This will be an extra exciting weekend for the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) women’s hockey team. On Friday they will host 2nd ranked Wisconsin, who’s skating into AMSOIL Arena for the first time since winning the NCAA national title there last March.

Last weekend UMD suffered a sweep at Ohio State falling 3-0 then 1-0, but holding the top ranked Buckeyes to just one goal on Saturday has helped the Bulldogs feel prepared for the Badgers.

“Wisconsin is a really dynamic offense, so they’re not just going to pass it around on the perimeter. They’re going to move, they’re going to create. So we need to have our heads on a swivel and we need to be communicating,” UMD head coach Maura Crowell said. “I think physicality has always been part of our bread and butter. I think we got better just from a game perspective, in-game, the game within the game, how to hem teams in, how to figure out how to play against really fast teams.”

The Badgers and Bulldogs last met in December splitting that series in Madison. Wisconsin won game one 3-0 and UMD won game two 3-2.

Puck drop this Friday and Saturday is 3 p.m. at AMSOIL Arena.