By Jacob Messing

Two of the best teams in women’s hockey meet this weekend as each hopes to hand the other its first loss of the season.

The No. 4-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes and scorching Kassidy Sauve take their 7-0-1 record into Wisconsin this weekend against the top-ranked 12-0-0 Badgers. Both games of the series will be streamed right here on FloHockey, starting at 2 PM CT on Saturday and then noon Sunday.

The series is bound to be a chess match fueled by impeccable goaltending. The smallest mistakes could result in either team’s first loss.

The Badgers are coming off a series sweep of rival Minnesota, in which the usual suspects Presley Norby and Abby Roque sunk the No. 6 Gophers in consecutive one-goal games.

Norby and Roque will be the key again this weekend versus Sauve, one of the top goaltenders in the country.

Sauve, a senior from Whitby, Ontario, has played in all eight games for Ohio State allowing just 11 goals in that span for a league-leading .952 save percentage (minimum three games played) and a 1.37 GAA.

She has posted four shutouts on the year, with three coming in her last four games, including consecutive 4-0 wins over St. Cloud State. While the high-flying, No. 1 Badgers will be Sauve and co.’s biggest test, the Buckeyes have fared well against other ranked opponents.

The Buckeyes finish the sweep and improve to 7-0-1 on the season! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/aWQyL9BoaO

— Ohio State W Hockey (@OhioState_WHKY) October 21, 2017

Those opponents include No. 4 Minnesota and No. 5 Minnesota-Duluth, against whom the Buckeyes have earned a combined 3-0-1 record, outscoring the two teams by a total score of 14-10.

While it’s not an overly impressive margin, it shows the Ohio State offense can bail Sauve out in a rare off-game. That stellar defense includes freshmen Emma Maltais and Tatum Skaggs; they sit first and third in team scoring.

But it seems that for every upside the Buckeyes bring into the matchup, the Badgers bring two.

Maltais sits 10th in the nation with 12 points, while Roque and Norby sit at fifth and ninth, with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

And while Sauve’s numbers are among the best in the league, Wisconsin sophomore Kristen Campbell beat her out as goaltender of the month.

Badgers coach Mark Johnson spoke on the growth and noticeable improvement of his young players prior to the Minnesota series and echoed his thoughts again on Monday in his weekly presser:

Some of our younger players gained some experience, even from game one Saturday into game two they looked more comfortable from start to finish. I was happy with Baylee [Wellhausen] getting on the scoresheet in Saturday’s game and then getting the game-winner [Sunday].

Those goals were seven games in the making for Wellhausen, who missed the team’s first three games with an injury. She scored 15 goals and 22 points in 40 games as a junior last season but had been snake-bitten to start her senior year.

But she finally scored her first point Saturday on a setup from none other than Roque. The following day she netted the OT winner to keep the Badgers’ perfect season alive.

Johnson confirmed she’s back to 100 percent, and now with her rocky start behind her, she’s become just another offensive threat for Sauve and the Buckeyes to watch out for.

Have a question or a comment for Jacob Messing? You can find him on Twitter @JMessing23.