Badgers Win 2025 Women's Hockey NCAA Title

Kirsten Simms scored on a penalty shot with 18.2 seconds remaining in regulation, then converted a rebound less than three minutes into overtime to lift top-ranked Wisconsin to a 4-3 victory over No. 2 Ohio State in the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Hockey national championship game at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. 

It is the eighth national title all-time for the Badgers, the most-ever in women's college hockey history, and their second in three seasons. It was also the eighth national title for head coach and former NHL forward/1980 U.S. Olympic hero Mark Johnson, who now has 667 career wins, all at his alma mater.

Simms finished with two goals and an assist on the afternoon, and scored the tying goal after Wisconsin was awarded a penalty shot after an official video review determined that an OSU player had covered a loose puck in the Buckeye crease with a glove. She then put home the rebound of a Lacey Eden shot just 2:49 into the extra session to end it.

Eden recorded two assists for Wisconsin (38-1-2 overall), which overcame a 3-1 deficit early in the second period, while Laila Edwards had a goal and an assist for the Badgers, who also won both the WCHA regular-season and tournament titles. Joy Dunne, who notched the game-winning goal for OSU (29-8-1) in last year's national title game, opened today's scoring with a shorthanded goal in the first nine minutes of regulation. Amanda Thiele finished with 31 saves in net for the Buckeyes, while Ava McNaughton made 20 stops for the Badgers.

It was the third straight season that OSU and Wisconsin, the top two teams in the NCAA and WCHA, had met for the national title. Wisconsin won in 2023, and OSU in 2024, both by 1-0 scores. The Buckeyes were seeking their third NCAA title in school history. The 2026 women's Division I Frozen Four will be played at Penn State's  Pegula Ice Arena in State College, Pa.

Wisconsin Wins 2023 NCAA Women's Hockey National Title

A first-period goal by Kirsten Simms stood up as the game-winner on Sunday as the University of Wisconsin claimed its record seventh NCAA Division I women's ice hockey national title with a 1-0 victory over defending champion Ohio State University.

Simms' wrist shot high to the stick side 13:28 into the contest, assisted by Claire Enright, was all the scoring the Badgers needed before 3.940 on-lookers at Amsoil Arena in Duluth, Minn. Wisconsin goaltender Cami Kronish made 31 saves for the shutout, earning her Most Outstanding Player accolades for the 2023 NCAA Frozen Four. Amanda Thiele made 21 stops for the Buckeyes, who won their first-ever NCAA title last season and were seeking to become the first repeat national champion since Clarkson in 2017-2018.

The title marked Wisconsin's seventh national championship overall, breaking a tie with another WCHA rival in Minnesota, whom the Badgers bested in overtime in this year's national semifinals on St. Patrick's Day. All seven crowns have come under the tutelage of head coach Mark Johnson, a Wisconsin alumnus, 1980 U.S. Olympic gold medalist, and retired NHL player. Wisconsin also has three national titles in the last four seasons, winning in 2019 and 2021, while the 2020 championship was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.