The entire season has been building up to this.
Since Ohio State women’s hockey suffered a 1-0 loss to Wisconsin in last year’s national championship game, the Buckeyes have set their sights on this year’s Frozen Four final for another shot at winning it all. Now that they’ve gotten there, they have a chance to directly avenge that loss when they play the Badgers again in the season’s final game on Sunday.
As the top two teams in the national rankings for much of the season, the Buckeyes and Badgers have been on a collision course toward a national championship game rematch for months. Ohio State won the first three meetings between the teams during the regular season, but Wisconsin has since between the Buckeyes twice, handing Ohio State a 4-2 loss in the regular-season finale and a 6-3 loss in the WCHA Final Faceoff championship game.
Ohio State shouldn’t need any extra motivation entering Sunday’s game with a national championship on the line. But the trophies the Badgers took from the Buckeyes in last year’s national championship game and this year’s conference tournament have only made Ohio State more hungry to not let that happen again this weekend in Durham, New Hampshire.
“Motivation will be how the last game was against them,” Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall said in a press conference Saturday. “And I think we showcased that soon after with a 9-0 win against Duluth (in the NCAA quarterfinals). But now you got two heavyweights punching at each other back and forth tomorrow, and it’s gonna be that kind of battle, and we’re ready for it.”
The results in Ohio State’s first three games of the season against Wisconsin are proof enough that the Buckeyes are capable of winning Sunday’s national championship game. Muzerall has expressed confidence in her team’s championship caliber all season, calling it the most skilled team she’s ever coached even though Ohio State won the national championship two years ago and she was an assistant coach for four national title teams at Minnesota.
Overall, Ohio State has lost just four of its 38 contests this season. The Buckeyes earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and won their second consecutive WCHA regular-season conference championship. With 14 different players who have tallied at least 23 points this season, Ohio State has unmatched depth that makes all four of its lines a threat to score all game long.
Knowing her team has all the physical skill it needs to win it all, Muzerall believes her team’s mental fortitude will be the key to bringing a trophy back to Columbus.
“At this point, it’s not a physical side of the thing,” Muzerall said. “It’s gonna be the mental side, and that’s where I hope we persevere with how many seniors that we have and have been at this stage before and the international stage. So we’re gonna rely heavily on our seniors.”
Ohio State has plenty of experience playing on this stage to lean on. The Buckeyes are now in the national championship game for the third year in a row and are playing in the Frozen Four for the fourth year in a row. Ohio State’s seniors who have been with the team since the 2020-21 season will be playing in their 11th NCAA Tournament game on Sunday.
Despite all of the success Ohio State has experienced in recent years, the Buckeyes will still enter Sunday’s game with a chip on their shoulder. Without getting into specifics, Muzerall said that her team has felt disrespected despite its No. 1 ranking. And with the national championship two years ago being Ohio State’s first-ever, the Buckeyes still feel like a bit of an underdog in comparison to Wisconsin, which has won seven national titles since 2006.
“We still have our motivation to get over that hump of just the once,” Muzerall said. “We don’t want to be that one-hit wonder. So we’ve definitely been to the championship game a couple times, but I think that still motivates them is to get over that hump and try to leave a legacy and grow the tradition at Ohio State.”
Showed up. Threw down.
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) March 23, 2024
Frozen Four semifinal vs. Clarkson#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/HHPrxJ9KNc
As good as Ohio State and Wisconsin (35-5 this season) have both been this year, the margin between victory and defeat could be slim. The big thing Muzerall is stressing to her players, though, is to make sure they don’t beat themselves.
“I just want to make sure we throw down, and that if it doesn’t come out our way that we don’t win, that at least we went down swinging,” Muzerall said. “We’re not gonna punch ourselves in the face like we did two weeks ago (in the WCHA Final Faceoff loss to Wisconsin). No disrespect to how Wisconsin played, but I think a lot of it was self-inflicted. And we have to control that. And that’s where I’m saying the mental side of the game is key.”
Muzerall coaches her team to play with swagger, to believe it is the best team in the country and to play like it is, and that approach has led to far more wins than losses for the scarlet and gray. As the Buckeyes enter their biggest game of the year, she doesn’t want them to approach it any differently.
“You can just talk to the players about that, and it’s gonna be there. It’s gonna be there for both teams. It’s just knowing in your head and in your heart that you’re ready,” Muzerall said of balancing the emotions of the national championship game. “You gotta just play. And it’s an important game, the most important game, but you gotta play the game the way you’ve been playing all year, and that’s the reason why you are where you are right now.”
“I just want to make sure we throw down, and that if it doesn’t come out our way that we don’t win, that at least we went down swinging.”– Nadine Muzerall on approach to national championship game
Sunday’s game begins at 4 p.m. at the Whittemore Center Arena and will be televised on ESPNU.
