BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider

MADISON, Wis. -- They could be found gathered in various outposts throughout North America, their pride, curiosity and powers of recall on full display.

When the Wisconsin women's hockey team reached the NCAA Frozen Four for the 14^th time in the last 18 seasons, alums of the dynastic program geared up for a weekend of great anticipation.

Would the Badgers win their record-setting seventh national title, knocking off their biggest rival along the way?

Would Wisconsin appear in its 10^th final and prevail over a field that included the top-ranked defending NCAA champion?

Would UW, written off by many during a five-game losing streak that ushered in the new year, become the first national champion to reign despite double-figure losses?

Those questions and more were part of the discussion wherever former Badgers players gathered together or shared texts.

That was the case when Kristen Campbell, Emily Clark, Sam Cogan and Blayre Turnbull all huddled together in Calgary, Alberta.

Same goes for Abby Roque and Sophia Shaver as they shuttled between Minneapolis and Duluth, Minn.

Ditto for Sara Bauer, who was hanging out with her father, Kim, in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Meghan Duggan, who was with her young family of four in Toronto.

All the questions wound up generating great answers.

Wisconsin had another fulfilling, unforgettable experience in the Frozen Four, knocking off Minnesota 3-2 in overtime in the semifinals March 17 and Ohio State 1-0 in the title match on March 19.

When the final horn sounded in AMSOIL Arena in Duluth and sticks, gloves and helmets were launched skyward in a wild celebration on the ice, UW women's hockey alums everywhere rejoiced and reminisced off of it.

That's a sizeable crew. The Badgers now own championships from 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Those who played on those squads reveled at the sight of another postgame pile-up, awards ceremony and police escort into town.

Bauer, the 2006 Patty Kazmaier Award winner who helped guide the Badgers to the first two titles, listened to "bits and pieces'' of the games on the radio with her father because she didn't have the necessary cable subscription to watch.

"It's a journey to get there and whatever adversity they faced along the way and all the work that they've put in, it kind of culminates in that moment,'' she said.

Duggan, the 2011 Patty Kazmaier recipient and 2018 Olympic gold medalist with Team USA, is one of 12 players from UW with three national championship rings (2006, '07 and '11).

"I so respect and admire the girls for what they went through this year and how hard it is to do that,'' she said.

"I'm so excited for them. They deserve the recognition and the hoopla and the song and dance that goes with it because of everything they did to put themselves in that position.''

Roque, a 2022 U.S. Olympian and silver medalist, was a key contributor in '19 when Wisconsin ended a frustrating stretch of seven seasons without a banner-raising ceremony at LaBahn Arena.

"It was a really a proud moment to see them win that,'' she said.

Campbell, a 2022 Olympic gold medalist with Team Canada, was voted the Most Outstanding Player in 2019 after becoming the first goaltender in history to shut out every opponent in the NCAA tournament.

"I never doubted them,'' she said of the latest collection of champions. "I always knew they had this in them because you looked at their roster and they were pretty stacked from top to bottom.

"Obviously they put it all together and were peaking at the right time. Championship teams know how to get it done in those big games and they showed everybody what they were made of.''

Roque, Campbell and Shaver were seniors in 2019 when the current leadership core – captain Britta Curl, Natalie Buchbinder, Cami Kronish, Nicole LaMantia and Sophie Shirley – were newbies. The teams have a lot in common, but mostly adversity that was uniquely personal.

Campbell was cast adrift when her first school, North Dakota, abruptly dropped hockey. The captain in 2019, Annie Pankowski, was twice cut from the U.S. Olympic Team at the last minute. Shaver and teammate Maddie Rolfes carried the burden of losing brothers to suicide. The pressure to win a title for UW grew after losing in the finals to Clarkson in 2017 and the semis to Colgate in 2018.

"It was kind of like a do-or-die situation for us,'' Shaver said. "People that have gone through their own personal adversities through the year, I think that almost helps when you have a team collectively going through challenges because those people know how to get through those types of things and help the team get out of the slump.''

In addition to the five-game losing streak to start the second half of the season, Buchbinder, a world-class defender, suffered a torn Achilles tendon during pregame warmups in January and missed the rest of the season; Curl, the Wisconsin captain, was deprived of playing for Team USA in the 2022 Olympics due to COVID; Kronish waited four years before emerging as the No. 1 goaltender.

"A lot of those girls in the last couple years have faced a lot of adversity and I think that's a big reason why they won,'' Roque said. "There's a lot of great stories about girls that faced a lot of adversity and came out a lot better because of it.''

