UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — In a fourth-straight national championship between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Wisconsin Badgers, featuring 10 Olympians and some of the best prospects in women’s hockey, it was an unheralded senior who sealed Wisconsin’s record ninth NCAA title on Sunday night.
After another tight contest between the powerhouse programs, Claire Enright, a fourth-line, penalty-killing specialist, scored just her ninth goal of the season, lifting the Badgers to a 3-2 victory and a second consecutive national championship.
“I don’t think a lot of (people) thought Claire Enright was going to get our game-winning goal,” said legendary Badgers coach Mark Johnson after the game. “But that’s how it happens. And that shows what type of team (we have).”
Wisconsin’s roster featured a generational talent in defender Caroline Harvey, who won Olympic MVP last month and the 2026 Patty Kazmaier Award on Saturday; a dual-position unicorn in Laila Edwards; and two of the program’s four 100-goal scorers in Kirsten Simms and Lacey Eden.
But on Sunday, it was second-line winger Kelly Gorbatenko who opened the scoring just 78 seconds into the game. Six minutes later, second pair defender Laney Potter scored to make it 2-0 on Wisconsin’s third shot of the game.
Ohio State, the top-ranked team in this year’s NCAA tournament, often pinned the Badgers in their own zone in the first period and matched Wisconsin’s shot totals through the first two periods (23-23). But Wisconsin starter Ava McNaughton — who won a gold medal as the No. 3 goalie for Team USA at the Olympics last month — was sharp, stopping all 23 shots she faced in the first 40 minutes.
After Wisconsin failed to score on a fourth power-play opportunity in the third period, Ohio State came alive, with freshman Kassidy Carmichael and Jocelyn Amos scoring in just over two minutes to tie the game 5:34 into the final period.
“We expected a back-and-forth battle between two talented teams,” said Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall. “My team came out and played with their heart and gave everything they got. I think it speaks a lot for their character when you’re down 2-0 and you punch back.”
After Enright scored, Ohio State made a final push, including in a scrum in front of McNaughton with one minute left in the game. There was so much chaos in the crease that Muzerall used a coach’s challenge to review for Wisconsin covering the puck in the crease; a similar scenario played out last year when the Badgers challenged that Ohio State covered the puck with 18.9 seconds remaining in the championship game.
That challenge was successful, with Simms scoring on a game-tying penalty shot then again in overtime to win the 2025 championship, stunning the Buckeyes. Muzerall’s challenge wasn’t as successful, as the Badgers won yet again.
“We did enough to get to the finish line,” said Johnson. “We’re excited to bring the trophy back to Madison.”
Wisconsin goaltender Ava McNaughton was named the women’s Frozen Four’s Most Outstanding Player. (Mark Stewart / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Imagn Images)
McNaughton, who made 34 saves in the win, was named the women’s Frozen Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Harvey, Edwards and Simms were named to the all-tournament team.
Sunday night’s game was the fourth consecutive national championship between Ohio State and Wisconsin, which has become one of the premier rivalries in college hockey.
Since women’s hockey became an NCAA championship sport, only Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth, and the University of Minnesota and Harvard have faced each other in consecutive finals. No two other teams — men’s or women’s — have ever done it four times.
“It may not happen again where two teams face each other four years in a row trying to hoist the trophy,” Johnson said on Saturday.
The Badgers — a longtime dynasty program — have now won five of the last seven NCAA championships dating back to 2019. The generational trio of Simms, Harvey and Edwards — who all started at Wisconsin in 2022-23 — capped their senior seasons with a third championship in just four years. Eden, who had extra eligibility due to COVID-19 and also won in 2021, became the first player in NCAA women’s hockey history to win four national championships.
Eden was among the final cuts for the American Olympic team and led the Badgers in scoring with 17 points in eight games while the team’s five Olympians — Harvey, Edwards, Simms, McNaughton and Czech forward Adela Šapovalivová — were away. After Sunday’s game, Johnson told Eden, “Without your commitment in February, we’re not here.”
“She took the team on her back and got us to the finish line,” he said. “She’s done something special, even though something hurt not too long ago. … I’m so happy for her because I’ve seen the work she’s put in.”
Harvey, Edwards, Simms and McNaughton won Olympic gold with Team USA in Milan and an NCAA championship just 31 days apart.
The Buckeyes, meanwhile, have been to five straight national championship games under Muzerall, who took over a perennial .500 program in 2016-17 and turned it into a national powerhouse.
“When I started at Ohio State, (we weren’t) anyone’s rival,” said Muzerall. “We were the type of team you would come in and get six points, win two games and get out of Columbus.”
Ohio State will lose some top players this season, such as defenders Emma Peschel and Sara Swiderski, but the future is still bright for the team with Olympic gold medalist Joy Dunne, Amos and freshman Hilda Svensson, who each have eligibility remaining.
The Badgers, meanwhile, will take a massive hit with Harvey, Simms, Edwards and Eden all moving on to the Professional Women’s Hockey League — all five players are locks to be taken in the first round.
Still, McNaughton, Gorbatenko, Potter and top-line center Cassie Hall are still juniors. Czech Olympian Šapovalivová, who set up the opening goal, is a freshman.
“We have so much depth on this team, and we have so much talent that maybe didn’t quite get as many minutes as they would have gotten somewhere else, but their time is coming,” said McNaughton. “I’m excited to see what our group has next year because it’s hopefully only up from here.”
The Badgers will also reload with what Johnson called “one of our most skilled groups” of recruits led by Slovakian teen phenom Nela Lopušanová next season.
She’s Wisconsin’s next superstar. It’s a fair bet that someone else will step up to provide the kind of quality depth that helped seal the deal on Sunday.