OSU, Wisconsin to Meet Again for NCAA Women's Hockey Title

For the third year in a row, the NCAA Division I women's ice hockey national title game will pit Ohio State against Wisconsin.

Defending national champion and second-ranked OSU advanced to Sunday's title game (3 p.m., ET, ESPNU) with a 4-2 win over Cornell today in the first NCAA semifinal at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Joy Dunne scored the only two goals of the third period for the Buckeyes, who also got a goal and two assists from Makenna Webster. 

No. 1 Wisconsin (37-1-2 overall) punched its ticket to Sunday with a 6-2 victory over host Minnesota in tonight's nightcap. Laila Edwards scored three goals for the Badgers, while Caroline Harvey tallied one goal and set up three others. Both Edwards and Harvey, along with teammate Casey O'Brien, are finalists for the 2025 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation's top women's player, with the winner to be announced tomorrow (NHL Network, 12:30 p.m. ET).

OSU (29-7-3) advanced to this year's Frozen Four by routing St. Lawrence in the quarterfinal round, while Wisconsin bested Clarkson. The Badgers also won this year's WCHA tournament, while the Buckeyes were eliminated by Minnesota in the conference semifinals. Wisconsin won this year's head-to-head WCHA regular-season series with OSU with two wins, one loss and one tie (shootout win by OSU).

The Buckeyes beat the Badgers in last year's national title game in Durham, N.H, while Wisconsin edged OSU in the 2023 championship in Duluth, Minn., with both games decided by 1-0 scores. OSU is seeking its third national title ever, and third in four years, while Wisconsin is vying for a record eighth NCAA crown overall, and fourth in the last six seasons.

Fontaine, OSU Advance to Big Ten Title Game

Gunnarwolfe Fontaine shot Ohio State University into the 2025 Big Ten championship game.

The Rhode Island native scored just under 15 minutes into overtime last night at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio to lift third-seeded OSU to a 4-3 victory over visiting fifth-seeded Penn State University. The Buckeyes will now face defending champion Michigan State next Saturday night for at Munn Arena for the league crown and the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. Top-seeded MSU outlasted seventh-seeded Notre Dame, 1-0, in East Lansing, Mich. yesterday,

Fontaine opened the scoring in Columbus on a first-period deflection, and the two teams then traded goals over the next 40 minutes, with Penn State's Matt DiMarsico connecting with just under six minutes remaining in regulation to force the extra session. Logan Terness made 31 saves in net for tenth-ranked OSU (24-12-2 overall), while Arsenii Sergeev finished with 38 stops for No. 11 Penn State (20-13-4), which lost for the only the second time since Feb. 1. 

Fontaine, who spent the first four years of his college career at Northeastern, now leads OSU with 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points through 38 games. He kept OSU's season alive in the Big Ten quarterfinals by scoring the game-tying goal late in Game Two against Wisconsin, after the Badgers had won the first game, and the Buckeyes went on to win the series in three games. In 169 career NCAA outings, he now has 48-88—136 points overall, including 13 power-play goals and eight game-winners.

Even without the automatic conference bid, both OSU and Penn State are likely to qualify for the 16-team NCAAs according to the Pairwise Rankings.

Princeton Sweeps No. 12 Ohio State

Princeton played the part of rude host over Thanksgiving weekend, sweeping 12th ranked Ohio State this weekend with a pair of 3-1 victories at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. It was the first time the Tigers had ever defeated the Buckeyes, after dropping the first six NCAA men's hockey meetings all-time dating back to 1971.

On Friday night, Jake Manfre scored two goals for the Tigers, who also received 29 saves in net from Arthur Smith. On Saturday afternoon, Princeton got goals from three different skaters, including a shorthanded marker by Brendan Gorman, as all the scoring occurred in the third period. Smith made 37 stops and was just under seven minutes away from a shutout before Joe Dunlap scored his second of two goals on the weekend for OSU.

Both schools will return to conference play next weekend. Princeton (3-4-1 overall) will host Union and Rensselaer in ECAC Hockey action, while OSU will entertain Penn State (9-4-1) for a pair of Big Ten contests.

MSU's Jagger Joshua Issues Statement

Jagger Joshua (above) is the younger brother of Dakota Joshua, who helped Ohio State to the 2018 NCAA Frozen Four and is now with the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. 

The player from Ohio State who received the game misconduct penalty was Kamil Sadlocha. He has not missed any games since the incident took place. OSU and the Big Ten did not issue any supplemental discipline afterwards.

MSU will play at OSU on Jan. 6-7 in a Big Ten series.

It's hard to believe in this day and age, less than two months from the year 2023, that incidents like this still persist. There's no place for this type of action in hockey, NCAA or otherwise.

ADDENDUM: Sadlocha is currently not playing or practicing with the Buckeyes.

OSU Wins First NCAA Women's Hockey Title

Ohio State University is at last national champions.

The OSU women's team, which began play in 1999-2000, earned its first-ever NCAA title today with a 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth at Penn State's Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pa., in a battle of Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) schools.

