Wisconsin women's hockey blanks Ohio State to win its 7th national title

DULUTH, Minn. – Who’s got it better than Cami Kronish? Not many of us.

The University of Wisconsin senior lived a goalie’s dream Sunday afternoon, spinning a shutout in the women's hockey national championship game against the team that, based on the rankings all season, should have been hoisting the trophy.

Ohio State was the consensus No. 1 team in the nation all season, but when it counted most, the Badgers were better.

With Kronish serving as an impenetrable wall and freshman Kirsten Simms providing a first-period goal, Wisconsin scored a 1-0 victory over the defending national champion in front of a crowd of 3,940 at AMSOIL Arena.

Kronish, deservedly, was named the most outstanding player of the Frozen Four. She was joined on the all-tournament team by four teammates: Simms, senior Jesse Compher and freshmen Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey.

“This doesn’t feel like real life,” Kronish said.

Kronish, a first-year starter who began the season splitting time in the net, finished with 31 saves in the final. That included 16 during the first period when the Buckeyes had UW on its heels most of the time.

It is the sixth shutout in the 23-year history of the NCAA Tournament and the first since 2019, when Kronish watched former teammate Kristen Campbell shut out Minnesota.

“I’m trying to process what transpired in the last couple of hours,” UW coach Mark Johnson said. “I’m just real proud of this group from the standpoint that there were some challenges this season. There were some hurdles we had to get over collectively as a group. Individually it was the same situation. It was a challenge. It was difficult, but the last five or six weeks we figured some things out and became a tight group.”

In addition to breaking in a new goalie, UW (29-10-2) added 10 players who weren’t on the roster last season and had to overcome the loss one of its top defenseman, Natalie Buchbinder, to a leg injury on Jan. 22.

The beauty of what developed was on display in the tournament as the Badgers beat No. 3 seed Colgate in the regional final, No. 2 seed Minnesota in the national semifinal and the top seed Ohio State to their capture seventh national championship.

“That’s a tough task for anybody and we got to the finish line,” Johnson said.

Kirsten Simms' goal helps UW overcome a slow start

Part of finishing the job was finishing off Ohio State. The Buckeyes made a habit of beating the Badgers in painful ways this season. In the teams' first meeting OSU won in overtime and in the regular-season finale it scored three times during the final 5 minutes to post a 3-1 victory and clinch the WCHA title in Madison.

Sunday, however, Wisconsin grinded through a slow start in the first period before playing the Buckeyes even during the final two. And unlike the teams’ last meeting during the regular season, the Badgers were up to the challenge of closing out the win.

UW allowed just three shots during the final 5 minutes with the last 2 minutes coming with the Buckeyes playing with a pulled goalie.

“They’re a talented team. They’re real deep. We expected them to come out super strong,” Kronish said. “We knew they weren’t going to give up and we knew we just had to weather the storm.”