There was enough drama in the UW dressing room that a team meeting preceded a series at Minnesota in early February. It gave way to a 7-2-1 finishing kick, including two wins apiece against the six-time NCAA champion Gophers and top-rated Ohio State.

Nearly a week after his players began thinking about designs for another NCAA title ring, UW coach Mark Johnson sat in his LaBahn Arena office and recalled the ride back to Madison with his wife, Leslie.

"Did that really just happen?'' he asked her more than once.

Campbell said she watched the Badgers (29-10-2) play whenever she could this season. She saw enough to break down what happened.

"Once they started playing more of a team game and kind of trusting each other more, you noticed that,'' she said. "Definitely their play in the NCAA tournament looked quite different than what I saw during points in the season. It's pretty incredible how they pulled it together.''

Campbell said everyone, especially the six freshmen who saw prime minutes, appeared to find the same page at once.

"You could tell every player was doing what it took – make the little plays, do the simple things – to win,'' she said.

Campbell said she watched the semifinal with Clark, Cogan and Turnbull at Clark's apartment in Calgary. Clark and Cogan played with Campbell on the 2019 squad. Clark and Turnbull were Olympic gold medalists with Team Canada in 2022. Campbell watched the title game from her apartment.

"I was kind of flash-backing from what was said in the dressing room, taking the ice, the puck drop and watching how the girls handled it throughout the game,'' Campbell said. "You could tell they had no doubt that they were going to win the game.''

Watching her successor, Kronish, be named Most Outstanding Player in the Frozen Four lifted Campbell's spirits.

"It was pretty special to be able to watch her seal the deal,'' she said.

Roque and Shaver joined another UW alum, Angie (Keseley) Johnson, in Duluth for the championship game. Johnson is Mark and Leslie's daughter-in-law who played on three NCAA championship squads in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

"We almost went up for the semifinal game, but we were like, 'We have faith in them. They're going to get to the finals,''' Shaver said.

Roque made a point of wearing her NCAA championship ring.

"I don't wear it ever,'' she said. "It sits in a trophy box at home. But I said, 'I'm wearing it today. It's good luck.'''

Shaver, who accounted for the winning goal in 2019, said watching the Badgers hang on and celebrate No. 7 brought back joyous memories.

"The best moment of my life,'' she said.

Duggan, the No. 3 scorer in school history and two-time Olympic captain, was part of an in-game text chain with UW teammates Erika Lawler and Kelly Nash.

"We were going back and forth sharing memories,'' Duggan said. "Those are such cherished times in our lives.''

The Badgers have played in 10 NCAA title matches and won seven during the Johnson coaching era. All have come since 2006.

"Winning a championship kind of cements your place in that Wisconsin dynasty of champions,'' Roque said, "but I think a huge part of it was winning with that group of girls and experiencing what it's like to be on top of a very difficult sport. You'll always be a champion and you'll always be a champion with those girls that you played with.''

Bauer, who led the Badgers in scoring all four years of her career, said the culture fans see today was fully entrenched by the time the first NCAA title was won.

"There's just this culture of excellence around Wisconsin,'' she said. "As much as we maybe got over the hump and won the first one, that culture was already there. Everything you needed to be successful, to be at your best academically and athletically, that was all there.

"There's always a lot of positive energy around the team and that was something that came through the coaching staff and the way we approached things on a day-to-day basis. There also was an expectation about always giving your best, the focus and the diligence.''

Roque said the culture endures mainly because of quality people like Johnson, assistants Dan Koch, Jackie Crum and Mark Greenhalgh and Sis Paulsen, the director of operations.

"Being a part of something that people are calling a dynasty now is something not a lot of people can say,'' Shaver said. "It speaks to the coaches, the players, the leaders you have on the team and the school in general. It's everything that can set you up for success.''

Roque said the ties that bind the program together get stronger every year.

"The more you go through it you realize how important it was not to just win these games, but the reason we won in a lot of those years and the reason they continue winning is that they come together as a team,'' she said. "You have a lot of good people, not just good players. You have people supporting each other. These friendships that you make at Wisconsin, I look around and I don't think I would have found anywhere else. The way we are at Wisconsin, it's like a family. It's an ever-lasting dynasty that continues to grow and get better.''

UW became the first school to open the NCAA tournament on the road and win the title, topping the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the process. Quite a legacy.

"It's incredibly special,'' Campbell said. "Coming into that program, everyone that joins the Badgers knows the legacy. We did everything you can to continue it.

"When you become a part of it, all you want to do is keep the tradition going. It's an honor to be a part of the program and it's really special to see how it's continuing to climb year after year. You know it's going to keep getting better and better.''