Badger women's hockey faces Ohio State for NCAA title, again
Who, what, why, when, and how to watch Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey and the Ohio State Buckeyes play in the women's college hockey national championship
University Park, PA — Entering the 2025-26 women’s college hockey season, the Wisconsin Badgers and Ohio State Buckeyes sat atop the polls as the top two teams in the country. The WCHA foes had met in each of the last three title games, and prognosticators thought that Ohio State and Wisconsin women’s hockey were on a collision course to meet on the final day of the season once again.
Those predictions were correct. This afternoon in Pennsylvania, it will be the Badgers and Buckeyes for all the marbles in round four.
364 days after Wisconsin dramatically bested Ohio State to capture the 2025 national championship, Buckeyes head coach Nadine Muzerall is hoping for “a similar story with a different ending.”
“We’ve been planning all year since the season ended last year,” the two-time national championship-winning head coach added.
On the other bench, UW is hoping for a different ending than it had in its most recent meeting with OSU. The Buckeyes captured the WCHA Playoff title just two weeks ago with a 2-1 victory over the Badgers, denying Wisconsin its third-straight championship at the event.
“We just need to up the ante,” UW head coach Mark Johnson, whose 701 head-coaching wins are the most all-time in NCAA women’s ice hockey, said about the challenge of producing a different result than that of the conference tournament title game. “I think the meaning of the game and the opportunity that’s at the end for the winning team, hopefully, gets everybody at both sides of the aisle ready to play their best game.
“And if Ohio State plays their best game, and we play our best game, oh, what a treat. It’s going to be special. It’s going to be fun.”
Who to watch: Lacey Eden seeks greatness
Lacey Eden, already one of the most decorated players in program history, is seeking yet another national title. The fifth-year senior has tallied 23 game-winning goals for the Badgers in her career (the third-most in program history), but there is one setting in which a clutch goal has eluded her.
The Annapolis, Maryland native is playing in her fifth Frozen Four, having competed in the final game of the season in all five trips to the event and becoming one of only five players in UW’s history to score 100+ goals in a career. Despite playing nine games in the Frozen Four semifinal and championship game, she has never scored a goal in the final weekend of the season.
The first-team All-American enters Sunday’s matchup as the country’s leading scorer, already having amassed 29 goals and 47 assists on the year. Her 76 total points lead all other players by double digits and are the ninth-most in a single campaign for Wisconsin.
In this stellar season by the UW co-captain, one in which she willed the Badgers’ “B-Squad” to a WCHA title, perhaps she will find the back of the net at the Frozen Four for the first time en route to her fourth national title in Madison.
What to watch: A fast start could be the difference
Both teams have plenty of motivation. Still, during this stretch of national championship bouts between Ohio State and Wisconsin, the conference rivals have traded blows; neither squad has landed two in a row. The desire to go back-to-back, a feeling UW forward Kirsten Simms has noted in recent weeks, certainly motivates the Badgers.
“I love winning, but I hate losing even more,” Wisconsin alternate captain Laila Edwards added on Saturday.
Ohio State, however, is seeking vengeance after a Buckeyes penalty in the final two minutes of last year’s championship match spurred a miraculous Wisconsin comeback.
With the Buckeyes feeling the sting of the most recent national title game loss, perhaps the “vendetta” Muzerall says her team has has all the motivation it needs to get off to a fast start, making the difference in a game during which her squad is “going to pursue perfection” because the margin for error figures to, once again, be razor-thin.
The relentless pressure Ohio State brings at both ends of the ice is perhaps unmatched by any other team in the country. On Friday, an initial burst of speed and pressure from the Penn State Nittany Lions put the Badgers on their heels in the opening minutes of the national semifinal. On Sunday, Wisconsin cannot afford a similar start against a Buckeyes team that is a perfect 23-0-0 when scoring first.
“They’re aggressive, they’re physical,“ Johnson said about OSU, adding that his team will need to counter that to “create opportunities and end up with one more goal than they do.”
Why to watch: One last ride for a stellar senior class
The Wisconsin women’s hockey graduating seniors have experienced unprecedented success. In the past four years, the Badgers have amassed a 136-21-6 record. With its win in the Frozen Four semifinal on Friday night, UW set a record for the most wins over four years in program history.
“This class has been so special,” Edwards said.
The only other time Wisconsin has won 135 games in four years came from 2005 to 2009. That graduating class, headlined by goaltender Jessie Vetter, won three national titles in four seasons and is part of the only group to win back-to-back national titles in Madison in 2006-2007.
Wisconsin’s seniors will need Win 137 to match both those feats.
“Obviously, there’s a job to get done tomorrow,” Simms added. “But to do it with the group that we have and the class that we have is just super special.”
When, where, how to watch Wisconsin women’s hockey vs Ohio State national title game: TV, streaming, radio
Where: Pegula Ice Arena — Penn State University — University Park, PA
When: Sunday, March 22nd, 3:00 p.m. Central
Watch/TV/Streaming: ESPNU (John Buccigross, AJ Mleczko, and Madison Packer)
Listen/Radio: 1070 AM The Game - iHeart Radio
Trophy presentation: ESPN+
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