DULUTH, Minn. -- They've made this trip before, but the journey has never been more difficult.

The University of Wisconsin women's hockey team will try to win its third straight NCAA championship today when it duels rival Minnesota-Duluth at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.

On the surface, what the fourth-ranked Badgers face today is nothing new.

They won their first national title playing on enemy ice, knocking off Minnesota 3-0 at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis in March 2006.

They claimed their second outplaying these same Bulldogs in the final, pulling away for a 4-1 victory last March in Lake Placid, N.Y.

But like this rivalry, there's a lot bubbling below the surface of this season. It's fair to conclude UW (29-8-3) has never had to come farther, or endure more, to reach this point.

A lot of challenges stem from two inescapable realities:

En route to their first two NCAA titles, the Badgers lost a grand total of five games, sweeping to Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season and playoff titles.

A nucleus of six seniors -- led by center Sara Bauer, winger Phoebe Monteleone, goaltender Christine Dufour and defensemen Bobbi-Jo Slusar and Meaghan Mikkelson -- departed and were replaced by nine freshmen.

"It's no fault of the team," UW defenseman and captain Emily Morris said, confirming the large degree of difficulty. "It's just we have an array of personalities on the team and everyone with their own ideas of how things should be done."

Morris, one of three seniors along with left winger and assistant captain Jinelle Zaugg and reserve defenseman Mikka Nordby, said the experience gap made it "a struggle for us upperclassmen to come together as one and send out the message that we want to send out."

That process came under scrutiny when the Badgers lost five games before the end of November and were 10-6-2 on Dec. 1.

UW coach Mark Johnson said a fresh identity, not to mention chemistry in the dressing room, takes time to develop when so many newcomers are involved.

"Some kids adjust really quick. They'll come right in and look comfortable from day one," he said. "Other kids you thought were going to do well, it just takes time."

Johnson said some of the youngesters came to Madison carrying some heavy emotional baggage.

"Geez, these guys have won two national championships," he said, describing their thought process. "We don't want to be the group that doesn't win one, so we've got this pressure."

Since Dec. 1, the Badgers are 19-2-1, a stretch Johnson said was built on a series of intense teaching practices heading into the post-holiday schedule.

"We're all striving for the same thing, all have the same ideals, and know what we need to do," Morris said.

Both losses during this stretch run were one-goal decisions at the DECC to Duluth, which goes to the heart of this odd dynamic: While the third-ranked Bulldogs (33-4-1) say they have a chip on their shoulder stemming from the title-game loss 12 months ago, the Badgers feel they have a score to settle because they have dropped four of five meetings to Duluth this season.

The tone of this rivalry appears genuinely civil.

"I think they're a really classy team and every time we've played against them, there's no cheap shots or anything like that. That's pure hockey right there," Duluth defenseman Myriam Trepanier said.

"I think both teams have a lot of respect for one another," Morris said. "We both bring a lot to the table."

But an ongoing NCAA investigation into whether the Bulldogs used an ineligible player for 26 games this season has caused some hard feelings. Freshman Iya Gavrilova, who scored three goals in two key wins over UW earlier this season, allegedly played as a professional in Russia.

Duluth coach Shannon Miller joked Friday at a news conference she had her cell phone on because the NCAA might call with a decision on the matter.

Asked how confident she was that the NCAA would find no wrongdoing, Miller said: "I can't even comment on the investigation; that's why I joke about it. You're not allowed to say anything, so a little humor's good."

The probe is more than a month old, prompting more and more questions about how potential sanctions might be handed down if NCAA rules were broken, but Johnson said Friday he's "gotten over it."

Perhaps, but he seemed equal parts annoyed and bemused when it was relayed to him Miller had announced she'd identified a weakness in his team and was preparing to exploit it.

"If we have a weakness and she knows about it, that's great," Johnson said. "Still have to play the game and still got to compete for three periods."