Badgers Claim WCHA Title Doubling Up Buckeyes

The University of Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey team captured the tenth WCHA championship in program history.

For the tenth time in University of Wisconsin women's hockey history, the Wisconsin Badgers won the WCHA Final Faceoff championship doubling up their rival, and top ranked team in the nation, the Ohio State Buckeyes 6-3.

Laila Edwards and Casey O'Brien paced the Badgers each scoring a pair of goals and adding two assists to finish with four points each in the win.

“Our whole team has really been firing on all cylinders," said Edwards following the win. "When everyone’s doing well, it helps out with production and things like that. I owe it to all the people around me and their hard work and just doing the right things.”

For senior Casey O'Brien, it was another important victory in a series against Ohio State that has gone back and forth throughout her career, including in last year's national championship game, which was won by Wisconsin, while Ohio State won the year prior.

"The last time we beat them was a little closer, so I think today we took a bigger step up and everybody was playing well, everybody was connecting," said O'Brien. "It was kind of the peak of our performance so far this year, now is the best time to do it and I think we’re only going to get better as we go on.” 

Kirsten Simms, the WCHA player of the year, and Badgers captain Britta Curl also scored in the win.

Rookie Ava McNaughton stopped 30 shots in the win.

“We’re really excited about the way the game went today knowing the challenges that our league presents each game, it’s a tough trophy to win," said head coach Mark Johnson. "As I told the team, they were prepared well for the game today and we have an opportunity and we took advantage of that opportunity. It’ll be a nice bus ride home tonight.”

Scoring for Ohio State was Hannah Bilka, who scored a pair, and Jocelyn Amos.