Wisconsin women's hockey needs to be 'gritty' vs Ohio State
Even though there's been a lot of them, this is not just another typical meeting between Ohio State and Wisconsin women's hockey as No. 1 vs No. 2
In the last 13 games between Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey and the Ohio State Buckeyes, they have met as the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country. This weekend, the two college hockey heavyweights will do so again, as top-ranked Wisconsin welcomes No. 2 Ohio State to Madison in a rivalry matchup that has come to define the upper tier of the sport for nearly half a decade.
“Over the long winter and the time you’re together, those are special days and nights,” UW head coach Mark Johnson said of the upcoming marquee matchup.
Although the Badgers earned a series sweep over the Buckeyes in Columbus, UW’s first since 2019, to close the first half of their season, Wisconsin expects a close matchup, especially with both teams missing players competing in the 2026 Olympic Games.
“It’s a battle. Every single game we’ve faced them, it’s a battle and you’re just going at it,” UW’s Vivian Jungels, the reigning WCHA Defender of the Week, said Tuesday. “But you prepare for it, you have a strong week of practice going into it.”
Who to watch—or maybe who you cannot watch?
Wisconsin will be without its five Olympians (Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Ava McNaughton, Kirsten Simms, and Adéla Šapovalivová) through the remainder of the regular season. Still, the Badgers are not the only team significantly shorthanded. Ohio State is also missing five members of its team.
OSU’s Mira Jungåker, Jenna Raunio, and Hilda Svensson are with the Swedish national team. Joy Dunne is competing with Team USA, and Sanni Vanhanen is representing Finland.
Svensson and Dunne are the Buckeyes’ two top scorers with 44 points each this season. Dunne ranks third nationally in goals with 25.
When the Badgers swept Ohio State earlier, outscoring the Buckeyes by a two-game total of 8-2, UW’s Olympians combined to score half their team’s goals in the series.
“I think it’s kind of an opportunity for everyone to step it up a little bit,” Jungels said of her team’s missing scorers. “And I think we can just grow together as a team and become a deeper team.”
The holes in each team’s lineup leave plenty of opportunity for unlikely heroes. Wisconsin’s secondary offensive options expressed their optimism this week about what the shorthanded Badgers can accomplish.
“It opens up a lot of opportunities for other girls and everyone has a role when those players are here, then now all those roles have shifted,” Wisconsin center Cassie Hall, who scored a hat trick in UW’s first series without its Olympians, said. “I think, looking back at this past weekend, everyone did their role, played their part. So, I think that was just how we were able to be so successful is everyone bought into what we were trying to do that weekend, and just what we’re going to continue to do. I think we have that depth in our line chart to be successful moving forward.”
“All about putting the puzzle together. We’re missing a bunch of pieces, so we got these pieces and we looked pretty good this past weekend,” Johnson said. “And now, can we continue those habits and continue to do the things we need to do with the group we have for Saturday and Sunday’s game?”
That depth will be tested even further if Badgers forward Hannah Halverson, who suffered an injury last weekend against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, is unable to play. Johnson said Tuesday that he did not know if Halverson would be available this weekend. If unable to play, Wisconsin would be down to eight forwards and six defenders.
What to watch: Can Wisconsin women’s hockey win ‘gritty?’
Against Ohio State, Wisconsin almost always has to win at the margins. It is not an opponent the Badgers can simply “out-skill” like they can other opponents on their schedule.
But not having the option of going to perhaps the best two-way defender on the planet in Caroline Harvey, or the tremendously talented Kirsten Simms, or even Wisconsin’s starting goaltender, makes the task of winning at the margins that much more challenging.
Even without OSU’s Olympians, Buckeyes head coach Nadine Muzerall coaches a program that makes opponents fight for every inch. The same should be expected regardless of the shorthanded circumstances this weekend. Especially after UW’s pair of victories in Columbus.
“Looking back at that weekend, everything was going our way,” Hall said on Tuesday, referring to that earlier road sweep. “Just from getting the bounces and being able to put those away, but this weekend I think we know we have to do those little things like getting the puck deep, forechecking hard, and just being a gritty team this next weekend.”
Why to watch: Rematches, post-season seeding, No. 1 vs No. 2
In a rematch of the past three national title games, it appears Wisconsin and Ohio State could be on a collision course for part four. This weekend could ultimately decide who gets a major leg up in post-season seeding on the way to the 2026 Frozen Four in State College, Pennsylvania.
Separated by slim margins in the polls, the WCHA conference standings, and the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI), either team earning a sweep will likely be in a commanding position to win the conference regular season title and, perhaps, all but lock up the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Even Johnson, who laments distractions and preaches consistency, knows this weekend is different.
“We do play all these games, but there’s games within your schedule that just create a little more excitement for everybody involved with it,” the winningest coach in the history of NCAA national collegiate women’s ice hockey said.
At the end of the weekend, regardless of who was available, the wins and losses matter, but so does the process of how either team gets to the finish line ahead of the postseason.
“After the weekend’s over, when you have heavy competition and play against good players and a good team, you grow from those experiences,” said Johnson. “And I think, similar to what [Ohio State] will do, when the weekend’s over, they’ll grow. You know, obviously, both teams are missing some pieces to the puzzle, but that doesn’t deviate from what the games are gonna be like Saturday and Sunday. They’ll be high intensity, very competitive.”
When, where, how to watch Wisconsin women’s hockey vs Ohio State: TV, streaming, radio
Where: La Bahn Arena — University of Wisconsin-Madison — Madison, WI
Listen/Radio: 1070 AM The Game / iHeart Radio (Play-by-play: Paul Braun; Analyst: Mark Greenhalgh)
Game 1
When: Saturday, February 7th, 3:00 p.m. Central
Watch/TV: Big Ten Network
Game 2
When: Sunday, February 8th, 2:00 p.m. CT
Watch/Streaming: Big Ten Plus
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