Top Seeded Ohio State Set to Play No. 8 Yale in NC Regional Final Saturday

No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 8 Yale
Date: March 14, 2026
Time: 6 p.m.
Venue: OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: ESPN+/TSN+
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 1 ranked and seeded Ohio State women's hockey team continues its postseason push Saturday, March 14 in the 2026 NC Women's Ice Hockey Championships Columbus regional final against No. 8 Yale. The Buckeyes (34-4-0, 24-4-0 WCHA) and Bulldogs (29-6-0, 16-6- ECAC) face off at 6 p.m. from the OSU Ice Rink.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and TSN+ (subscription required).

Buckeyes in a Nutshell

Ohio State is coming off back-to-back top five wins in the WCHA Final Faceoff tournament. The Buckeyes most recently defeated No. 1 Wisconsin for their first conference tournament championship since 2022.
The Buckeyes are the top ranked team in the country for the first time since the final poll of the 2023-24 season. Ohio State received 16 of 19 first-place votes in the USA Hockey poll and 19 of 20 first-place votes in the USCHO poll this week.
The women's hockey team is 16-2-0 at home this season and 2-0-0 in the postseason this year at the OSU Ice Rink.
The Buckeyes are led in scoring by freshman forward Hilda Svensson with 50 points. Joy Dunne (47), Jocelyn Amos (42) and Sloane Matthews (40) are also 40-point scorers this season for the team. In all, nine of the team's 19 skaters have 20-plus points on the year and every player has recorded multiple points.
Svensson is just the second Ohio State rookie to record a 50-point campaign and is three points shy of tying the program record for points in a freshman season.
Ohio State netminder Hailey MacLeod is the program's single-season wins record holder with a 24-3-0 record this year. She is third in the country with a .889 win percentage and fourth with a 1.50 goals-against average. The Abbotsford, B.C. native is saving 93.0 percent of the shots she faces and has allowed only three goals in the team's last four postseason games.
Entering this weekend's matchup against No. 8 Yale, Ohio State is 24-4-0 against ranked teams this year and 15-4-0 against the top 10.

Ohio State in the NC Women's Ice Hockey Championships

Ohio State hosts the regional round of the NC Women's Ice Hockey Championships for the fifth straight season.
The team is making its seventh straight appearance in the tournament and eighth overall. The Buckeyes' first tournament appearance was in 2018.
Ohio State has been the top seeded team in the tournament four times.
Ohio State is one of four WCHA teams to make the 2026 tournament. Wisconsin and Minnesota are both hosting regionals as the second and fourth seeds in the tournament, respectively. Minnesota Duluth fell to Yale in the regional semifinal in Columbus.
The 2025-26 roster has 14 players with NCAA tournament experience. Jocelyn Amos, Jordan Baxter, Joy Dunne, Sloane Matthews and Emma Peschel were members of the 2024 national championship team.
The Buckeyes are 14-4-0 this year against teams advancing to the tournament. The team is 8-3-0 against the top four seeded teams in the bracket, having played No. 2 Wisconsin, No. 3 Penn State and No. 4 Minnesota previously this year.
All eight of the team's tournament appearances have come during head coach Nadine Muzerall's tenure at Ohio State.

Series History – Buckeyes vs. Bulldogs

Saturday marks the fifth all-time meeting between Ohio State and Yale and the second consecutive meeting in the NCAA tournament.
The team's last met in the 2022 Frozen Four, with Ohio State earning the 2-1 win in the semifinal to advance to its first national championship game, which it would go on to win.
The Buckeyes and Bulldogs have faced off twice before in Columbus. In the only two-game series played between the teams, Ohio State hosted Yale and swept the series with a 5-4 overtime win and a 3-2 win.
All four of the previous meetings between the two teams have been decided by one goal.

Up Next
The winner of Saturday's game advances to the 2026 Women's Frozen Four in University Park, Pa. at Pegula Ice Arena and will play the winner of the regional final between No. 4 Minnesota and No. 5 Northeastern on Friday, March 20.

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