Playing in front of the largest home crowd the Wisconsin women’s hockey team has ever seen is exciting in itself, but playing the U.S. Olympic team is even more thrilling.

While Team USA dominated in Olympic-caliber fashion, the Badgers still had fun facing current and former teammates as well as their head coach.

The USA registered a 9-0 shut out against the Badgers with the help of several UW alumni. Facing some former and current Badgers was emotional for Wisconsin and a game that will be impossible to forget for senior forward Jasmine Giles.

“It was really fun,” Giles said. “Any time you get to play against your old teammates and our old coach it’s great.

“It was a great atmosphere, a lot of fans. It was one of the more memorable games of the season.”

Giles played three years under Team USA head coach Mark Johnson, who took a sabbatical this year to coach the Olympic team.

Former Wisconsin goalie Jessie Vetter, forwards Erika Lawler, Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej, defensemen Molly Engstrom, Kerry Wieland and current UW forwards Meghan Duggan and Hilary Knight helped the U.S. Olympic National Team give Wisconsin a tough battle.

Senior goalie Alannah McCready found it odd to be on the opposite side of the ice from her former teammates, but exciting as well.

“They’re some of our best friends so it’s weird to play against them,” McCready said. “Obviously we knew that it was going to be interesting, but that was really fun.

“It was really exciting to be on the other side of it and be like ‘I used to practice with that person and play with that person, and now they’re going to the Olympics.’”

Team USA certainly gave them an interesting game.

Both Knight and Lawler tallied a goal along with two assists for Knight and one assist each for Lawler, Duggan and Engstrom.

Giving the Badgers an Olympic style game, Johnson’s squad was quick to shut down any offensive threats the Badgers created throughout the majority of the game and outshot UW 38-9 in terms of shots on goal.

Despite the teams’ familiarity with each other, Giles knew Team USA would not go easy on the Badgers.

“I expected them to play even that much harder — to get the puck from us in the corner and score those goals against us — no, I did not expect them to back down at all,” Giles said.

It is not common for collegiate teams to have the chance to play an Olympic team, and the unique opportunity provided some learning experiences and insight for Wisconsin.

McCready expects the team to use the experience as a way to grow throughout the rest of the season.

“[It shows] how good of a team we are now in the season,” McCready said. “We used this as a stepping stone for the rest of the season.

“We learned things today that we can use against other good teams that we’re going to be playing coming up here.”

Giles also believes the current Badgers can grow from the confidence they showed in the second and third periods when the team began to play more aggressively, and feels they can pose a threat to any team.

“We came out pretty confident in the second and third period, so just keep our confidence up. I think now, it shows too that we can take it to any team because we kept up with them.”

Although Wisconsin was unable to register a goal against Team USA and was playing some current and former teammates along with its head coach, it still gave its all in the hope of giving the USA a strong fight.

“We just went out and played our hardest,” Giles said. “We left everything out on the ice and that’s the best we could have done.

“I mean, they’re the best players in the world so that’s the best you can do against them.”