Colgate University and Ohio State University Women’s Hockey to Participate in Programs’ First Frozen Four

The national quarter finals in women’s Division I NCAA ice hockey were played at four host sites on Saturday, and the results were extra sweet for Colgate University and Ohio State University. Colgate and OSU each earned their first berth in the annual Frozen Four taking place at Ridder Arena, University of Minnesota next weekend. Not only that, this year marked those programs’ first time participating in the NCAA Tournament which is a two weekend, 8 team event. To make the NCAA Tournament there are auto-bids for each of the four conference champions, and four at large bids allocated based on pairwise ranking.

The last time a program played in the Frozen Four for the first time was 2014 when the Clarkson Golden Knights not only made their Frozen Four debut, but upset Minnesota in the championship game to win their first National Championship. A member of the ECAC, Clarkson became the first non WCHA team to win the National Championship.

In Saturday’s history making bids, #3 Colgate defeated Northeastern University 3-1, while Ohio State upset #4 Boston College 2-0. Other quarter final winners included defending national Champion, #1 Clarkson University 2-1 in OT over Mercyhurst, and #2 Wisconsin University 4-0 over University of Minnesota. The Ohio State result was the only upset of the day.

2018 marks the 18^th year of the women’s Frozen Four as an NCAA sponsored championship. Of the 34 Division 1 programs, 16 (one of which is now defunct) have had the honor of representing their school at the Frozen Four.  These programs include, in order of number of all time Frozen Four appearances:

Frozen Four Appearances By School
NCAA Division I Women's Ice Hockey
2001-2018
School	League	Alltime	2015 - 2018	Championships
Minnesota	WCHA	13	3	6
Wisconsin	WCHA	11	4	4
Boston College	Hockey East	7	3
University of Minnesota Duluth	WCHA	7	0	5
Harvard	ECAC	6	1
St Lawrence	ECAC	5	0
Mercyhurst	CHA	4	0
Dartmouth	ECAC	4	0
Clarkson	ECAC	4	3	2
Cornell	ECAC	3	0
Boston University	Hockey East	2	0
University of New Hampshire	Hockey East	2	0
Ohio State	WCHA	1	1
Colgate	ECAC	1	1
Brown	ECAC	1	0
Niagara (program disbanded)	ECAC / CHA	1	0

Minnesota has been to an incredible 13 Frozen Fours, and has won more National Championships than any program, with 6. University of Minnesota-Duluth has “only” been to 7 Frozen Fours, but when they come they come to win, having won 5 Championships. Wisconsin is not far behind with 10 Frozen Four appearances (11^th next weekend) and 4 National Championships. Rounding out the National Champions list is Clarkson with 3 Frozen Four appearances (4^th next weekend) and 2 National Championships. 

In the past four years, 7 programs have been represented at the Women’s Frozen Four. The longest active streak of Frozen Four appearances is 5, for Wisconsin. That means that the seniors at Wisconsin have gone to the Frozen Four in each year they’ve played college hockey. The National Championship has eluded this group thus far, with Clarkson winning it all last year, and Minnesota winning in 2015 and 2016.

The semi-final bracket for the 2018 Frozen Four is lots of fun: #5 Ohio State (WCHA) vs #1 Clarkson (ECAC), and #3 Colgate (ECAC) vs #2 Wisconsin (WCHA). We are getting those high profile inter league matchups that we crave all season in the semis, plus we could end up with an all ECAC, all WCHA, or ECAC vs WCHA final. I’ll think about the semi final matchups in due time, but once the results were known today my mind went to potential final matchups.

Potential Final Matchup: Colgate vs Clarkson

Clarkson and Colgate met in the ECAC final after being co-champions of the ECAC regular season. Clarkson won the ECAC tournament with a 3-0 win over Colgate. If these teams were to meet in the national final, Colgate would be looking for revenge against a well known opponent on a national stage, similar to what Wisconsin did Saturday when they dispatched WCHA champion Minnesota in their NCAA quarterfinal.

Potential Final Matchup: OSU vs Wisconsin

If we see an all WCHA National Championship game it would of course be OSU vs Wisconsin, and be the teams’ fifth meeting this year. The series went 2-2 this year, with each team winning their home series. OSU was eliminated in the WCHA semi-final at Ridder two weeks ago by Minnesota when OSU was without their starting goalie, Kassidy Sauve. Sauve is a 2017 2^nd Team All American, but did not win a WCHA league award this year despite having a tremendous year, albeit with numbers that were less impressive than goaltender Kristen Campbell of Wisconsin. 

An OSU Wisconsin final would be compelling as it would be a first for OSU, with a chance to win it all against a league opponent who has traditionally gotten the better of them.

Wisconsin is a perennial powerhouse but hasn’t won a National Championship since 2011 when they had now Olympic stars Meghan Duggan, Brianna Decker, Hilary Knight and Alex Rigsby. Despite being ranked the number one team in the country for most of this year, the 2017-2018 Wisconsin team does not have that kind of star power. A Wisconsin National Championship by a blue collar roster (by Wisconsin standards) would be a compelling story, just not on the level that an Ohio State National Championship would be.

Potential Final Matchup: OSU vs Colgate

Imagine, just imagine if we saw an ECAC vs WCHA National Championship game featuring the #3 Colgate Raiders vs #5 Ohio State University Buckeyes. An east west matchup (albeit a close one; Hamilton, New York is 512 miles north east of Columbus, Ohio), between two teams in their first ever NCAA Tournament, who made it to the Frozen Four, and in this hypothetical are playing in their first National Championship game. To say one program’s win would be a better storyline than the other; I’m not sure I could do that.

Potential Final Matchup: Clarkson vs Wisconsin

The final option would be a Clarkson vs Wisconsin final. If this is what we end up with, I’ll interpret it as the big dogs sending a message to the new pups on the block, as in welcome Colgate and OSU, but the final is not for you yet. The Clarkson seniors are playing in their third consecutive Frozen Four, looking to defend last year’s National Championship. As written above, the Badgers are looking to return to the pinnacle of success at the NCAA level, like their Olympic alums did last month on the international level. 

Semi Finals are on Friday March 16, 2018, broadcast on the Big Ten Network, and hopefully streaming online across all borders.