Can Ohio State, rest of WCHA, Prevent a Wisconsin Three-Peat? WCHA Preview

There is little doubt what conference is the nation’s strongest in 2026-27 as the WCHA enters the season on the back of seven consecutive national championships and five straight that were all-WCHA affairs.

Wisconsin enters the season after back to back national championship victories over Ohio State but a long list of departures for the Badgers has led to a split opinion on who’s the favorite entering the season. The Badgers sit atop the preseason poll, with Ohio State right behind at number two. In the WCHA Preseason Coaches Poll the order is flipped, with Ohio State leading the way with 48 of a possible 49 points.

Beyond the unanimous top two, Minnesota looks to pen a new chapter as Greg May takes over as head coach and Minnesota Duluth boasts a pair of the nation’s best players. The programs ranked in the bottom half of the preseason poll have the potential to earn an at-large bid with Minnesota State bringing back a young core, St. Cloud State building around a dynamic duo, St. Thomas rebuilding from transfer portal losses, and Bemidji State having the tools to move out of the cellar.

National Championship or bust for Ohio State

Losing one national championship will sting for a long time, two will stick with you for years, but three in a row to the same team will keep you up at night for decades to come. That’s the exact situation the juniors and seniors on Ohio State face after losing to Wisconsin in both 2025 and 2026. The seniors still remember the feeling of winning a national championship but if the Buckeyes can’t get it done, the chance of defeating Wisconsin and claiming a national championship will feel like a myth in the Ohio State locker room.

If there ever was a year for Ohio State to finally seize control back from Wisconsin, this is it as the Buckeyes have four players selected to College Hockey on SI’s All-American lists and three to the Preseason All-WCHA team.

The top forward line includes three players that received preseason All-American nods, led by a potential Patty Kazmaier award winner Joy Dunne, who’s finished in the top ten for the award each of the last two seasons. The Olympic champion led the Buckeyes with 27 goals in 2026-27, a year after setting the program record with 62 points. She’ll be joined on the top line by one of the nation’s top face-off takers Jocelyn Amos, ranking second in the country with 539 face-off wins at a .640 win percentage. In addition to her prowess at the faceoff dot, Amos lit the lamp 22 times and added 26 assists for 48 points, including five in the national tournament. Rounding out the group is the reigning national freshman of the year, Hilda Svensson, who captured the Julie Chu Rookie of the Year. In her debut season, the Swedish Olympian posted 52 points, the second most by a first-year in Ohio State History.

The forward group is not the only strength of the team, as Mira Jungåker anchors the blueline for what should be one of the nation's best defensive corps. Only halfway through her collegiate career, Jungåker is already an international hockey veteran, appearing in three IIHF World Championships and the 2026 Olympics. Between time away on national team duty, the defensewoman has posted 44 points in 48 games across her freshman and sophomore seasons.

The Buckeyes are scheduled to get four chances at revenge against the Badgers, although it’s one game that’s not on the schedule yet, and will likely be a sixth meeting between the teams that can truly erase the pain from the last two Marches. Ohio State hosts an early season battle the weekend of October 9th and 10th and closes out the regular season with a trip to Wisconsin that includes the regular season finale at Lambeau Field on February 20th. After that, the teams could match up two more times, likely in the WCHA and national championship games.

Is it a reload or a rebuild in Madison?

There are two truths that run counter to each other in trying to determine where Wisconsin stands heading into 2026-27. The first, no team, no matter how talented, can be expected to play at the same level after graduating five first-round picks. The second, regardless of how much talent departed, Wisconsin is still one of the deepest teams in the country and possesses arguably the best goaltender inside or outside of the WCHA.

Caroline Harvey, Laila Edwards, Lacey Eden, Kirsten Simms, and Vivian Jungels are gone but Mark Johnson’s team still features stars like Cassie Hall and Ava McNaughton. Hall posted 38 points last season on 20 goals and 18 assists, and is poised to have a breakout senior season as she steps into a larger role. McNaughton walked away from 2025-26 with both a national championship and an Olympic gold, posting a 36-1-2 record with a .944 save percentage and 1.25 goals against average. She won’t have the luxury of two top-four picks playing in front of her again but McNaughton is more than capable of stepping up to a tougher test in 2026-27.

