Wisconsin beats Ohio State to win NCAA Womens Hockey National Championship

Mark Johnson looked from the bank and said: Who wants it?

With 18.9 seconds left on the clock and the Wisconsin Badgers off a goal, his players looked at Kirsten Simms to make the penalty shot. Her hand shot up.

I can't really say that it was initially my choice. I shout everyone on the couch, Simms! SIMMS! SIMMS! So I had something like that, the coach will have to see my hand rise to actually go, Simms Postgame said. I actually have to thank all my teammates for that, because I was super nervous and in that moment and they all just calmed me down.

Simms took it and scored and tied the game.

Kirsten Simms connects the national championship game with 18.9 seconds

Overtime on Espnu now pic.twitter.com/jwxx3lx4et

ESPN (@ESPN) March 23, 2025

Minutes after the overtime that followed, she scored again to win it.

The badgers bring it home wet! @Simmsy0427 Scores the OT winner for the badgers!#Wfrozenfour X ESPNU / @Badgerwhockey pic.twitter.com/z9kysughom

NCAA ICE HOCKEY (@NCaaice hockey) March 23, 2025

With her second goal, the badgers won their record eighth national championship in a Come-From-Behind 4-3 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday.

When it was over, Simms was named the most excellent player of the ladies.

In the game a rematch of the championship matches of 2023 and 2024 ensured that the two highest scoring teams in the country have been the best -scoring championship match since 2014.

It is also the third consecutive year that the champion competition was determined with only one goal.

The Buckeyes were the only team in the country that defeated the no. 1-set ties in regulations throughout the season. They did this almost a second time, if not for the late heroic deeds of Simms, who scored the goal of the penalty shot after a coaching challenge for covering the puck in the fold.

The match started with Buckeyes-star second-year Joy Dunne who opened the score (to cover her season with a 10-game target treak) with an end-to-end short-handed goal. Badgers -ster Junior Laila Edwards (Dunnes Teammate with Team USA in the upcoming World Championships Womens) answered only 12 seconds later to bind the score on the Power Play.

The teams of two Galen-TOT-12-second Flurry were the second fastest in frozen four history.

The joy of Ohio State Dunne and Laila Edwards of Wisconsin with Highlight Reel goals 20 seconds apart in the FF championship for women pic.twitter.com/iemytbeajp

CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 23, 2025

In the first period, OSU Junior Sloane Matthews, the Buckeyes gave the benefit again, followed by a goal of early seconds of junior defender Emma Peschel to the lead to 3-1.

But Badgers Junior defender Caroline Harvey is one of the best players in the world, whose 4-point game in the semi-final of Frozen Fours Wisconsin back to the title game led to the lead on 3-2 to set the table for Simm's Late Heldhaftics.

Until the dying seconds it seemed that the Buckeyes would hold, come up with a number of large blocks and almost a penalty kill with 1:50, but the top poolers scored three unanswered to complete the historical comeback.

Badgers -goalkeeper Ava McNaughton made 20 Saves.

Despite the loss, the second place marked the Buckeyes fourth consecutive year in the national champion match under head coach Nadine Muzerall, who took over a multi-year-old .500 program in 2016-17 and made it a destination for players looking for success after the season.

It's so emotional, Muzzerall said. It is not just about the loss, it is about the time you no longer have in the dressing room with the girls, or the coaching staff, or the staff with whom you have built a family. There is a bright future in all, but your experience and your relationships with your players are your family and that is what hurts most is losing those relationships.

On the other hand, the championship was the highlight of a dominant season through the badgers; With the best attack in the country (more than five goals per match), the best defense (slightly more than one goal against per match) and the best special teams. The badgers also had the National Coach of the Year (Mark Johnson), goalie of the year (McNaughton), Patty Kazmaier Award winner (Casey Obrien) and all three finalists (Edwards and Harvey).

All eight national championships of Wisconsins have been won under Johnson, the winning coach in Division I Womens Hockey History.

On Sunday, Wisconsins marked 12th performance in the national championship game, and most of the core group will be back next season.

The badgers will lose senior captain Casey Obrien that broke a record of Wisconsins this season, but the team is still young with stars such as Harvey, Edwards and Simms, each eligible. McNaughton, who ended the year with a record of 36-1-2, is also only a 20-year-old second-year student.

You have to persist and that is what our team did today, Johnson said about the victory and his group, his national chapter hat on his head. Sometimes you get tired and don't work out, but you still have to keep fighting, and that's what they have done all year round.

(Photo: Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)