Engstrom And Badger Teammates Excel For U.S. And Canadian National Teams
April 22, 2004
MADISON, Wis. - The long history of Badger hockey intertwines with that of the U.S. and Canadian national teams like ivy climbing up the side of the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Union. Wisconsin's strong legacy as a part of national teams continued this year on the Badger women's hockey roster.
Leading the Badgers, junior defenders Molly Engstrom (Siren, Wis.) and Carla MacLeod (Calgary, Alberta) both skated their way far into their home countries' national team selection processes this season.
Additionally, these two UW blueliners joined current teammates Jackie Friesen, Meaghan Mikkelson and Bobbi-Jo Slusar as Wisconsin's representatives on the Under-22 National Teams for the U.S. and Canada. Wisconsin's present joined its past as former Badger defender Kerry Weiland also donned the red, white and blue on Team USA with Engstrom.
Engstrom, the 2004 Western Collegiate Hockey Association's Defensive Player of the Year and a league first-team pick, helped Weiland and Team USA win the silver medal at the 2004 International Ice Hockey Federation's Women's World Championship.
Held March 30-April 6 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Americans and Canadians' traditional rivalry on the ice added an eighth-straight chapter to its record books with a hard-fought match-up in the championship's final in front of 10,506 fans.
Despite an earlier 3-1 loss to Team USA in the qualification round, Team Canada tagged in a goal in each of the last two periods of the final for a 2-0 score to win its eighth gold medal against the Americans in the IIHF women's world championship. Engstrom, who was also named to the WCHA's 2004 Final Five All-Tournament Team, tallied three assists for Team USA during the championship.
No stranger to Canada's national team competition against the U.S., MacLeod, a 2004 American Hockey Coaches Association Second-Team All-American, helped lead Team Canada to a silver medal at the 2003 Four Nations Cup, held Nov. 5-9 in Skovde, Sweden. Despite losing 2-1 to Team USA after a 22-shot shootout, MacLeod's experience on Team Canada was one to remember.
The 2003-04 Badger team captain scored her first national team goal in her first Canadian senior women's national team game in Team Canada's 6-1 win against Sweden on Nov. 5. Joining MacLeod, Weiland also scored a goal for Team USA in an 8-0 victory against Team Finland on Nov. 5.
Both Engstrom and MacLeod started this season's action on national-team ice during a three-game series last August between the U.S. and Canadian Under-22 National Teams. Engstrom was Wisconsin's lone representative on Team USA., while MacLeod captained Friesen, Mikkelson and Slusar on Team Canada.
Overall, the Americans edged their northern neighbors 2-0-1 in the three-game series. MacLeod, in true captain fashion, fired in the game-tying goal in the 2-2 tie against Team USA, but Team Canada would fall 2-0 and 3-2 to end the series held Aug. 20-23 at the Sportplexe 4 Glaces in Pierrefonds, Quebec.
Friesen, a junior left wing from Regina, Saskatchewan, and frosh teammates Mikkelson and Slusar earned more Under-22 ice time for Team Canada with a gold-medal performance in a 5-3 victory over host Germany at the 2004 Air Canada Cup, held Feb. 4-7 in Bad Tolz, Germany. St. Albert, Alberta-native Mikkelson, who played both forward and defense for UW this season, recorded two goals for Team Canada during the Cup's games, while Slusar, a native of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, scored one goal.
These five current Badgers aren't alone on the Wisconsin roster for players with national team experience however. Senior assistant captain Meghan Hunter joined MacLeod at the 2003 Team Canada Thanksgiving Festival, the first step in the Canadian senior women's national team selection process. The Badgers' all-time leading scorer with 84 goals and 93 assists for 177 points in 132 games, Hunter is a two-time All-American and member of both the 2002 and 2003 Canadian Under-22 national teams.
Joining Hunter, junior defender Nicole Uliasz (Chalfont, Pa.) represented her home country on the 2001-02 U.S. Senior Women's National Team and the 2002 U.S. Under-22 National Team. Uliasz earned a redshirt year during the 2001-02 Badger women's hockey season to skate for the senior women's national team and finished just shy of competing in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Despite missing several of these Badger skaters for their national team competitions this season, Wisconsin built its best season ever in the five-year history of UW women's hockey.
The Badgers finished 25-6-3 overall and 18-5-1 in the WCHA to shatter the team's previous best marks in both overall and league competition. As a program, Wisconsin surpassed its 100th win in addition to turning in 25 wins to tie the UW men's basketball (25-7-0) and softball (currently 25-21-0) teams for most wins during the 2003-04 season among all Wisconsin athletic teams. Of these three sports, only softball is still competing and may play over 58 games this spring.
Individually, Wisconsin earned 11 athletic awards and six academic honors at the WCHA's annual awards banquet. Including Engstrom's 2004 Defensive Player of the Year award, UW sophomore goaltender Meghan Horras (Appleton, Wis.) was named the 2004 WCHA Goaltending Champion and frosh center Sara Bauer (St. Catharines, Ontario) was selected as the league's 2004 Rookie of the Year.
Outside of women's hockey, the 2003-04 season also marked a special year for second-year Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson who's participation on the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic Team was honored in the movie "Miracle". Joining past recipients Peggy Fleming, Bob Hope, General Norman Schwartzkopf and former President George H. Bush, Johnson was also named the Vincent T. Lombardi 'Award of Excellence' honoree for 2004.
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