Let’s Fill the Bowl Saturday Night at the KC

While the Men’s team is away near the Arctic Circle this weekend, the Women’s team will be hosting one of their big rivals minnesota, Friday and Saturday night 7 PM at the Kohl Center.

For Saturday’s game fans are encouraged to “Fill the Bowl” as UW attempts to break several attendance records while also helping to raise money and food for charity. Tickets for the game are $1, and for every fan in attendance Becker Law Office will donate $1 to Second Harvest. Fans are also encouraged to bring non-perishable food items, as they will collected as well.

UW did this same promotion two years ago and drew 5,377 fans when they hosted St Cloud. Last season, 6,085 fans came to the Kohl Center when UW hosted the US Women’s Olympic team which was 1/3 Badgers as well. The current record for attendance at any NCAA Women’s game was set at Camp Randall last year outdoors w/ 8,263. W/ the Men’s team on the road, no NFL football to watch (the Pro Bowl is lame), and tickets only $1 let’s see if that record can’t be smashed and get a big crowd Saturday night. And if you are a UW student, you get in free and get a t-shirt!

I’ve been on the record here on our blog many times in the past encouraging any and all fans to give the Women’s team a chance. As I posted a few weeks back, I too thought poorly of Women’s hockey until actually attending a game 3 years ago, and have been hooked ever since. I understand the bias related to the lack of checking, and the game is slower, etc, (weak excuses at best) but if you don’t have plans Saturday and have $1 come down to the Kohl Center and join me for some Women’s hockey. You won’t be disappointed, I assure you.

In case you needed a few more reasons, the Badgers are #1 in the country and can extent their nearly insurmountable lead for another WCHA regular season championship w/ 3 full weekends of hockey left before the playoffs. Currently UW is 12 pts ahead of the gophers. The Women use a different scoring system, 3 pts for wins, 2 pts for OT win or SO win, and 1 point for OT or SO loss. Hence, if the Badgers sweep, they would extend their lead to 18 points over the gophers and at least 15 points over North Dakota, virtually giving them the conference title (barring epic collapse or swine flu).

Two more reasons, Hilary Knight currently sits at 98 career goals, and has a good chance to hit the 100 goal mark this weekend. She would be the first Badger in the history of the Women’s team to eclipse 100 goals in her career. She leads the nation w/ 33 goals, 7 more than the next closest player, and appears on pace to break her own team record of 45 goals set in 2008/09. In addition, Wisconsin is the 2nd highest scoring team in the country, and features the three highest scoring players in the WCHA in Meghan Duggan, Knight and Brianna Decker.  That could very well be a line combo during the 2014 Olympics.

I hope to see a lot of people at the Kohl Center this weekend, I’m sure Phil will be there w/ his signs and hopefully there is a lot of counting to be done.