Molly Engstrom is going home.
The University of Maine women’s ice hockey coach is returning to her home state and alma mater, as she and her Black Bears will take on defending national champion and No. 1-ranked University of Wisconsin Badgers.
UMaine will play Wisconsin in Madison at 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
Engstrom is a native of Siren, Wisconsin, which is 282 driving miles northwest of Madison.
She played at Wisconsin from 2001-05 and was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Engstrom, who was a defenseman, is the only player in school history to earn WCHA Defensive Player of the Year honors twice. She was an All-WCHA first team selection both years.
In 2005, Engstrom was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award which goes to the nation’s best player.
She played three seasons for current Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, who was the leading scorer on the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
The Badgers have played in six of the last eight NCAA championship games, winning four of them including last year’s 4-3 overtime win over Ohio State that capped a 38-1-2 campaign.
They will raise the championship banner, the eighth in program history, before Friday night’s game.
Engstrom went on to become a two-time Olympic medalist for Team USA and, in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, she was the recipient of the tournament’s Best Defenseman Award after collecting three goals and four assists in five games.
Johnson and his Badgers travelled to Orono last season and came away with 9-0 and 6-1 victories.
The Black Bears arrived in Madison late Wednesday night.
Engstrom said returning to Madison brings back a lot of memories.
“This is a special place. It’s a cool town,” said Engstrom. “I said something last year when the Badgers came to play us: it’s essentially my two worlds colliding. You couldn’t dream up a feeling like that when it’s right in front of you.”
Despite that dream-like scenario, Engstrom is focused on her UMaine program.
“It’s almost an emotional feeling. I’m all [UMaine] Blue right now. My whole thought here is to help elevate our program,” she said.
The Badgers opened the season with 9-2 and 5-0 victories at Bemidji State from Minnesota while UMaine lost a pair of one-goal games to 10th-ranked Quinnipiac in Hamden, Conn., 3-2 and 4-3 in overtime.
“This is going to be a great experience for the kids, already,” Engstrom said. “To be around a program like this which is at the next level. This whole trip and experience is going to be great for the players to see.”
The 42-year-old Engstrom said her team played well against a Bobcats squad that beat UMaine 7-0 and 4-0 in Orono last season.
“The training the girls put in has elevated,” said Engstrom. “They have a better idea of what the commitment looks like. We outmuscled Quinnipiac with the grit we play with but we got into penalty trouble in the first game and that alone takes its toll.”
She noted that the Black Bears held Quinnipiac to 0-7 on the power play in the first of the two games, but “that showed up in our legs” in the second game.
“We were up 3-2 in the third period against the No.10 team and that starts to build confidence,” Engstrom said. “Small wins. How can we use these non-conference games to learn something?”
Sophomore goalie Kiia Lahtinen stopped 68 of 75 shots and is in the pool for Finland’s Olympic team roster.
“Her game elevated so drastically from the beginning of last year to the end of last year and she is locked in,” said Engstrom.
The UMaine coach said Wisconsin is “no worse than they were last year” when they won the national championship.
“They have five kids who are probably going to make the U.S. Olympic team. They’re at the next level,” Engstrom said. “We’re going to try to pull everything we can out of how they play. And a lot of it is going to come down to emulating some of the things that they do, offensively.”
The series will also be special for UMaine’s Kendall Sundby, who is from Hammond, Wisconsin, and fellow sophomore defenseman Brenna Curl, whose sister, Britta, was a two-time captain of the Badgers.
