Wisconsin played Denver for the Frozen Four championship in Las Vegas on Saturday night, a title game that matched a team revived by an NCAA tournament run against the sport’s most decorated program.
Wisconsin reached the final after beating North Dakota in the semifinal on Thursday, holding the Fighting Hawks scoreless for 58:52 before North Dakota scored with its goalie pulled. The Badgers had already beaten Dartmouth 5-1 and Michigan State 4-3 in overtime in the Worcester Regional to get here.
The weight of the moment is clear in the numbers around the matchup. Denver is chasing its 11th national championship and its fourth in the last 10 years, while the two lineups include 19 NHL prospects, 13 for Denver and six for Wisconsin. Denver also has eight players in the lineup who won a title in 2024, and Johnny Hicks arrived as the No. 1 goaltender in late January after a 1-7-0 stretch, then did not lose in his next 16 starts. He stopped 49 of 52 shots against Michigan in a double-overtime game, a performance that helped fuel Denver’s march to the final.
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Wisconsin’s path is the sharper underdog story. The Badgers entered the NCAA tournament as a regional three seed, and a few months ago they were not being talked about like a Frozen Four finalist after a six-game losing streak in January and a 7-1 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament. Instead, they regrouped, survived overtime in Worcester and then blanked North Dakota for nearly the entire semifinal before pulling away in the closing seconds.
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That is what gives Saturday night its edge: this is not just a title game, but a chance for Wisconsin to finish a sweep of the men’s and women’s hockey championships, something done only once before and last accomplished at the school 20 years ago. Denver, the only school with 10 or more championships, brings the kind of pedigree that usually ends stories like this. Wisconsin has spent the last month proving it can make one anyway.
