Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2024-2025

[BadgerPete]

Wow, she is an assistant captain going into her jr year and has great stats. Saved another one from rotting away in that awful state. The only questionable thing is as she is 5'5, but she's still growing.

It's a good flyer since (at least her freshman year) she's very much the third goalie. MacNaughton will be a senior and Stewart will be a sophomore so unless things go slantwise she's not going to be between the pipes at first.

 

[Timothy A]

Timothy, you must be jumping for joy now that Daryl Watts has finally been selected to play for a Canadian National team. She will be playing in the Rivalry Series.

That is swell news for sure, they hated her for all those years. Of course I'm American so I'm hoping she doesn't do all that great sadly.

 

[Gargoyle]

My husband said that this morning Channel 3 had a nice segment about the series with St. Cloud. I didn't see it but maybe they'll repeat it at noon. Also, I emailed the State Journal to encourage them to cover #1 women's hockey and expressed surprise that there was no coverage for this weekend's series against a top-ten opponent. Perhaps if more folks encourage coverage, TM will have more opportunity to write his excellent news/feature stories.

 

[Timothy A]

My husband said that this morning Channel 3 had a nice segment about the series with St. Cloud. I didn't see it but maybe they'll repeat it at noon. Also, I emailed the State Journal to encourage them to cover #1 women's hockey and expressed surprise that there was no coverage for this weekend's series against a top-ten opponent. Perhaps if more folks encourage coverage, TM will have more opportunity to write his excellent news/feature stories.

TDM was off hockey a few years ago, seemed to be back on last year. I'm not sure about this year, though he's been at the home games. Mark Stewart was coving them extensively for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the last few seasons, but he's switched over to football now and I think their coverage left with him.

I'm curious if UW can crack the floodgates open on this year's version of St. Cloud. So far they have been able to against UMD and UMTC.

 

[Gargoyle]

I believe that the SJ would run more hockey stories if more people would read them. The paper apparently keeps track of traffic.
Casey O'Brien has been added to the US Rivalry Series roster. She should have been on it from the get-go. And Laila Edwards is no longer listed as D but as F. That initial assignment was a rather glaring error--

 

[robertearle]

I'm curious if UW can crack the floodgates open on this year's version of St. Cloud. So far they have been able to against UMD and UMTC.

Before the start of a game, or even a period, I'll often think to myself "OK Badgers, early and often", meaning get one early, and get them often.

Three minutes in today, Wisconsin was up 3-0. 4-0 at the end of the first period.

 

[Ooftah]

Scanning the stat sheet for today's game, I do not see evidence of ice time for Finley McCarthy. Injury? Illness?

 

[Huffpluff]

I put on the stream right before puck drop, but went back a minute because I wanted to hear the starting lineups. Went back “live” to see they had already scored. Went backwards to see the goal. Went back live. They scored again! Went back to see the second goal. Went back live. 3-0! Went back to see the third goal. Was a little happy to see that it was still 3-0 when I went back to the live feed, so I could just watch the game without constant rewinding!

 

[BadgerPete]

Scanning the stat sheet for today's game, I do not see evidence of ice time for Finley McCarthy. Injury? Illness?

I just fired up the stream again to check. She's out there. Just a quiet game.

 

[Gargoyle]

What I posted on facebook (with a link to the story on the Badger's webpage): The Wisconsin State Journal apparently didn't think that the #1 ranked Badger Women's hockey team merited any ink today for defeating #7/8 St. Cloud State. It covered the #7 volleyball team that lost to #1 Nebraska, it covered the unranked men's team that lost (again). But not the #1 ranked team in the country playing the #7 team. Go figure. It's hard to grow the audience for women's hockey without coverage.
Great game yesterday, especially the first four minutes! It is concerning that SCSU had so many shots on goal. Ava made some outstanding saves. I am sure coach will make some defensive adjustments for today's game. I imagine that other adjustments will be made to address SCSU's pesky defense. Coach played all four lines so it seemed like everyone had fresh legs throughout.

 

[BadgerPete]

Enright moving up to the second line alongside Hall and Simms today.

 

[Claygr]

What I posted on facebook (with a link to the story on the Badger's webpage): The Wisconsin State Journal apparently didn't think that the #1 ranked Badger Women's hockey team merited any ink today for defeating #7/8 St. Cloud State. It covered the #7 volleyball team that lost to #1 Nebraska, it covered the unranked men's team that lost (again). But not the #1 ranked team in the country playing the #7 team. Go figure. It's hard to grow the audience for women's hockey without coverage.
Great game yesterday, especially the first four minutes! It is concerning that SCSU had so many shots on goal. Ava made some outstanding saves. I am sure coach will make some defensive adjustments for today's game. I imagine that other adjustments will be made to address SCSU's pesky defense. Coach played all four lines so it seemed like everyone had fresh legs throughout.

