Ohio State women's hockey team gets national title defense underway

Earlier this month, Paetyn Levis found herself at a practice rink in Columbus, coaching a group of girls’ hockey players.

As Levis left the ice, she was approached by a young Ohio State women’s hockey fan, who marveled at the thought of meeting the reigning Frozen Four Most Valuable Player and NCAA National Champion.

“She came up to me and was like, ‘Are you Paetyn Levis?’. “And I was like, ‘Yeah,’” Levis said. “And she was like, ‘Can I please take a picture with you? I come to your games. You signed one of my pucks.’ She was a huge fan. That was a moment where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, people around the community do support us and do look up to us in those ways.’”

Levis’ interaction shows the added attention the Ohio State women’s hockey program has received since earning their first-ever National Championship. In just one season, the Nadine Muzerall-led Buckeyes have transformed from a program that once-lacked local recognition to a team that is recognized, and sometimes revered, in the community.

So with an unprecedented number of eyes fixated on them, the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes have committed to their next challenge: turning the 2022-23 team into a national champion.

“Honestly, we haven’t done anything this year yet,” Levis said. “Last year’s team is gone. Every year you have a brand new team. So I think we need to see what this team is all about.”

Although the team will include seven freshmen, there are fourteen graduate or senior players to lead the program, which opens its season Friday against Minnesota State.

“[We] are now the hunted, yes, you’re totally aware of that,” Muzerall said. “You’re going to get everybody’s best. Every team in our conference,[in] their last game against us, they lost, and they’re pissed about it. We have to remind ourselves of that. They’re coming for you.”

Among Muzerall's veteran players are Levis, a graduate forward, as well as graduate defenseman Sophie Jaques.

Levis will serve as an alternate captain for the second straight season. She led the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense last year with a career-high 24 goals, earning her a spot on the All-WCHA First Team. Perhaps most importantly, the Rogers, Minnesota, native displayed a knack for elevating her game in the clutch, netting goals in both Frozen Four contests against Yale and Minnesota Duluth to earn the 2022 Frozen Four MVP award.

Despite being listed as a defenseman, Jaques emerged as one of the top scorers in the country for the Buckeyes in 2021-22, recording a team-high 59 points, the most points recorded by a defender in a single season in Ohio State history.

“The experience we have on this team will definitely be an advantage,” Jaques said. “A lot of our players have played in every situation before and know what games mean and how important every single game is. So just having that knowledge spread throughout the team is going to be great for us, and I think we’ll be able to succeed under pressure and perform to the best of our abilities.”

Highlighting the list of freshman is forward and member of Sweden's 2022 Winter Olympics squad Sofie Lundin. But equally impactful might be the additions of junior forward Makenna Webster and graduate forward Emma Maltais.

Webster, a transfer from WCHA-rival Wisconsin and a forward on Ohio State’s field hockey team, helped the Badgers beat OSU in the 2021 Frozen Four Semifinal en route to the program’s sixth national championship. The Shattuck St. Mary’s High School graduate, who also took home the 2021 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player award with two goals in the tournament, has made an “easy” transition after spending the entire summer in Columbus with the team, according to Muzerall.

Maltais sat out last year’s championship run in order to focus on playing for the Canadian National Team, which won Olympic gold. But she spent her first four seasons with the team, earning a spot on the All-WCHA First Team three times and averaging 39.5 points a season.

“Emma is going to bring something that this program has never seen in her leadership,” Muzerall said. “Emma’s always been ranked No. 1 on our team in offense and point production, and she was ... sitting in a locker room where she was a fourth-line center, sometimes not dressing in games. She now can understand and relate to the other players on our team that might not get a lot of ice time. She’s going to bring a great amount of knowledge of culture and locker room experience. And her talent speaks for itself.”

But it's going to take more than talent to bring the Buckeyes back-to-back titles.

“Don’t get complacent and don’t ever get satisfied,” Muzerall said. “I told them, anyone can win one, it's hard to repeat and get multiple. And then it's on these captains to really uphold that standard of excellence and embrace productive discomfort, embrace the suck, and look to your right and left and know that everybody is a unified front doing it. I think if they can continue to be relentless and possess that honor in being a Buckeye, they won't fall short.”

Ohio State at Minnesota State

When: 4 p.m. Friday

Streaming: BIG+

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women's hockey looks to make it back-to-back championships