Ohio State 'earned bad bounce' to beat Badger women's hockey
Like many games between great titans of sport, the final margin came down to a team taking advantage of a timely bounce.
St. Paul, MN — A familiar championship matchup ended with a familiar one-goal margin. Each of the last three national title games has been a one-goal affair between the Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The 2026 WCHA Final Faceoff championship ended just the same, serving as a potential preview of the national championship game to come in two weeks.
“I was looking at it as a two-game series, where this is the first one. Obviously important, setting the tone,” OSU head coach Nadine Muzerall, following her team’s 2-1 come-from-behind victory over UW. “But we believe we’ll have an opportunity to see them again.”
“We’ll look forward to that if that’s the case,” Badgers captain Caroline Harvey said of a potential rematch in the national championship game with the Buckeyes.
As Wisconsin attempts to follow up on its greatest season in program history with a back-to-back national title, it has consistently looked the part of the best team in the country. On Saturday afternoon, however, the Buckeyes had the Badgers’ number throughout, even if the final result came with the slimmest of margins.
Wisconsin struggles to maintain possession, but McNaughton gives Badgers a chance
Ohio State stymied the Wisconsin offense, the only unit in the country scoring over five goals per game. In the first period, OSU won a series of timely faceoffs in its own defensive end after icing the puck, denying UW opportunities to maintain possession in key moments.
“I mean the faceoffs, we weren’t—especially after two periods—we weren’t very good,” Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said in a post-game interview. “And if you don’t win faceoffs, at least 50% of them, you’re chasing pucks.”
Chasing pucks is what the Badgers spent most of the second period doing. OSU outshot UW 18-8 in the middle frame and 40-29 on the afternoon. Wisconsin struggled throughout the day to carry the puck up out of its defensive zone and start its offense. That transition defense has been a key emphasis for Muzerall’s squad in recent weeks.
“With our own playing style against any other team, we like to play aggressive,” Buckeyes captain Emma Peschel said. “We like to stay up on them. We’re known for that. We’re known to be relentless, get on pucks all 200 feet. And I really think with [Wisconsin], they’re skilled, they’re fast, and we know that they like time and space, and we know that we have to take that away. And I think our defensemen and forwards and our forecheck today did a really good job of that.”
“That’s kind of how they forecheck,” Wisconsin co-captain Lacey Eden said. “They’re trying to trap us in the neutral zone, get a turnover, and get going the other way.”
Even with the Buckeyes maintaining the possession advantage through much of the day, the game remained tied through two periods. Badgers goaltender Ava McNaughton made 38 saves, stopping the first 36 shots she faced. The junior recorded the most saves by a UW goaltender in a game since Cami Kronish made 42 saves in a game against OSU on February 18th, 2023.
“They outplayed us in the second period, and Ava really kept us in there,” Eden said. “So, a lot of credit to her keeping that game 0-0 going into the third and giving us a chance—giving us a chance to go ahead.”
Late push, bounces, by Ohio State wins Final Faceoff
Wisonsins did manage to get on the board first, as Eden scored on a one-timer from Kelly Gorbatenko midway through the third period. That lead would not hold up for long, however, as a timely deflection by Ohio State forward Hilda Svensson redirected a point shot by Peschel past McNaughton less than five minutes later.
Like many games between great titans of sport, the final margin often comes down to which team can take advantage of a timely bounce going their way.
“It can become frustrating when you’re dominating on shots and opportunities and those good ones aren’t going in,” Muzerall said. “So, we kind of earned that bad bounce at the end because [McNaughton] stopped all the others.”
Buckeyes forward Jordan Baxter carried the puck in on the right wing, bringing the puck behind the net. From there, the junior hurled a shot toward the front of the net. The puck bounced off Badgers defender Ava Murphy, past the outstretched arms of UW forward Finley McCarthy, and barely across the goal line to give OSU its definitive 2-1 lead.
“A couple bounces on the goals, you know, but we put ourselves in that position,” Eden said. “So I think going forward, we just use that and learn from it.”
“It’s a game of hockey, like, anything happens, there’s funky bounces. You never know when the puck’s just thrown at the net it can hit a stick, bounce off someone,” added Harvey. “But it doesn’t define anything. We’re moving forward. Like Coach said in the locker room, what happened happened, but we’re focused on the next week ahead: NCAAs.”
The Badgers nearly fought back from the brink. Despite costly turnovers, over-passing, and a lack of answers to the Buckeyes’ aggressive forecheck, a Wisconsin extra-attacker and a late Ohio State penalty led to a 6-on-4 opportunity with 19.9 seconds remaining.
Nevertheless, Eden’s last (fraction of a) second desperation attempt was thwarted by OSU goaltender Hailey McLeod.
“This is a game that we wanted to win. We wanted to come out on top,” Eden said. “It’s frustrating, but we can definitely use it as motivation going into NCAAs.”
Up next for Wisconsin women’s hockey
The Badgers now turn their focus from the conference tournament to the NCAA Tournament. With its win on Saturday, Ohio State has clinched the top seed in the national tournament. Wisconsin will be the second seed.
Wisconsin will host a regional semifinal matchup on Thursday. The winner of that game will face the Badgers with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line on Saturday, March 14th, with a start time to be determined.
The full bracket will be revealed in the NCAA Tournament selection show this morning, Sunday, March 8th. The television special begins at 10:30 a.m. Central on ESPNU.
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