2025 NCAA Women’s Frozen Four Preview: Cornell, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin vie for national championship

After months of hard work and extensive pursuit, only four teams remain in the 2025 NCAA Women’s D-I Hockey Tournament.

The Women’s Frozen Four is filled with WCHA rivals, as the Wisconsin Badgers and Ohio State Buckeyes—the two programs that have met in each of the past two national championship games—arrive in Minneapolis with the host Minnesota Golden Gophers. Also, an ECAC power, the Cornell Big Red, hopes to end the conference’s dominance of the women’s collegiate game.

Since the NCAA began sanctioning women’s hockey in 1999, the WCHA has dominated the national tournament, winning 20 of the 23 championships. The only school outside the conference to be crowned champions is the Clarkson Golden Knights, who haven’t won since 2018.

(3) Cornell Big Red vs. (2) Ohio State Buckeyes

The Buckeyes are on a path to accomplishing something that hasn’t been done since Clarkson’s last national title seven years ago, and that’s win back-to-back national championships. Ohio State had an opportunity to do that in 2023 but was upended by the Badgers. Then, when Wisconsin went for consecutive titles last year, Hannah Bilka, Cayla Barnes and Raygan Kirk erased that possibility by winning the program’s second NCAA championship.

Nadine Muzerall’s squad is much different from last year, but that hasn’t really slowed them down. Joy Dunne has taken the reins as the team’s top offensive weapon, leading the team with 58 points in 38 games, placing her tied for fifth in the country in scoring.

Other returners, such as sophomore Jocelyn Amos and fifth-year Jenna Buglioni, have played huge roles on a team that has done a lot of scoring by committee, with Amos notching 50 points so far, with Buglioni chiming in with over 40 points for the second time in her career.

After not playing at all last year, Amanda Thiele has taken the No. 1 job between the pipes in Columbus, and while her numbers might not have been stellar compared to Kirk’s, she can still be a big-time player when it matters for the Buckeyes.

Ohio State is trying to become the first since Wisconsin in 2009 to advance to four consecutive national title games as well.

The Big Red is going to have its hands full this weekend, whether they make it to the championship game or not. For a program that has not been to the Frozen Four in six years, there is the added pressure of being the only team from their conference to try and end the WCHA’s reign in the tournament.

Cornell’s bread and butter this season has been its defense, and they’ll need that heading to a weekend where the three top-scoring teams in the nation are present. It all starts with sophomore netminder Annelies Bergmann. One of the three finalists for Goaltender of the Year, she comes into the Frozen Four with the second-best goals-against average in the NCAA (1.28) and third-best save percentage (.945).

Bergmann’s nation-leading 10th shutout of the season came in the quarterfinals against Minnesota Duluth, making a game-saving stop with just seconds to go in regulation.

Goals have been hard to come by for Cornell this year, with no player hitting 30 points this year, but a couple of names have come in clutch this season. Senior Lily Delianedis and junior Avi Adam are one of five players to have scored double-digits this season, and they will need to find a way to produce if the Big Red wants to go to the national championship game for just the second time in program history.

OSU defeated Cornell in the Icebreaker Tournament, 7-3, in Columbus back in late October.

The Buckeyes and Big Red will go at it on Friday at 5 p.m. ET.

(4) Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. (1) Wisconsin Badgers

It’s almost as if Wisconsin has taken last year’s loss in the championship game personally. After getting shut out by OSU, the Badgers enter the Frozen Four for the 16th time, hungrier and stronger than before. Arguably, this is one of the best teams head coach Mark Johnson has ever conducted. Not only does the team have four of the top five scorers in the nation, but they have the three finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award in their lineup as well.

Whether it be Casey O’Brien and Kirsten Simms being excellent playmakers, or Laila Edwards being one of the most dominant forces up front, or Caroline Harvey being one of the most dynamic players in women’s hockey, period, Wisconsin is top-to-bottom a juggernaut that has been almost unbeatable this season. Not to mention the fact they have Ava McNaughton in net. The second-year backstop leads the country in wins (34), goals-against average (1.17) and save percentage (.947) among goaltenders with over 20 games played.

Wisconsin comes into the weekend looking to add to its record seven national championships.

After missing out on the Frozen Four last season, Minnesota is hoping they can get one big game out of its stars to take down Goliath in the semifinals. It wasn’t an easy road for head coach Brad Frost’s team, who had to go through Ohio State to get to the WCHA final just a couple of weeks ago.

If they want to move on to the national championship game for the first time since 2019, they will Abbey Murphy to have an outstanding game. Going up against many of her Team USA colleagues, the senior has to be masterful as she has for most of her career. Murphy leads the nation in goal-scoring with 33 markers on the season, sitting fourth in points with 65 in 41 games, including two in the regional win over the Colgate Raiders.

Minnesota will also need the likes of fellow veterans Ella Huber and Natalie Mylnkova to play key roles if they want to derail the Badgers. Both players have been complementary to Murphy this season, both scoring well over 30 points so far.

A lot of pressure will fall on Hannah Clark. The freshman goaltender has been solid for the Gophers this season, but she will have to stand on her head to stop the daunting Wisconsin attack.

This is also the Golden Gophers’ 16th appearance in the Frozen Four, looking for the program’s first national title in nine years. Minnesota is hoping to use home ice to its advantage as Minneapolis is the home of the final stage of the women’s tournament for the seventh time (fifth at Ridder Arena). The Golden Gophers have only made it to the final twice when they’ve hosted, winning it all in 2015.

Wisconsin won all four regular-season matchups, including beating Minnesota in the WCHA Championship Game.

The border rivals will lock horns in the nightcap on Friday, with puck drop scheduled for a little after 8:30 p.m. ET.

Read more women’s hockey articles on DFO