Wisconsin replaces some of the talent lost with one of the nation’s best recruiting classes as they welcome in a pair of players who received votes for WCHA Preseason Rookie of the Year. Rosalie Tremblay enters her freshman season after winning the Liz Turgeon Award as the best player in the JWHL and Canadian Player of the Tournament at the 2026 IIHF U18 World Championships. Nela Lopušanová led the Bishop Kearney Selects to the USA Hockey U19 National Championship and brings plenty of international experience to Madison, twice being named the MVP of the IIHF U18 World Championships while representing Slovakia.

The Badgers have a relatively soft non-conference slate, opening with St. Lawrence and Boston University to give a chance for the young team to develop and adapt. The ease into the season won’t last long, as Wisconsin will know exactly where they stand after a trip to Columbus during the second weekend in October.

Is Greg May the coach to lead Minnesota back to the top?

On the surface, moving on from a four-time national champion coach that has consistently had the program inside the national top-five seems like insanity but for Minnesota, it may have been the only choice. While the Golden Gophers have been the clear third best team in the WCHA in recent years, third place has started to feel like tenth with how far Wisconsin and Ohio State have pulled ahead of the pack. Since the pandemic, a program that captured four national titles in the 2010s has won just one conference regular season championship, one conference tournament championship, and has failed to reach a national championship game. For a program that prided itself on being the gold standard, accepting being third in the pecking order was never an option.

Enter Greg May who takes over the head coaching position after three seasons as second in command. His resume goes far being just the women’s program at Minnesota, serving as director of operations for the school’s men’s program, taking the Augsburg men’s team to 2 NCAA DIII tournaments, and winning gold as an assistant coach for the United State’s U18 Women’s National Team at the 2026 IIHF World Championships. Coaching the national team at the youth level should pay dividends in recruiting as he battles the Badgers and Buckeyes for the nation’s top players.

On the ice this year, Chloe Primerano is poised to be one of the nation’s best blueliners after reaching the 30 point mark in each of her first two seasons for the Golden Gophers. She’ll be joined by Preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year Adrianna Milani who looks to carry over an impressive youth career that saw her score nearly two points-per-game for the Etobicoke Dolphins and represent Canada at the IIHF U18 World Championships.

Minnesota Duluth’s recipe to shock the conference and nation

Few teams nationally have as much top-tier talent as Minnesota Duluth, boasting both a goaltender and forward both selected to the Preseason All-WCHA team and Preseason All-American first team.

Caitlin Kraemer led all Bulldogs with 30 points on an even split of goals and assists in 2025-26 to follow up becoming the first Minnesota Duluth player to be named the Julie Chu National Rookie of the Year. Kraemer has already represented Canada internationally at the senior level, playing in the Rivalry Series against the United States last season and had the opportunity to spend the offseason at development camp for both the Canadian national team and the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers to get ready for her junior season.

Ève Gascon will backstop the Bulldogs for a fourth consecutive season as she attempts to follow up a 2025-26 that saw her named an All-American by multiple selectors. Gascon posted a 1.77 goals against average and a league best .943 save percentage while also making her debut for the Canadian national team in 2025-26. If she can post another strong season, Gascon’s name will be alone atop nearly every category in the Minnesota Duluth record book.

While Minnesota Duluth won’t be able to match Wisconsin or Ohio State’s depth, they may have the recipe to upset the nation’s top teams during postseason play. The quickest path to having a chance at going on a run is having a goalie get hot at the right time, and Gascon is plenty good enough to put the Bulldogs on her back and give them a chance in any game she starts. No matter how strong the goaltending is, an upset bid still needs at least one goal and Kraemer is more than capable of getting it herself regardless of what look opposing defenses throw at her. It’ll be tough for the pair to carry the Bulldogs to a regular season title challenge but all they need is to find a way on a few March afternoons to have a special season.

