The true defense of last year’s national championship starts on Saturday when second-seeded Wisconsin hosts Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Quinnipiac, seeded seventh, shut out Franklin Pierce Thursday night to get its first taste of LaBahn.
It’s the first game for Wisconsin (32-4-2) since dropping the Final Faceoff title game against Ohio State. The Buckeyes were awarded the top seed in the NCAA Tournament following the win, marking the first time in the entire 2025-26 season
that the Badgers don’t have the number one next to their name.
There is some analytical merit to the madness, but still hard to justify the jump for Ohio State, which split the WCHA regular season and tournament championships with Wisconsin and went 1-2 against the Badgers when both teams were at full strength (2-3 overall). On the plus side, this is just the type of spark that ignites a locker room that’s treated the season like business as usual to this point. Another positive is avoiding the possibility of facing either Ohio State or Minnesota, the only two teams to beat Wisconsin this year, until the championship game.
The Badgers are 8-1-1 against Quinnipiac in the all-time series, last splitting a New Year’s series in the 2022-23 season. The Bobcats (29-8-3) are also 8-1-1 in their last ten games, taking down a couple of top ten teams in Princeton and Yale to claim the ECAC championship and the auto-bid.
Quinnipiac can score some goals. They average 3.41 per game, ranked seventh in the NCAA, and are led by the nation’s leading goal scorer in Kahlen Lamarche. With 22 assists to go along with 42 goals, Lamarche’s point total is tied for second with Abbey Murphy among the national leaders.
The Bobcats have only two other 10+ goal scorers, so their offense runs almost exclusively through Lamarche. Wisconsin has the unique ability to put Caroline Harvey on the ice, the world’s best defender and a Patty Kazmaier Award top-three finalist for the second straight year, which is a distinct advantage for the Badgers. Then you factor in the championship experience of players like Vivian Jungels, Ava Murphy, and Laney Potter, and the Badgers certainly have the tools to slow Quinnipiac down.
Wisconsin’s NCAA-leading offense will not be without its challenges. Bobcat goaltender Felicia Frank has been one of the best in the country this season. She surrenders just 1.48 goals per game, fifth in the country, while playing more minutes than anybody else by a hefty margin. Frank has yet to see anything like Wisconsin, but her pedigree says she’s more than willing to accept the challenge.
The challenge for Frank got a bit harder this week, as head coach Mark Johnson indicated Laila Edwards will return to playing forward full-time for Wisconsin. It’s a change that I think benefits the Badgers. Edwards always looks more comfortable when she can just go into attack mode, and it’s also when she’s at her most dangerous. Wisconsin struggled to create a ton of chances in its last game against Ohio State, something Johnson seems eager to correct going forward.
In the history of NCAA Tournament hockey at LaBahn Arena, the Badgers have never conceded more than one goal. Keeping that streak alive would seem to bode well for an offense averaging 5.26 goals per game. Should Wisconsin advance to the Frozen Four in Happy Valley, they would play either Penn State or UConn on Friday, while there is a decent chance Ohio State and Minnesota duke it out on the other side of the bracket.
But the first step for the Badgers is Saturday afternoon as do-or-die hockey is underway. Wisconsin needs to knock the taste of last week’s loss out of its mouth in a hurry, and the best recipe for that is a sold-out home game to kick off the NCAA Tournament. It’ll also mark a special afternoon as a special group of seniors plays their final game at LaBahn Arena. Badger fans are the best in the country, and they’re sure to send the ladies off with a bang.
Postgame Update
The Badgers were able to shut out Quinnipiac 6-0 on Saturday, scoring two goals in each period as Kelly Gorbatenko had a hat trick. Kirsten Simms also added a power-play goal, while Adila Sapovalivova and Lacey Eden each scored as well for the Badgers.
Wisconsin outshot Quinnipiac 51-17, while nine different players recorded assists in the win, as the Badgers finished off their final game at the LaBahn Arena this season.
Now, the Badgers are off to their fourth straight and 17th total Frozen Four, where they’ll take on the Penn State Nittany Lions next Friday.
