Rastall Ramblings: Badgers Women’s Hockey Pull Off Greatest Feat Yet

If you’re a Wisconsin sports fan who agonizes over the frequency with which the teams you root for disappoint you in the postseason, there is a cure for what ails you: the Badgers women’s hockey team.

Earlier this month, the Badgers won their eighth national championship to cap off arguably the most successful season in the history of the NCAA’s most successful women’s hockey program.

But for all the accomplishments for Wisconsin over the years under legendary head coach Mark Johnson, what they pulled off in their latest national championship triumph might qualify as their most memorable moment.

A little background: the Badgers were squaring off against WCHA rival Ohio State in the national title game for a third straight year. In 2023, Wisconsin won 1-0. Last year, the Buckeyes answered with a 1-0 win of their own.

This season’s Badgers were the country’s best team all year long. Though Ohio State was the preseason No. 1 in the polls, Wisconsin leapfrogged the Buckeyes after the first week and never relinquished the No. 1 ranking the rest of the year.

The Badgers finished the regular season with a program-record 31 wins, won the WHCA regular season title and then won the WHCA conference tournament. Additionally, all three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award (given to the sport’s most outstanding player) were Badgers: Casey O’Brien (the winner), Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey.

After crushing Clarkson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and breezing past rival Minnesota in the Frozen Four, the Badgers were set up for a national championship rubber match with the Buckeyes. Going into that final game, Wisconsin was 2-1-1 this season against Ohio State and 35-0-1 against every other opponent.

It was actually Ohio State who was in control for much of the national championship game and leading 3-2 well into the third period. The Badgers looked like they might fall short as they failed to generate consistent offensive zone pressure as the final minutes were winding down, but they caught a massive break when the Buckeyes were assessed a penalty with 1:57 left in regulation for having too many players on the ice.

That power play turned into a 6-on-4 situation after Wisconsin pulled goaltender Ava McNaughton, and the Badgers had a flurry of excellent scoring chances that would not go, and the puck was frozen with 17 seconds left.

However, Edwards came over to the Wisconsin bench telling Johnson and the coaching staff to challenge that an Ohio State player who wasn’t the goalie had covered the puck in the crease, which would result in a penalty shot.

The Badgers did challenge and were successful, giving one of their players a pressure cooker of a penalty shot that could tie the game and force overtime. As the team huddled near the bench after the successful challenge, the ESPN cameras caught Mark Johnson clearly asking his team “who wants it?”

With encouragement from her teammates, the hand of Kirsten Simms eventually rose up and she was tasked with trying to score a season-saving penalty shot. Simms pulled off a deke that left OSU goaltender Amanda Thiele in a blender and scored to tie the game and send it to overtime.

Under three minutes into OT, it was Simms (who also scored the only goal in the 2023 title game) who scored off a rebound to give the Badgers championship number eight.

It was a storybook ending for an all-time team. They went into Ridder Arena (home of the Gophers) and pulled off a dramatic national title win before a partisan Badger crowd that made it seem like they were playing in Madison. 

Simms further solidified herself as a Wisconsin sports legend and public enemy number one for the Buckeyes women’s hockey program. Mark Johnson continued to add accolades to one of the great American hockey careers ever: from scoring two goals in the Miracle on Ice to becoming a highly decorated coach that likes to compare winning national titles to catching trophy walleye.

If you have even a passing interest in hockey and love Badgers sports, do yourself a favor and follow the women’s hockey team next season. You probably won’t have to wait too long to celebrate a national championship.