By J Gray; Edited by Abbi Holt

Commonwealth athletes are starring on one of the biggest stages in women’s ice hockey: the final stage of the NCAA Tournament.

The pinnacle of Division I ice hockey competition is the Frozen Four, which competes annually in March. From a bracket of the top 11 teams, the four finalists will take the ice this Friday to earn a chance at the NCAA Championship. This year, Northeastern University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota, and The Ohio State University are the teams that fought their way to the semifinals, and each team has at least one athlete hailing from Massuchesetts.

Northeastern University

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the hometown team has the most athletes on the roster who come from Massachusetts. The six players who stayed home for college are goaltender Alexa Matses (Boxford) and forwards Lily Brazis (Saugus), Molly Griffin (Arlington), Kate Holmes (Norfolk), Skylar Irving (Kingston), and Lily Shannon (Andover).

The Huskies also have five players from neighboring states: defenders Jules Constantinople and Taylor Guarino hail from Connecticut, forward Mia Langlois and defender Kristina Allard are from New Hampshire, and forward Mia Brown comes from Vermont.

These players are largely homegrown talents, coming up through elite youth programs like the Boston Shamrocks and Boston Junior Eagles, and schools like Phillips Academy, Cushing Academy, Tabor Academy, and the Loomis Chafee School.

Northeastern has gone an impressive 32-2-1 this season. They only lost one game at home, a 1-0 overtime heartbreaker to Boston College. The Huskies won the Hockey East conference championship and earned the fifth seed going into the tournament. They defeated fourth-seed Yale at the Bulldog’s barn, 4-1, to make it to the semis. Due to the tournament structure, that means their next opponent will be the first seed.

The Huskies have made it to the Frozen Four each of the last three years. They lost the 2021 championship to the Wisconsin Badgers.

The Ohio State University

The semifinal opponent for Northeastern, the Ohio State Buckeyes were the 2022 NCAA Champions, and are this year’s first seed in the playoffs. They had a record of 32-5-2 this season and earned the first seed after winning the conference championship in the WCHA, which many consider the toughest conference in the NCAA. Ohio State defeated Quinnipiac 5-2 to earn their third straight Frozen Four berth.

Buckeyes forward Gali Levy hails from Newton and came up through the East Coast Wizards, an elite travel team out of Weymouth. This is the 19-year-old’s first year at OSU.

Teammate Sydney Morrow is from Connecticut, and won a silver medal with Team USA at the most recent U18 Women’s World Championship.

Other local ties include goaltender Lexi Secreto (Choate Rosemary Hall, Phillips Academy) and defender Hadley Hartmetz (Boston College).

Northeastern will take on Ohio State on Friday, March 17 at 3:30pm ET, at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota. The game will stream live on ESPN+ and will be available for on-demand viewing afterwards.

University of Minnesota

The Golden Gophers went 30-5-3 this season in the tough WCHA conference. As the second overall seed, they received a bye to the quarterfinals and defeated local rivals at the University of Minnesota Duluth to make it to the semis.

Graduate student Savannah Norcross hails from Lynn, Massachusetts. The forward played three seasons at Boston College before transferring to Minnesota.

The Minnesota team did not make it to the Frozen Four in the last two years. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to Covid. In 2019, the Golden Gophers lost the championship to Wisconsin. Seven players on the current roster were on the team for that defeat, so the players will surely be coming into this game determined to put some ghosts to rest.

University of Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Badgers went 21-10-2 this season in the WCHA. They were selected to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team and had to defeat LIU and Colgate to make it to the Frozen Four.

Milton, MA native Casey O’Brien wears an A for the Badgers as an alternate captain. The junior leads the program in scoring this season with 19 goals and 48 points in 39 games.

Wisconsin captain and Olympic silver medalist with Team USA Jesse Compher was a four-year student and a captain at Boston College before spending her final year of eligibility with the Badgers. A fellow member of Team USA at the Olympics and Worlds is defender Caroline Harvey, who is from New Hampshire.

Defeated in the quarterfinals last year by Northeastern, this will be Wisconsin’s first Frozen Four appearance since their NCAA championship in 2021.

Northeastern will take on Ohio State on Friday, March 17 at 7:00pm ET, at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota. The game will stream live on ESPN+ and will be available for on-demand viewing afterwards.

The winners of these two games will compete for the title. The NCAA Championship will be broadcast on ESPNU on Sunday, March 19 at 4pm ET.