sort of this different look that wesee from Ohio State. They just are
it's a different approach to the offensein some ways, and so I think
how Wisconsin handles that will be interesting. But I mean, regardless of if
we're talking holding any w c Ha opponent for Ohio State, holding anyone

(09:52):
to one probably goal in eighteen gamesis just kind of a ridiculous, mind
blowing stat So good for them.That's, like you said, going to
be an absolute important part of thegame. Yeah, And Mark Johnson this
week, the Badger's coach, wassaying he thinks Ohio State it is a
deeper team this season than it waslast year, and so that's a you
know, a point in their favor. They are a pretty pretty darn good

(10:15):
team for you know, over sixmonths last season as they were trying to
defend their championship and everyone was comingat them. And now it's on Wisconsin's
side again to have everyone coming atthem so as the number one team,
as a defending champion, and that'sgoing to make this a really intriguing set
of games at Ohio State this weekend, both of them on BTN plus,

(10:37):
Big Big ten plus. I getwhat they call it officially, but if
you're looking to watch them some prettygood hockey this weekend, there there is
your opportunity to to check that out. Yeah. I think the one other
thing I was going to point outtoo is that the you know, we
talked a lot in the off season, Ohio State brought in a lot of
transfer players and so the obviously Colgateis a different opponent they played, you

(10:58):
know, sort of that high level. But players like Caleb Arnes, Hannahbilka,
Kira z In and I don't knowthat they've ever played in the game
quite like o Wisconsin Ohio State matchupin Columbus is, particularly when it's one
versus two like this. So Ido think just the style of play,
the physicality, the way that itmay or may not be called all of
those things on their home ice.So seeing how you know, the players

(11:22):
that that have not come up andhaven't really faced a w C A game
like this, how they handle it. What else will also I think play
into it the a little bit ofthe unfortunate thing if you're looking to attend
that game Saturday, right up againstthe football game happening or across the street
and with you know whatever, theyget one hundred thousand people or whatever at
the Horseshoe there, so yeah,they're there. You have you have to

(11:45):
fight h football parking for uh andeverything else. Uh if you're you're heading
to to that game in person,so good mnth Ohio State Hockey Twitter was
already sending out parking instructions today likeplease plan ahead and you're going to have
to pay football prices. So yeah, it's unfortunate they can't get a new

(12:05):
rink soon enough. That's correct,A little bit farther away from the football
stadium, which I believe where they'replanning it would be nice. Yes,
that's the least of its problems.Anyway, it's going to be a great
matchup. We just wanted to acouple of teams that we get to watch
quite a bit and obviously saw playyou know, multiple times last year and

(12:26):
then in the postseason and in theNational Championship game. Thought that we should
give a little bit of insight andlet everybody know that it's worth subscribing,
taking a look and watching these games. You're going to see some of the
best players in the world facing offthis weekend Ohio State for hosts Wisconsin.
That's one versus two. It's Fridayat five pm Central, Saturday at two

(12:48):
pm Central, both games on Bigten Plus. We'll talk more about what
we learned in next week's pod podcast, but thanks for listening to our short
little episode and we will I'll talkto you soon.