DURHAM, N.H. − The Ohio State women’s hockey team will play for a second national championship Sunday and will face a familiar foe in Wisconsin.

After winning the title in 2022, the Buckeyes fell to the Badgers 1-0 in last season's final. That marked Wisconsin's seventh NCAA championship, the most of any program in the country.

Since the women's tournament was established in 2001, there have been just five different schools to win it all, including Ohio State. Of the teams on that list, which also includes Minnesota (6 titles), Minnesota-Duluth (5) and Clarkson (3), only the Buckeyes have not won multiple times, which is part of the reason coach Nadine Muzerall feels like her team has something to prove in Sunday's 4 p.m. game.

“We’re building our own tradition that we are going to be contenders every year,” Muzerall said. "We’re building our legacy, we’re just newer at it.

“We don't want to be that one-hit wonder. We’ve been to the championship game a couple times now, but I think what still motivates them is to get over that hump and try to leave a legacy and grow the tradition at Ohio State.”

Though the rivalry between Ohio State and Wisconsin is somewhat new, it is already robust. The Buckeyes are 0-2 against Wisconsin in the Frozen Four. (Wisconsin ousted Ohio State in the semifinals in 2021 as well as the 2023 title game.) This season, the Badgers beat OSU on the final day of the regular season and then kept Ohio State from doubling up on conference titles, defeating them 6-3 in the WCHA Tournament championship game.

Muzerall called it a “respectable rivalry” and compared it to two heavyweight fighters punching back and forth at each other.

“It's going to be that kind of battle and we're ready for it,” Muzerall said. "We’re going to play physical. That’s part of our style. But we’re going to play smart. … I think there's some swagger between the two (teams), and there's no love lost between the two, either. We just have to make sure that we're the last woman standing.”

While Cornell's Izzy Daniel won the 2024 Patty Kazmaier Award as the top women’s college hockey player, finishing right behind her were Wisconsin players Kirsten Simms and Casey O’Brien, who are also the top two scorers in the country, respectively.

“I think we have to approach this head on," Muzerall said. "We can’t sit back on our heels. We have to push fast and control the pace and understand we might get scored on. That’s going to be OK. They're very talented. They're going to have their moments. It might happen, but then how do we respond?

“It's an important game, the most important game. But you have to play the game the way you've been playing all year because that's the reason why you are where you are right now.”

Nine of Ohio State's 23 players on the 2023-24 roster played on the 2022 national championship team. They and their coach knows what it takes to hoist the trophy.

“I just want to make sure we throw down, and that if it doesn't come out our way that we don't win, that at least we went down swinging,” Muzerall said. “If we play our game, we'll get to two (titles) and then we continue to get to three and grow and grow. If we could win another one, two in three years is pretty good - a good tradition to start.”

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women’s hockey set to face Wisconsin in NAA championship