Twice as nice: Badgers complete title defense with championship victory over OhioState
The Badgers did it again, repeating as champions with another memorable win.
Wisconsin Badgers goaltender Ava McNaughton warms up at center ice before an NCAA womens' Frozen Four semfinal against the Minnesota Gophers on Friday, March 21, 2025, at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota. | Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The most successful program on campus did it again, toppling the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday with a 3-2 win to claim the Wisconsin Badgers ninth national championship in women’s hockey. It marked the fourth consecutive year the Badgers met the Buckeyes in the title game, with Wisconsin now claiming victory in three of the four meetings.
ON CLOUD NINE pic. twitter. com/kkb4Gc50PO — Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) March 22, 2026 Ohio State came out and controlled the game for most of the opening period, but it was the Badgers who carried a two-goal lead into the break, thanks in large part to Kelly Gorbatenko and Adéla Šapovalivová.
Wisconsin struck first just 1:18 into the game when Šapovalivová fired a shot from the point that deflected off Gorbatenko’s stick and past Ohio State goaltender Hailey MacLeod. The early goal seemed to cause some urgency for Ohio State, which consistently swarmed the Wisconsin net and played almost exclusively in the offensive zone. The Badgers were struggling to clear the puck and find their outlet passes against the Buckeyes’ forecheck, and it seemed Ohio State was destined to find an equalizer.
Instead, Gorbatenko made an incredible hustle play on a puck that looked like it might go for icing—or at the very least an easy change of possession for Ohio State behind their own goal line. Gorbatenko raced down the ice past Buckeye defenders to keep the puck alive behind the net, where Šapovalivová joined her in the scrum and tapped it back to Gorbatenko. There, she set up Laney Potter for a one-timer that snuck between MacLeod’s skate and the goalpost to give Wisconsin a two-goal lead that would hold into the third period.
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