I asked Todd Milewski about this on Twitter after the win yesterday and his reply was, "There hasn't been very much web traffic to women's hockey stories, unfortunately. That's what things are based on now. I do have a story coming in the next few days but we've cut back on game coverage." So, anything we all can do online to amplify the few stories we get (retweeting, liking, commenting) would help generate additional coverage. This great team deserves coverage by their home town newspaper.

 

[BadgerPete]

I asked Todd Milewski about this on Twitter after the win yesterday and his reply was, "There hasn't been very much web traffic to women's hockey stories, unfortunately. That's what things are based on now. I do have a story coming in the next few days but we've cut back on game coverage." So, anything we all can do online to amplify the few stories we get (retweeting, liking, commenting) would help generate additional coverage. This great team deserves coverage by their home town newspaper.

Sigh. It's literally the argument that has been made against women's sports in media the entire time. Nobody watches/reads it > we don't cover it > nobody watches it over and over again that has been massively disproven over the last few years.

Cover it and people will come. They can't read what you don't cover. Yeah, your clicks might be down for a spell, but it's time to make the investment you never made in the first place.

 

[robertearle]

Sigh. It's literally the argument that has been made against women's sports in media the entire time. Nobody watches/reads it > we don't cover it > nobody watches it over and over again that has been massively disproven over the last few years.

Cover it and people will come. They can't read what you don't cover. Yeah, your clicks might be down for a spell, but it's time to make the investment you never made in the first place.

It's also as tough and crowded a time as there is in the 'sports calendar': UW football, pro football, local high school playoff football, World Series just ended, NBA starting, NHL starting, UW women VB. They did manage a story on the UW men's cross county winning yet another B1G championship. A LOT of competition for eyes and clicks, and reporters to cover it all.

 

[Claygr]

It's also as tough and crowded a time as there is in the 'sports calendar': UW football, pro football, local high school playoff football, World Series just ended, NBA starting, NHL starting, UW women VB. They did manage a story on the UW men's cross county winning yet another B1G championship. A LOT of competition for eyes and clicks, and reporters to cover it all.

That's all true but I would argue that women's hockey is one of the few really positive Badger sports stories right now. 12-0 with four straight shut-outs is pretty unusual and newsworthy, not to mention the five current Badgers going to play for Team USA in the Rivalry Series this coming week.

 

[Gargoyle]

Sigh. It's literally the argument that has been made against women's sports in media the entire time. Nobody watches/reads it > we don't cover it > nobody watches it over and over again that has been massively disproven over the last few years.

Cover it and people will come. They can't read what you don't cover. Yeah, your clicks might be down for a spell, but it's time to make the investment you never made in the first place.

Yes, absolutely, BadgerPete. I just wrote a letter the editor. I doubt it will move the needle even if it gets published, but it seems so ridiculous to give inches and inches of ink to the rather bad men's hockey team and ignore the women's team altogether. Not even a blurb! I'm disgusted.

 

[Timothy A]

Sigh. It's literally the argument that has been made against women's sports in media the entire time. Nobody watches/reads it > we don't cover it > nobody watches it over and over again that has been massively disproven over the last few years.

Cover it and people will come. They can't read what you don't cover. Yeah, your clicks might be down for a spell, but it's time to make the investment you never made in the first place.

Yeah, how can we click/read if they don't write anything! A note to all of us, like and retweet everything TDM does covering the women's team.

A rather surprising outcome this weekend. I did not like the zero shot differential and 5 penalties on Friday. A slight differential on Saturday for SOG but another 5 penalties. Luckily the PK and Ava were awesome. And they survived multiple goalie pulled PK's as well. That was crazy. Score 10 goals and none for OB. That's saying something.

 

[Timothy A]

Enright moving up to the second line alongside Hall and Simms today.

I was wondering if Gorbotenko might get slid down. Ideally they get the line combo's working so Simms and OB can score on a more regular basis.

 

[Timothy A]

TDM has an article up on the website that I recommend all the UW posters give some love to to encourage the newspaper to cover the team more. It's about Edwards playing D. Apparently it's her idea. As Todd points out, she has great range, making her an ideal defender. In my opinion that would be a waste of her talents. She has such a unique skill set as a F that has not completely developed yet. Her ability as a defender would not be anything more than just being another quality D. If she had Harvey like abilities sure, give it a legit push, but I don't see that. She has the potential to be an extraordinary F.

From UW's standpoint, she needs to stay a F. Bumping Kotlowski off the D pairs (assuming she's the 6th D) for Edwards and inserting Vassuer into the F line-up is a net loss for UW. If team USA wants to pursue the D thing, I don't think it will hurt her play as F for UW. Whether she's a D or F in the pwhl, I really don't care other than what I said above, but my focus is what happens at UW. That's what I really care about in the end.

 

[Gargoyle]

If you have a social media presence, please share the article (even though it is probably behind a firewall). The more shares, the better.