Wisconsin outshot Denver 5-1 early in the opening period of the Frozen Four championship game, but the title game in Las Vegas stayed scoreless after the first rush of chances. Daniel Hauser stopped Denver’s best look from the slot, and Johnny Hicks answered on Wisconsin’s first power play to keep the national championship on a knife edge.
Denver won the opening draw and came into the game with eight players in its lineup carrying national championship experience from the 2024 title run, part of a field that featured 19 NHL prospects between the two teams. The Pioneers had 13 of those prospects, while Wisconsin had six, and three of Denver’s right wings were linked to the Los Angeles Kings. Two prospects each were tied to Montreal and Buffalo.
For Wisconsin, the moment carried more than the score. The Badgers were trying to finish a sweep of both the men’s and women’s hockey championships, something they had done only once before, 20 years ago, when the women had already added their second straight title by beating Ohio State. That run into the final began after a January six-game losing streak pushed Wisconsin into at-large territory, followed by a 7-1 loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament and a regional path that included a 5-1 win over Dartmouth and a 4-3 overtime win over Michigan State before Thursday’s win over North Dakota.
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Denver was skating for its 11th national championship, which would have made the Pioneers the only school with 10 or more and given them four titles in the last 10 years. The opening minutes showed how little room there was for error: Wisconsin had the edge in shots, Denver had the pedigree, and both goaltenders had already made the kind of saves that can decide a championship before the first period is even over.
