Reid Lemker from The Ice Garden here to wish you a happy Friday and happy NCAA tournament time! I was in St. Paul last weekend for the WCHA Final Faceoff, and I watched Ohio State win its third WCHA playoff title. The Buckeyes were impressive last weekend, and they’ll look to continue their momentum into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
A team with a plan
The Buckeyes are a hockey team with an identity. Last weekend, Ohio State shut out the University of Minnesota 4-0 in the semi-finals on Thursday evening before stifling the high-powered Wisconsin Badgers 2-1 in the final. Across the two games, Ohio State held the top two scoring teams in the nation to only one total goal.
“We like to play aggressively,” senior defender Emma Peschel told reporters after beating Wisconsin. “We like to stay up on them. We’re known for that. We’re known to be relentless, get on pucks, and move our feet.”
It’s a suffocating, aggressive style that takes away time and space from their opposition, but it’s more than just aggression. It’s also about control.
“We talk heavily about owning the blue lines and not making bad errors on the blue lines,” Head coach Nadine Muzerall told reporters after the championship game win over Wisconsin. “But our team, our bread and butter, has been our forcheck. We create a lot of turnovers down low.”
It’s a system and an identity that has brought Muzerall and Ohio State plenty of success in recent years. Muzerall arrived at Ohio State in 2016. Since then, she’s built the program into a national power. In the past five seasons, Ohio State has won two WCHA regular-season titles, participated in five Frozen Fours, and won two NCAA titles.
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Believing in the system
Nadine Muzerall deserves tons of credit for Ohio State’s transformation over the past 10 years, but so do her players. Game plans and systems need players to execute them, and at Ohio State, there’s no question about the players’ belief in the system they play.
“We have a game plan going into every game, and I think when our group sticks to that, and we don’t stray away from the game plan, we get results like we had tonight,” junior forward Jocelyn Amos told reporters after the win over Minnesota. “Just sticking to what we know and we do best keeps the game simple for us going into the games. We wanted to start strong and take it to them right in the first [period], and then continue that throughout the whole game. I think we did just that. We were hard on the forecheck, stuck to our systems, and it ended up working.”
In the championship game, Wisconsin took the lead in the third period, but the Buckeyes didn’t waver. “Yeah, I mean, we had been getting chances all game,” Peschel said. “We knew our goals were coming, but at the same time, we were just pushing, and we knew that we couldn’t give up. A 1-0 lead is nothing. You know you have to score to win.”
The buy-in isn’t lost on the head coach. “Yeah, I give them [her players] a lot of credit because we had a game plan and we did video and they stuck to it and they trusted it. Even though it can become frustrating when you’re dominating on shots and opportunities, and those good ones aren’t going in,” Muzerall said.
Focused on what’s ahead
With a WCHA championship now behind them, the focus shifts to the NCAA tournament. Though the venue will change, you can be sure that Ohio State’s game won’t.
“This time of year, especially, we want to be building momentum. Phase two is done now, we’re moving into phase three, and these [games] are really big for momentum playing in the [NCAA] tournament,” Peschel said. “We know our system at this point, we know how to play with each other, how to play well within the system, and we also know if we’re not playing well, we know how to reset. Building on shifts is the biggest thing.”
The Buckeyes enter the NCAA tournament as the number one seed, and they will take on Yale for a trip to the Frozen Four on Saturday, March 14.
They’re not overlooking anyone, but Ohio State is aware that another date with Wisconsin is looming on the horizon. “I’m looking at it as a two-game series,” Muzerall said after the win on Saturday. “This was the first one, obviously important, setting the tone, but we believe we’ll have an opportunity to see them again.”
More from the women’s hockey world:
Nicole’s NCAA Notebook: March 9, 2026
Three Hockey East players with rising stock for the PWHL Draft
The NCAA D3 Bracket: Surprise!
USA Hockey announces 2026 Patty Kazmaier Award finalists
Kaz Watch: Caroline Harvey Looking To Add More Hardware To Her Trophy Case
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