Wisconsin and Denver meet tonight in Las Vegas for the Frozen Four championship, with the Badgers trying to finish a rare sweep of the men’s and women’s hockey titles in the same year. The game also gives Denver a chance to add another trophy to a record book it already owns, while 19 NHL prospects are spread across the two lineups.
Denver has 13 NHL prospects in its lineup, including three for the Los Angeles Kings, while Wisconsin has six prospects of its own. The Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres each have two prospects in the game. That kind of talent concentration makes this more than a college title game; it is also a stage for the next level.
Wisconsin knows the weight of the moment. The school last completed the men’s-and-women’s sweep 20 years ago, and it already has the women’s title in hand after beating Ohio State for a second straight championship. Now the Badgers are one win from matching that feat again, this time after reaching the final as a regional three seed.
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The path here has been uneven and, at times, precarious. Wisconsin opened the NCAA tournament needing help from other conference results just to get in, then survived Dartmouth 5-1 and Michigan State 4-3 in overtime in the Worcester Regional. In Thursday’s semifinal, the Badgers held North Dakota scoreless for 58:52 before North Dakota finally scored with its goalie pulled, and Wisconsin held on to advance.
Denver comes in with its own momentum and its own pressure. The Pioneers are chasing an 11th national championship, which would be their fourth in the last 10 years and the school’s first title run to push them further ahead in a sport where no one else has reached 10. A win would move Denver ahead of Michigan by two championships.
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Freshman goaltender Johnny Hicks has been central to that run. Hicks took over the starting job in late January after a 1-7-0 stretch and has not lost in 16 starts since. He stopped 49 of 52 shots in a double-overtime win over Michigan, the kind of performance that can decide a championship before the skaters do.
Wisconsin’s story has been just as dramatic, only in a different direction. The Badgers went through a six-game losing streak in January and were blown out 7-1 by Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament before regrouping for the postseason. That makes tonight’s final in Las Vegas feel less like a clean march than a rescue mission that kept finding another open door.
There is also the larger question hanging over the building: whether Wisconsin can turn a hard season and a sudden spring surge into the rarest kind of school year in college hockey. Denver has the trophies and the pedigree. Wisconsin has the chance to close the loop on a season that began with doubts and could end with history.