Can the rest of the pack cause chaos, crash Final Faceoff?

Minnesota State won the race for the fifth seed, edging out St. Cloud State by two points and St. Thomas by five. Avoiding the three programs that hosted national quarterfinals helped the Mavericks advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff, downing Minnesota Duluth in three games. WCHA All-Rookie selection Mercury Bischoff headlines a group of three returners that crossed twenty points each a season ago and are joined by senior Hailey Hansen who started 34 of 38 games for the Mavericks, posting a .915 save percentage and 2.87 goals against average. Payton Finnie joins Minnesota State as a freshman and will look to make an instant impact after receiving votes for the WCHA Preseason Rookie of the Year award. Minnesota State was two games below .500 a year ago, going 17-19-2, a slight improvement towards 20+ wins would get the Mavericks into contention for an at-large spot in the NCAA tournament.

Both Alice Sauriol and Sofianna Sundelin return for a St. Cloud State looks to reverse a downward spiral that has seen their win total fall in each of the previous two seasons. The pair combined for 24 goals, 31 assists, and 55 points a year ago and look to take a step forward as the Huskies aim to regain relevance in the nation’s toughest conference. They’ll have something to build on after a strong showing against Minnesota in the opening round of the conference tournament, including winning the opening game 1-0 in overtime.

Entering the offseason, St. Thomas looked to be a surprise contender in 2026-27, with the Tommies slated to bring back all five of their leading scorers. Then St. Thomas were rocked by a pair of departures, as leading scorer Rylee Bartz and top-line defensewoman Ella Hause entered the transfer portal and headed east to chase a national championship with Ohio State. Head coach Bethany Brausen will look to pick up the pieces and build around Ella Bauger, 20 assists last season, and Chloe Boreen, 10 goals and 11 assists in 2025-26.

Rounding out the conference is Bemidji State, the unanimous pick among coaches to finish last in 2026-27, just like the Beavers did in 2025-26. There were bright spots for Bemidji State last season, picking up ranked wins over St. Thomas, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State as well as taking eventual national champion Wisconsin to overtime in game two of the WCHA quarterfinals. The Beavers should be improved from a year ago returning both leading scorers, Morgan Smith and Hailey Armstrong, as well as starting goaltender Kaitlin Groess.

2026-27 WCHA Preseason Coaches Poll

Place School (First Place Votes) - Points

1. Ohio State (6) - 48
2. Wisconsin (2) - 44
3. Minnesota - 35
4. Minnesota Duluth - 32
5. Minnesota State - 23
6. St. Cloud State - 20
7. St. Thomas - 15
8. Bemidji State - 7

2026-27 Preseason All-WCHA

Pos. - Name, Cl., School

F - Joy Dunne, Sr., Ohio State

F - Caitlin Kraemer, Jr., Minnesota Duluth

F - Jocelyn Amos, Sr., Ohio State

D - Mira Jungåker, Jr., Ohio State

D - Chloe Primerano, Jr., Minnesota

G - Ève Gascon, Sr., Minnesota Duluth

College Hockey on SI Preseason All-American Selections

Pos. - Name, Cl., School

On SI Preseason All-Americans First Team

F - Joy Dunne, Sr., Ohio State

F - Caitlin Kraemer, Jr., Minnesota Duluth

D - Mira Jungåker, Jr., Ohio State

G - Ève Gascon, Sr., Minnesota Duluth

On SI Preseason All-Americans Second Team:

F - Jocelyn Amos, Sr., Ohio State

F - Cassie Hall, Sr., Wisconsin

D - Chloe Primerano, Jr., Minnesota

G- Ava McNoughton, Sr., Wisconsin

On SI Preseason All-Americans Third Team

F- Hilda Svensson, So., Ohio State

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