Wisconsin Women's Hockey Swept by WCHA Rival, New No. 1 Team

The back-to-back reigning national champion Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey program opened the college hockey season atop the national polls. UW's time at No. 1, however, has proven to be short-lived. Despite being ahead or tied after 40 minutes in both games, the Badgers were outscored 4-0 in third periods and found themselves on the losing end of a two-game series sweep.

After falling to 0-2 to open WCHA conference play for the first time in 23 years and just the third time ever, Wisconsin (4-2-0, 0-2-0 WCHA) will, at least for now, be looking up at its biggest rival and fellow national title contender in both the national ranks and the conference standings.

Ohio State Reclaims No. 1 Ranking From Wisconsin Women's Hockey

Ohio State and Wisconsin met last weekend as they have in each of their past 19 meetings: as the two top-ranked teams in the country. In a rematch of each of the past four national championship games, the Buckeyes became the first team to sweep the Badgers since OSU also took a pair of games over UW in Columbus in 2023.

Although Ohio State is the unanimous No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll, one USA Hockey voter kept Wisconsin atop their ballot.

As a consequence, the two powerhouses swapped spots in the polls. When they meet on the final weekend of the regular season in February, perhaps fans will witness the 20th and 21st-consecutive games between UW and OSU played as a meeting of No. 1 vs. No. 2.

The Badgers look to avoid falling to 0-3 in conference play for just the second time in program history when hosting the Minnesota State Mavericks for a two-game series inside LaBahn Arena. MSU is receiving votes and the first team outside the top-15 in the USCHO.com poll, but remains ranked at No. 15 in the USA Hockey poll.