The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team claimed its 11th WCHA regular season championship Sunday with a 4-2 victory over St. Cloud State at LaBahn Arena, tying Minnesota for the most regular season titles in conference history.
The Badgers (29-3-2, 23-3-2) earned the achievement shorthanded, navigating the final stretch of the season without their full roster. Wisconsin also wins back-to-back regular season titles for the first time since the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons and will enter the WCHA Tournament as the top seed.
Captain Lacey Eden has been the driving force down the stretch. After recording a five-point hat trick in Saturday’s win, Eden added her fourth goal of the series Sunday to finish the regular season with 68 points — the most of any NCAA Division I player. She also tied Casey O’Brien for third on Wisconsin’s all-time list with 23 career game-winning goals.
Head coach Mark Johnson credited Eden as the catalyst for a group that rose to the moment.
“The leader of that group has been Lacey Eden, not only on the ice, but off the ice,” Johnson said. “If you watched all eight games we played, she was our best player, whether it was on the score sheet, winning a face-off, blocking a shot — she just put the team on her back and led us to this finish line.”
Eden opened the scoring with a power-play one-timer from Laney Potter in the first period. Freshman Mackenzie Jones then scored the first goal of her college career in the second, firing a shot from the point that sailed over the goaltender’s shoulder to make it 2-0. Eden extended the lead to 3-0 before St. Cloud State scored late in the period on a power play. Cassie Hall — who notched her 23rd goal of the season — pushed the margin back to three early in the third, and though the Huskies added one more, they couldn’t close the gap with an extra attacker. Wisconsin outshot St. Cloud State 44-27, with freshman goaltender Rhyah Stewart turning away 25 shots.
Potter, who assisted on the opening goal, reflected on the significance of the Julianne Bye Cup.
“It’s exactly what our coach said — this is the longest, hardest one to win,” Potter said. “Very hard to win, especially doing it without our full team. It’s a lot harder than previous years. But playoffs are starting now, so it’s a clean slate.”
Eden echoed the team-first mentality that carried Wisconsin through the final stretch of the regular season.
“Everyone was willing to come every day with their work boots on,” she said. “We really bought into that and were able to work towards our strengths and come together and finish out the season strong.”
