On March 14, a 3-0 win over Connecticut punched the Penn State Women’s Ice Hockey Team’s ticket to its first Frozen Four in program history. It is only fitting that, a week later, the event would be held at Pegula Ice Arena in the heart of Hockey Valley.
The women’s Frozen Four consists of the final two rounds of the NCAA Division I ice hockey tournament–a semifinal and a final–and the winning team is crowned national champion. This year, the final four teams remaining were Ohio State, Wisconsin and Northeastern, along with the Nittany Lions.
The semifinal round was held on Friday, March 20, with Ohio State defeating Northeastern 5-0 in the early evening. The exponentially more exciting matchup between Wisconsin and Penn State followed.
A big story with this year’s Frozen Four in particular was the amount of Olympic talent on the ice, especially on the Wisconsin team.
The Badgers had four players who had recently won gold medals with the United States in the 2026 Winter Olympics, most notably defenseman Caroline Harvey, who was named the most valuable player of the Olympic tournament. However, all four gold medalists were nearly equally impressive in Wisconsin’s matchup with the Nittany Lions.
Penn State and Ohio State each had one member of the national team on their rosters: PSU’s Tessa Janecke and OSU’s Joy Dunne. Multiple schools also had players compete for European teams in the Olympics.
When the puck dropped in the game between the Badgers and Nittany Lions, Pegula Ice Arena was jam-packed and roaring. The crowd broke the record for the highest attendance at a women’s Frozen Four in its history, with 5,176 hockey fans in the building.
Sophomore Lee Wright commented on the atmosphere at Pegula.
“It reminded me a little bit of the [Penn State Football Team’s] White Out,” Wright said. “It was a sea of white, and everyone was loud.”
Penn State struck first with a quick power-play goal from Janecke, but the excitement soon simmered with a swift response from Olympian Laila Edwards for Wisconsin. Penn State’s Abby Stonehouse scored late in the first period to take a 2-1 lead going into intermission.
Sophomore Devin Rameker spoke on the dynamics of the crowd as the game went on.
“I think the atmosphere was great for the most part, but I don’t believe that it affected the overall gameplay too much because Wisconsin seemed to be unbothered,” Rameker said.
The Badgers dominated the second period, scoring two goals and taking a 3-2 lead. The third period brought many chances for the Nittany Lions, but no conversions until late in the period. Janecke, in her final collegiate hockey game, played hero with a game-tying breakaway goal that seemed like it could have been straight out of a movie script.
Despite Janecke’s score, the sudden death overtime period ended in a Nittany Lion loss, with Wisconsin scoring an early power-play goal to secure the win.
Rameker described the crowd’s overall reaction to the game’s ending.
“When [Janecke’s goal] was scored to tie the game, I think it gave us Penn State fans the idea that we did have a chance to beat Wisconsin, even though they had been pretty dominant. But it was a little bit disappointing when PSU lost in the end,” Rameker said.
Though their season came to an end, the Nittany Lions had a lot to celebrate. Their 2025-26 campaign included a program-record 33 wins, a conference championship, a coach of the year award for head coach Jeff Kampersal, and of course, the first trip to the Frozen Four in Penn State Women’s Hockey history.
In the championship game, Wisconsin defeated Ohio State 3-2 to become national champions for the second straight year and the ninth time in program history.
