After a 2-1 loss in Friday’s series opener, things turned from bad to worse for Wisconsin women’s hockey Saturday afternoon in Columbus. What, for 40 minutes, appeared to be a back-and-forth tilt between the two top-ranked teams in the country turned lopsided in the final 20 minutes as the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers (4-2-0, 0-2-0 WCHA) fell 5-3 to the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes.
Although UW faltered down the stretch in Friday’s series opener, it took an immediate lead just 34 seconds into the series finale, courtesy of the nation’s leading goal-scorer Cassie Hall.
Three first-period goals by Ohio State put the Buckeyes on top. The Badgers managed to battle back to a 3-3 tie, even outshooting OSU 12-5 in the second period (the only period all weekend UW came out ahead in shots-on-goal).
But, things turned sour in the third, putting Wisconsin in an unfamiliar 0-2 hole in conference play.
Wisconsin women’s hockey outplayed in 3rd
Despite Wisconsin coming hot out the gates and battling back in the second period, Ohio State, much like it did on Friday, controlled possession and pace of play throughout the third period. The Buckeyes also took advantage of uncharacteristic mistakes by the Badgers.
OSU retook the lead just ten seconds into the final frame. An apparent miscommunication by UW defenders Laney Potter and Emma Cerruti left both Buckeyes forwards Joy Dunne collecting a loose puck behind the net and Hilda Svensson in front of the net all alone.
With goaltender Ava McNaughton on an island against two Olympians, Ohio State retook the lead and did not give it back.
Mistakes continued to plague the Badgers. Nearly midway through the period, Wisconsin lined up for a faceoff with only four players, prompting a timeout called by Mark Johnson. The miscue occurred after an icing call and a long shift, so perhaps the timeout was planned, but the visual was odd.
That moment was not, however, the last time Wisconsin would be caught with too few skaters on the ice. Amidst a comeback bid with McNaughton pulled in favor of the extra attacker, UW wound up with only five skaters for roughly ten seconds after Nela Lopušanová went off the ice and nobody else came off the bench.
With its short bench, perhaps the Badgers were facing some mental fatigue along with physical fatigue as time wound down on their sixth period of the weekend against another one of college hockey’s premier programs. Wisconsin carried a lead into the third period on Friday and was tied at the end of two period on Saturday, but Ohio State was simply the better team through 60 minutes in both games.
OSU outshot UW by a combined total of 36-9 across third periods this weekend.
Rare winless WCHA start
The pair of losses put Wisconsin in unfamiliar territory. The most-remarkable graduating class in program history led the Badgers to just five combined losses over the last two seasons combined. Much like UW was shorthanded this weekend due to national team commitments, two of those five losses came during the 2026 Winter Olympics when Wisconsin was without a handful of its best players.
The Badgers have not taken consecutive losses since December 2023, when UW lost to the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs to close one weekend and dropped the following weekend’s series opener to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The last time any opponent had swept UW before this weekend was just before that Duluth series in November 2023. Ohio State earned a two-game sweep of Wisconsin in Columbus. That season eventually concluded with the Buckeyes winning the national title with a 1-0 win over the Badgers.
This is only the third time in program history that Wisconsin women’s hockey is 0-2 in WCHA play, and only the second time since UW’s inaugural 1999-00 season. Minnesota handed Wisconsin a pair of losses to begin the Badgers’ conference slate in 2003-04.
Krissy Wendell was a sophomore on that Gophers team. Her daughter is committed to joining the Wisconsin Badgers next fall.
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