The Badgers are now in playoff-mode after a strong finish to the regular season.
The Badgers posted back-to-back wins over Bemidji State to wrap up the regular season slate, both by a score of 6-1. Wisconsin finishes the WCHA season with a whopping 77 points in conference play, the most in school history, finishing 18 points clear of second-place Ohio State.
No. 1 Wisconsin (31-1-2 overall, 25-1-2 WCHA) was led on Friday by the nation’s top two point scorers, fifth-year senior Casey O’Brien and junior Laila Edwards, who notched three points apiece. The game started slow with both teams deadlocked 1-1 through the hallway point, but the Badgers barraged the net the rest of the way to score five unanswered in the last 25 minutes of game time.
Saturday night featured a similarly slow start with Bemidji State (6-28-1 overall, 4-24-0 WCHA) taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Junior Kirsten Simms put the Badgers on the board with a power-play goal early in the second period to kick off a string of six unanswered goals, including two more from Simms to complete the hat trick. O’Brien didn’t find the back of the net in game two, but chipped in with three more assists to post a six-point weekend, giving her 72 points on the year.
Sophomore goaltender Ava McNaughton didn’t post a shutout in the series, but she did reclaim the nation’s top spot in goals against average, currently giving up just 1.177 goals per game while posting 29 wins. Badger backstops have conceded an NCAA-low 38 goals in 34 regular-season games, with McNaughton getting the start in 32 of them.
The Badgers were well-represented again the WCHA weekly athlete awards on the final weekend of the regular season, with Kirsten Simms earning Forward of the Week and junior Caroline Harvey snagging her sixth Defender of the Week accolade of the year.
Twice as nice!
Congrats to Kirsten and KK on earning WCHA honors this week!
https://t.co/Qsc22s9lw0 pic.twitter.com/RgASPsrsxe
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) February 24, 2025
Wisconsin finishes the regular season with a team-record 31 wins and the same No. 1 ranking they’ve held since the second week of polling on September 30th. Now the Badgers turn their attention fully toward the postseason, where they’ll see a familiar foe in the first round of the WCHA tournament when Bemidji State makes the trip to LaBahn.
Friday night kicks off a best-of-three series with the Beavers to advance to the Kwik Trip WCHA Final Faceoff at Amsoil Arena, hosted by Minnesota Duluth. Puck drop for game one is set for 7 p.m. with game two on Saturday slated for 3 p.m. Game three (if necessary) will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday. All WCHA first round games will air on B1G+.
Game Info
Game 1
Date: Friday, February 28
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Madison, WI | LaBahn Arena
TV: B1G+ | Radio: 1070 AM
Game 2
Date: Saturday, March 1
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Place: Madison, WI | LaBahn Arena
TV: B1G+ | Radio: 1070 AM
Game 3 (if necessary)
Date: Sunday, March 2
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Place: Madison, WI | LaBahn Arena
TV: B1G+ | Radio: 1070 AM