30 Records Set by National Champion Wisconsin Women’s Hockey
Madison, WI – After 41 games, Wisconsin women’s hockey captured its storybook ending. With a finish fit for the plot of a unforgettable sports flick, the Badgers captured an eighth national championship.
While accepting the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, UW captain Casey O’Brien said to her coaches, “thank you for assembling this ridiculous roster.”
That “ridiculous roster” did not just re-write the record books in Madison this season. It put its hands on nearly every page, scribbled out the old names, and tore it to shreds.
With a heralded rookie recruiting class that featured both the Team USA and Team Canada Under-18 captains, two returning national player of the year finalists, and perhaps the best defender in the game, excitement about how much that roster could do began to grow all the way back in September.
If there were any doubts that this Wisconsin women’s hockey team could be something special, they were erased in the opening 20 minutes of the season. By winning the national title game in a fashion no team in the NCAA had ever done before, UW bookended the season with record-setting victories.
The 30 Records Wisconsin Women’s Hockey Set This Season
1 – On September 27th, the Badgers scored early and often in their season-opener. Laila Edwards, who ended the season as the nation’s leading goal-scorer, got her first of the season 77 seconds in. She was assisted by O’Brien, whose record-breaking abilities are well documented below, on the first of eight goals in the first period. UW had never before scored eight times in a single period.
2 – Along with those eight goals came 15 assists. Marianne Picard’s goal to put Wisconsin up 5-0 was assisted only by Claire Enright. Wisconsin’s other seven goals came with primary and secondary assists. Never before had a Wisconsin team recorded 14 assists in a period, let alone 15.
3 – Tally up all those goals and assists, and you get 23 points, beating UW’s previous record for most points in a period by three.
4 – In November, O’Brien broke Wisconsin’s career assists record with her 139th in a Badgers uniform. She finished with 177, tallying the final two on UW’s tying and go-ahead goal in a Frozen Four semifinal win over Minnesota.
5 – With her first of two points in a road victory at Bemidji State, Harvey eclipsed Wisconsin’s single-season record for points by a defender. Meaghan Mikkelson tallied 49 points in UW’s national championship campaign in 2006-07. After a five-point performance in the Frozen Four, Harvey finished her season with 63 points.
6 – In Game 1 of a best-of-three series to advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff, Wisconsin used a relentless forecheck to hold the Bemidji State Beavers at bay. The Badgers have had plenty of overpowering offenses over the years; this team became yet another to hold a team without a shot-on-goal in a period. Wisconsin blanked Bemidji in the second period, the 30th time in program history an opponent did not get through to a Badgers goaltender in a period.
7 – Not satisfied with the career assists record, O’Brien became UW’s career points leader this season. With a six-point performance to clinch Wisconsin’s spot in the Final Faceoff, the Milton, Massachusetts native surpassed Hilary Knight’s 262.
8 – Five of her points in that game against the Beavers came in the first period, giving O’Brien the program record for most points in a single period.
9 – Four of those five first-period points were assists, setting another Badgers record for most helpers in a single period.
O’Brien was on the ice in that eventful first period for five of Wisconsin’s seven even-strength goals. That tied the existing UW record for best plus-minus in a single period, putting O’Brien alongside Kelly Jaminski’s +5 second-period against Lindenwood in 2011.
In that same game, the Badgers scored eight first-period goals (one shorthanded), tying the record the team set for goals in a period against Lindenwood on opening night.
10 – Amidst all the records set by O’Brien, Wisconsin set a season-long record. A year ago, the Badgers tallied a program-best 355 assists. In the final minute against Bemidji State, UW scored twice. First, Sarah Wozniewicz was assisted by O’Brien and Lacey Eden to tie the season-long record with less than 53.7 remaining.
Then, Finley McCarthy put Wisconsin’s 11th goal of the game in the net with only one second remaining in the 3rd period. Two of McCarthy’s fellow rookies, Emma Venusio and Hannah Halverson, assisted to break the record that was not yet a full 365 days old. Wisconsin finished the season with 392 helpers – over 10% more than the previous record’s total.
11 – That last-second goal also tied the UW record of 557 points in a season, set last year. In Wisconsin’s next game, against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the Final Faceoff, a Kelly Gorbatenko goal and Laney Potter assist put the 2024-25 Badgers atop the program leaderboard before ultimately finishing with 613 points.