The top-ranked Buckeyes (32-6-0 overall) took leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but UMD (27-12-1) came back each time to tie the contest. A score by Quinnipiac transfer Kenzie Hauswirth with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation stood up as the game-winning goal, bolstered by 17 saves from OSU netminder Amanda Thiele.  Paetyn Levis, who tallied an assist to go along with her game-opening power-play goal, was named Most Outstanding Player of this year's Frozen Four.

Emma Soderberg finished with 36 stops for the Bulldogs, who were seeking their sixth NCAA crown all-time despite being outshot, 39-19, on the afternoon. UMD won its last national title in 2010. 

OSU, which has made the last three NCAA tournaments, previously advanced to the Frozen Four in both 2018 and 2021, all under current head coach Nadine Muzerall. The Buckeyes finished this season on a 10-game winning streak, and won 30 or more games in a single campaign for the first time in the program's 23-year history.

Ohio State, Michigan Off to 2018 Frozen Four

The 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Frozen Four picture is now complete.

Ohio State advanced to its first Frozen Four in 20 years with a 5-1 victory over defending national champion Denver on Sunday in the title game of the NCAA Midwest Regional in Allentown, Pa. The Buckeyes got two goals from Kevin Miller, and 30 saves from Regional Most Outstanding Player Sean Romeo.

Michigan punched its ticket to its first Frozen Four since 2011 with a 6-3 win over Boston University on Sunday in the NCAA Northeast Regional final in Worcester, Mass. The Wolverines broke a 3-3 tie with three unanswered third-period goals, led by Jake Slaker's game-winning tally in the seventh minute of the final frame.

The Buckeyes and Wolverines will join fellow Big Ten Conference member Notre Dame at the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn. next month. along with Minnesota-Duluth of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). OSU and UMD will face off in the early semifinal on April 5 (6 p.m. ET, ESPN2), while Michigan will meet Notre Dame in the nightcap (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The two winners will then advance to the national title game on April 7 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

Cornell, Ohio State to Meet Tonight for Florida Classic Crown

Providence and Boston College were the No. 1 and No. 4 ranked teams, respectively, in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey through Christmas.

They won't be following Monday's results in Estero, Fla.

The Friars, last year's national champions, lost for the first time in 19 games with a 2-1 overtime setback to No. 9 Cornell in the first round of the 2015 Florida College Hockey Classic. Jeff Kubiak connected just under three minutes into sudden death for the Big Red to hand Providence its first loss since mid-March.

In the nightcap at Germain Arena, BC squandered an early 2-0 lead en route to a 3-2 loss to unranked Ohio State, which had won just three times in all this season entering the tournament. John Wiitala's goal seven-and-a-half minutes into the third period stood up as the game-winner for the Buckeyes, who were outshot, 32-19, by the Eagles. BC's Miles Wood is suspended for today's game after incurring a checking from behind penalty and game disqualification in the final five seconds of regulation.

BC and Providence will meet in today's consolation contest at 4:05 p.m. ET, followed by the title tilt between Cornell and OSU at 7:05 p.m. ET. Cornell has participated in every Classic since the event began in 2000, and has claimed the tournament title four times (2003, 2005, 2008, 2013). The Buckeyes are seeking their first-ever Classic crown after previously finishing third in 2001 and 2002, where they bested the Big Red in the consolation game both of those years.

ADDENDUM: Providence edged BC, 2-1, in the consolation, while OSU bombed Cornell, 8-0, to win the title going away.

Ohio State - Over and Out

How fast the mighty fall. On Nov. 20, the Ohio State Buckeyes were 10-3-1 overall, coming off a road sweep of Michigan, and ranked first in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Fast forward to March 4, and OSU is 15-15-5 and done for the season.

The 2011-12 campaign came to a close with two losses (2-0, 4-2) in the first round of the CCHA Tournament this weekend at Notre Dame. A 1-11-4 mark down the stretch was largely responsible for the Buckeyes tumble down both the league standings (9th) and the Pairwise Rankings (21st).

Next year's comeback won't include senior goaltender Cal Heeter, who ended his career third in Buckeye history in both goals-against average (2.58) and save percentage (.915), according to ohiostatebuckeyes.com. In four years in Columbus, the St. Louis native went 39-36-11 with 2,428 saves and five shutouts, and was also the goalie of record for all but six OSU decisions these past two seasons. As a freshman, Heeter helped the Buckeyes to their most recent NCAA Tournament berth, where they lost to eventual national champion Boston University in 2009 in regional play.

The Buckeyes were 14-4-1 this season following a 4-2 win over Robert Morris on Dec. 30 in the annual Pittsburgh College Hockey Showcase, but it all went sour following a pair of ties/shootout defeats at Bowling Green in early January. The lone victory in OSU's season-ending 16-game fall came at Western Michigan on Feb. 11, a 4-3 overtime decision.

It's the second year in a row that the Buckeyes have finished with 15 total wins under head coach Mark Osiecki, who went 15-18-4 in his first season at the helm in 2010-11.