Members of the Wisconsin NCAA college women’s hockey team look in the direction of the scoreboard after their loss to Ohio State in the NCAA college women’s championship hockey game, Sunday, March 24, 2024, in Durham, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In the small world of college women’s hockey that has been dominated by handful of schools in the 2½ decades since the NCAA began sponsoring the sport, Wisconsin has come the closest to conquering it.

This bunch of Badgers might be the best of all.

They’ve reached the Women’s Frozen Four this weekend for the 16th time in the last 19 editions, boasting by far the highest-scoring team in the country — and the hardest to score against. The clear favorite to win what would be the program’s record eighth title even accounts for all three — yes, all three — of the finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award that goes to the nation’s best player.

But first, Wisconsin must get past a semifinal game on Friday night that comes with a most unusual challenge for the top-seeded team in a national tournament: Facing rival Minnesota on its home ice.

“Honestly, that’s going to fuel our fire,” junior defender Caroline Harvey said.

Tickets for the semifinal session and the championship game on Sunday afternoon at 3,400-seat Ridder Arena sold out in advance, another sign of progress in a sport that has made strides through the recent establishment of the Women’s Professional Hockey League.

Players have seen the secondary market prices soar online for getting in the door, a minimum of $100 with some seats for the title game going for more than $400.

“It can be seen as a disadvantage being in their home rink, but Badger fans travel well. I know everyone’s families are going to be there,” fifth-year senior forward Casey O’Brien said. “I know the atmosphere’s going to be insane. It’s going to be bumping with both Gopher fans and Badger fans. I wouldn’t want anything less in a game this big. We’re all just really excited.”

Junior forward Laila Edwards will join Harvey and O’Brien at the Kazmaier ceremony on Saturday, guaranteeing the Badgers a sixth winner in the 28-year history of the award. The only other time one team has filled all three finalist spots was 2013, when Minnesota went 41-0 to win it all.

Wisconsin sophomore Ava McNaughton also won the Women’s College Hockey Goalie of the Year Award that was announced on Thursday. She’s one of five current players — plus four alums — who will give Wisconsin a team-high nine spots on the 25-player U.S. national team that will travel to the Czech Republic for the Women’s World Championships next month.

With 211 goals in 39 games this season, Wisconsin (36-1-2) has scored 60 more times than the next-closest team, Minnesota (29-11-1). The Badgers have the nation’s most effective power play and penalty kill units, and they’ve had only 43 goals against.

“This is the first time that I’ve felt like we are completely deep, meaning we can put out any line, any ‘D’ pair, and they’re going to get the job done,” O’Brien said.

Keeping the main thing the main thing

The mastermind behind the bench for the Badgers is coach Mark Johnson, who’s in his 22nd season at his alma mater he helped win the 1977 national championship in men’s hockey before playing for the “Miracle on Ice” team for the U.S. at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

Johnson has guided his team to five wins in five games against the Gophers already this season while holding their leading scorer, Abbey Murphy, without a goal in any of them. He has also experienced with his team the bitterness of a 1-0 loss to Ohio State last year in the NCAA championship game in Durham, New Hampshire, after beating the Buckeyes 1-0 for the title in 2023 in Duluth, Minnesota.

Plenty of potential distractions will surround the Badgers this weekend, from the opposing team fans to the bundle of awards to the pressure of avenging last season’s loss, but Johnson has spent plenty of time preaching the value of keeping perspective and the art of being present as much as teaching hockey.

“Make the most important thing the most important thing,” he said.

Minnesota feels like home for Muzerall

Ohio State (28-7-3) will face Cornell (25-4-5) in the other semifinal on Friday, when Nadine Muzerall will undoubtedly take a moment to reflect on her nine-year journey as coach of the Buckeyes. This is their sixth appearance in the Frozen Four, all since she took over, and they’ve won two titles.

Minnesota is also where she played for the Gophers in the first edition of the event in 2001, across the street before Ridder Arena was finished. The campus where she met her future husband, a former football player for the Gophers, always feels like a homecoming to her.

“I’d like to say I have drank the Kool-Aid and I bleed scarlet and gray now, however, how could it not?” Muzerall said. “I don’t forget where I came from.”