12 – The Badgers had another new career-points record set in that first game of the Final Faceoff. With two points in a come-from-behind victory against Minnesota Duluth, Harvey tied and eclipsed Sis Paulsen’s program-best 130 career points by a defender. With her senior season still to play, Harvey has tallied 137 points in a Wisconsin uniform.
13 – Topping her performance of the first Badger with 50 assists in a single season last year, O’Brien broke her own program record for most assists in a single season with 62. Her pair of helpers in the NCAA Tournament Regional Final made her the first Badger ever with 60 assists in a season.
14 – With three points in the national semifinal against Minnesota, O’Brien tallied her 86th, 87th, and 88th point of the season, edging out UW’s previous single-season scorer Meghan Duggan’s 87.
15 – Finishing that game against the Golden Gophers +3 in the box score, O’Brien finished her time in the Cardinal and White +205. It is by far the best plus-minus of any Wisconsin Badgers career, surpassing Brianna Decker’s +175 (2009-13) by 30.
16 – With the top three scorers in the country, four of the top five, and five of the top seven, the Badgers broke the previous program record for goals in a season. Wisconsin surpassed the previous record, set in the 2010-11 season, of 212 goals with Harvey’s second-period go-ahead goal against Minnesota in the Frozen Four. Kirsten Simms’ dramatic final goals of the season brought UW’s season-long total to 221.
17 – Before Wisconsin and Minnesota had met Friday, no team had ever beaten the Golden Gophers six times in one season. The Badgers did just that to get to their third-straight national title game.
18 – With six wins in the Border Battle this year, and four last season, Wisconsin has gotten the better of Minnesota ten games in a row. That was enough for the Badgers to overtake the Gophers for the all-time series lead between the two powerhouse programs, 58-57-16. Previously, UW had never led the all-time series.
19 – The day between the Frozen Four semifinal and championship game, the CCM/ACHA revealed their All-American teams. Four of the five first-team all-American skaters for 2025 play for the Badgers (O’Brien, Harvey, Edwards, and Simms). With their selections, Wisconsin now boasts the most First-Team All-Americans ever with 27, surpassing Minnesota’s 24.
20 – Less than an hour after the All-American teams were announced, USA Hockey named Casey O’Brien the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award recipient. With six winners of the award given to the top women’s college hockey player, UW is now tied with Harvard for the most.
21 – Even before the winner was officially announced, the Badgers would inevitably tie the Crimson’s record. There was no doubt because all three finalists played for Wisconsin. O’Brien, Edwards, and Simms became the second-ever trio of teammates to sweep the finalist spots. The only other team to do so was the 41-0 undefeated national champion 2013 Minnesota Gophers.
22 – Goaltender Ava McNaughton needed a record-setting performance to bring the national title back to Madison. In 2019, Kirsten Campbell’s 35 wins became the program-record for wins by a Badgers netminder in a single-season. McNaughton’s victory against Ohio State was the 36th of her sophomore campaign.
23 – With the most-prolific scoring offense in the country, and the national goaltender of the year backstopping the best defense in the nation, the Badgers set a program-record for team plus-minus. Finishing +703, UW surpassed its previous-best mark of +589 set a season ago.
24 – Leading the way with her combined offensive and defensive output was Harvey. With a season-long mark of +75, the back-to-back WCHA Defensive Player of the Year bested Duggan’s +69 campaign in 2010-11.
25 – The final win of Wisconsin’s season cemented it as the national champion and the winningest team in program history. Win number 38 put the Badgers ahead of the 37-win national title-winning Wisconsin team in 2011.
26 – By adding that 38th win, UW set a program record for season-long winning percentage. The .951 mark (38-1-2) surpassed the 2011 team’s .927 (37-2-2).
27 – That final win of the season added to head coach Mark Johnson’s record for the most wins by an NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey head coach. The 22-year Badgers veteran now has 667 wins to his name.
28 – That 667th win, of course, came with a national championship. Wisconsin already had one more NCAA title than any other program in the country. The most recent championship puts the Badgers in sole possession of the most women’s ice hockey championships in any division. Plattsburgh State has won seven Division III titles.
29 – Alongside the program record, no other head coach in any division of the NCAA has led a team to more women’s ice hockey national titles than Johnson.
30 – Getting that final, record-setting win was no easy task. When Wisconsin went down 3-1 at the beginning of the second-period against Ohio State, it was forced to do what no team in the history of the Women’s Frozen Four championship game had ever done before: erase a two goal deficit to win the national title.
