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.
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.
The Buckeyes are too good to go down without a fight. Much like the WCHA title game, Ohio State brought the pressure in the third period. Kassidy Carmichael and Jocelyn Amos scored two minutes apart to open the third to draw even. Over the next few minutes, the Badgers tilted the ice looking for the go-ahead goal, but MacLeod stood firm.
Finally, in a moment that embodies the 2025-26 Wisconsin season and the contributions needed from everybody throughout the year, it was the fourth line that stepped up when it mattered most.
Wisconsin gained control of an offensive zone faceoff from the left circle and moved the puck around the board before Caroline Harvey slid the puck to Marianne Picard near the right circle, who then tapped it along to Claire Enright making a hard push toward the net along the goal line. Some shifty stick work allowed Enright to move the puck to her forehand and beat MacLeod over her right shoulder for the game- winning goal.
Both Picard and Enright faced difficult decisions about the possibility of medical retirement. Picard sustained a second knee injury earlier this season that was thankfully not as bad as it looked, allowing her to rejoin the team after a short absence, while Enright struggled with the decision during a two-year recovery from a knee injury suffered in her sophomore year. It was only fitting that two workhorses who continue to do the intangibles connected on the most important goal of the season.
Enright played some great minutes on Sunday, seeming to always be around the action before netting the second game-winning goal of her career. Picard’s contributions throughout her career haven’t always translated to points for the fifth-year senior, but her acumen in the faceoff circle has directly contributed to countless set plays that resulted in Wisconsin goals, so it should come as no surprise that it was a Marianne Picard faceoff win that led to the program’s ninth national championship.
Ava McNaughton was stellar in the championship game with 34 saves, including some highway robbery against Joy Dunne with a remarkable glove save late in the first to keep Ohio State off the board. McNaughton’s efforts against the Buckeye onslaught in the first two periods are why we’re sitting here today talking about a championship hockey team, and she was rewarded by being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding
Player.
The win caps off an incredible stretch for Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards, and Ava McNaughton, who capped off the college season with a national championship just 31 days after claiming a gold medal with Team USA in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
While the Olympic gold and national title double dip is more than enough recognition for a mere mortal, Caroline Harvey is anything but. The senior captain was also named Olympic MVP last month, and on Saturday took home the highest individual award in women’s collegiate hockey when she won the 2026 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the top player in the game. Wisconsin not only went back-to-back with the championship win, but Harvey also completed back-to-back Patty Kazmaier Memorial Awards for the program following Casey O’Brien’s win in 2025.
Fifth-year senior Lacey Eden capped off a remarkable career with her fourth national championship, the only player in women’s college hockey history to make that claim. She earned a share of the captaincy during the Olympics, when she was left off Team USA and went scorched earth on everyone in the WCHA to lead the NCAA in points this season. She became the fourth Badger with 100 career goals to her name earlier this year and became the heart and soul of this team in the second half of the season.
Senior Kirsten Simms has her very own highlight reel of game-winning goals in big games, finishing her career with three national championships that include a late penalty shot to tie the game and a game-winning overtime goal last year. Simms joined Eden and became the fifth Badger with 100 career goals when she netted the overtime winner against Penn State on Friday night to advance to the championship game.
With the 2025-26 season complete, Badger fans unfortunately have to reconcile with the loss of one of the program’s most impactful groups of seniors. Players like Harvey, Eden, Edwards, and Simms are expected to be top PWHL draft picks this year. Their contributions are evident, but players like Vivian Jungels, Claire Enright, and Marianne Picard have bought in for years and meant so much to the culture that makes Wisconsin women’s hockey the premier program in the country.
The culture doesn’t go anywhere, though. The Class of 2026 joined a powerhouse program and left their mark, and now the next class will have a chance to take the reins and continue to build on the strongest foundation of any program in Madison. We’ll have plenty of time to get into what next year’s roster looks like. For now, and I’m sure the players would agree, it’s time to celebrate number nine!
