MINNEAPOLIS — The no. 2 ranked Wisconsin Badgers won their 10th WCHA Conference Tournament Championship Saturday afternoon with a decisive 6-1 victory over no. 1 Ohio State.
After Friday’s WCHA semifinal win, Wisconsin knew they’d be facing Ohio State for the championship and forward Lacey Eden said the Badgers “want it real bad.” They went out and proved it in the title game.
Casey O’Brien said after Wisconsin’s win over Ohio State to end the regular season that her team needed the confidence boost it gave them. Saturday’s win let the Badgers know that win wasn’t a one off.
“Everybody was playing well. Everybody was connecting. I think it was kind of the peak of our performance so far this year, and it was the best time to do it. And I think we’re only going to get better as we go on,” she said.
The teams played back and forth for the opening minutes, but the Badgers got a break just under seven minutes in as Kirsten Simms took a feed from O’Brien and was in alone on OSU goalie Raygan Kirk. The Badgers’ confidence and momentum grew from there and Laila Edwards sniped a shot to the back of the net a few minutes later to extend the lead to 2-0 before the midpoint of the first.
It was the exact start Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson wanted from his team, especially considering they played into overtime in the later semifinal while Ohio State was done earlier in the day.
“It’s nice for the coaches to see that but more importantly, the players understand that when they’re connected and they’re doing things the right way, they can be pretty good. They saw that themselves today and then it’s just a matter of can we be consistent in what we’re trying to do you know, from period to period,” Johnson said.
The Buckeyes pushed back to open the second as Joceyln Amos used her strength to cut towards the net in front of her defender and make it a 2-1 game. But Wisconsin had answers. Four minutes later, Edwards scored again, this time on a wrister through traffic on the power play to extend the lead to 3-1. O’Brien added to her already impressive weekend by scoring from the slot to make it a 4-1 game two minutes after that. She led the Badgers with a goal and an assist in the team’s semifinal win and added two goals and two assists in the championship game. Britta Curl’s shorthanded breakaway in the waning minutes of the second pushed the lead to 5-1.
Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall was concerned with the mistakes her team made.
“We made some errors that we shouldn’t have. They didn’t change things and neither did we. We just made some mental errors. We had to make some key saves and we did not. We needed to make some key plays and we did not. And they are going to capitalize on that because they’re a good team,” she said.
O’Brien’s second came on the power play early in the third as her shot through traffic slid through Kirk’s legs.
Ohio State pushed back in the third as Hannah Bilka scored two beautiful goals, first on a tight angle over Ava McNaughton’s shoulder and then on a pretty passing play and cross-ice feed from Makenna Webster.
Buckeye assistant captain Lauren Bernard said the team struggled with Wisconsin’s pressure.
“We weren’t as composed as we were in yesterday’s game. We kept forcing pucks up the wall when that’s where they wanted us to go. That was a big problem for us. We fed right into it,” she said.
Wisconsin earns the WCHA’s autobid to the NCAA Tournament, but it is likely that Ohio State will be the no. 1 overall seed based on their Pairwise total for the year. Wisconsin will likely be no. 2.
For one of these two teams to win a National Championship, they’ll likely meet again. Badger Johnson knows that this loss will motivate the Buckeyes. And he’s right – the first thing Muzerall said in her post-game availability is that she hopes this loss pisses her team off and drives them.
Teams will await the tournament Selection Show on Sunday at 12 pm eastern to learn their fates. The show streams free online and will be broadcast on ESPNews.
(This story will be updated.)
