2025 WCHA Final Faceoff Roundup: Wisconsin does it again

Wisconsin was crowned the WCHA Final Faceoff champion for the second straight year after defeating Minnesota, 4-3 on Saturday. The teams played in an exciting game with goals scored from both star players and those who may not always show up on the scoresheet.

Let’s take a look at how it all played out.

Both teams had star goaltenders in net with Hannah Clark starting for the Gophers and Ava McNaughton at the other end for the Badgers.

The first half of the period saw some chances, but it wasn’t until midway through the period that Wisconsin scored first. It was on a two-on-one opportunity where Kirsten Simms was able to pass the puck over a defender’s stick to find Casey O’Brien, who scored for the 1-0 lead.

Here is a stat that stood out to me from the game: the Badgers are 28-0-0 when scoring first this season. Still, no one said it would be smooth sailing for them, and 20 seconds later Minnesota tied the game. Allie Franco scored her third goal of the year after her shot bounced off a Badgers’ skate in front of the net.

Ok, it was an even game, with lots of time still left.

The Gophers were feeling good, and with three minutes left in the period, Josefin Bouveng extended the lead to two with a nice shot that resulted in an equally nice goal for her 12^th of the season.

That’s two unanswered goals by Minnesota to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.

Trailing isn’t really a thing Wisconsin does often, though they also did so against Duluth in the semifinal, so it was interesting to see them trailing again here against Minnesota.

They weren't behind for long though, as 43 seconds into the second period, Vivian Jungels found the back of the net for her fourth goal of the season, tying the game at two. Sydney Morrow sort of screened her own goaltender Clark there, which allowed the puck to get through without much of a chance for Clark to stop it.

This was looking to be Wisconsin’s period as Maggie Scannell joined the goal scoring with 11:56 left in the period. She got around the defense with no problem and scored on a backhander for the go-ahead goal.

With less than two minutes left, Wisconsin’s Lacey Eden was called for a penalty, giving Minnesota a power play. Now I mentioned in my semis roundup that the Badgers have an 85% penalty kill this season, which made me believe any power play chance an opposing team has against this team probably wouldn’t result in anything. But yesterday, the power play was what helped Minnesota get back into the game against Ohio State. So, all this to say: the Gophers scored on the power play to tie the game at 3 with 53 seconds left. Natálie Mlýnková scored after the puck bounced off the back wall and her shot went off a Badger and into the net.

This is a postseason border battle, so of course we have a brand-new game heading into the third period.

The third was mostly quiet. Minnesota captain Abbey Murphy had a clean breakaway chance 13 minutes into the period, but McNaughton stopped her. The teams traded chances after that, but nothing connected. Even when the Gophers had another power play opportunity with five minutes left, they couldn’t convert.

Now you may remember one of the goals scored earlier had an assist from the back wall because of the puck bouncing back for an eventual goal. Well, that wall really wasn’t taking sides today. After a shot from Eden went wide and hit the back wall, the puck bounced back onto O’Brien’s stick in front, who passed it behind her with Sarah Wozniewicz wide open and able to score the go-ahead goal. A beauty for Wisconsin!

I’d like to point out something interesting there. The Gophers had the ability to stop that play, but four of them stood around and let the Badgers have open space, which easily resulted in that goal. This is something they can clean up for the NCAA Tournament for sure.

With 18 seconds left, Minnesota got the extra attacker on, but nothing came of it, and Wisconsin won!

But wait… the refs checked the clock, and there was actually 2.8 seconds left, so they made both teams come back out afterwards to take another faceoff. Then the clock ran out, and Wisconsin won again!!

At least they were able to celebrate twice!

All in all, this is what you want out of a championship game. Two teams at their best but also trying to find ways to maximize mistakes and to push each other to the limit. Minnesota was able to do that throughout this game and it seems they were one of the only other teams to be able to do so against Wisconsin this season. This is a great tune-up for both teams heading into the tournament.

We also got the All-Tournament announced after the game.

2025 WCHA Final Faceoff All-Tournament team:

Forwards – Minnesota’s Abbey Murphy and Wisconsin’s Casey O’Brien and Sarah Wozniewicz

Defenders – Minnesota’s Chloe Primerano and Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey

Goaltender – Wisconsin’s Ava McNaughton

Tournament MVP:

Casey O'Brien - Wisconsin

Congratulations to all the winners and to the Badgers for a second consecutive championship and their 11th all-time! Thank you all eight WCHA teams for a wonderful season.

Time for a gallery!

Thank you for reading and following along this season, it was so much fun. See y’all during the NCAA tournament for more coverage!