Kirsten Simms and Vivian Jungels scored the opening two goals as defending champion Wisconsin advanced to the women's ice hockey championship game for the second straight season after a 3-1 victory over Colgate on Friday night in the Frozen Four.
The win by Wisconsin (35-5-0) sets up a rematch of the 2023 title game Sunday with top seed Ohio State. The Badgers are seeking to become the first team to win back-to-back titles since Clarkson in 2018 -- and notch the program's eighth championship.
Colgate (32-7-1), which had won its last six games by a combined score of 27-4, was the only team in the Frozen Four that had not won a national championship. The only previous trip to the Frozen Four for the Raiders came in 2018 against Clarkson.
Simms, the WCHA player of the year, buried her 33rd goal of the season 11 minutes into the game to extend her points streak to seven straight games. Jungels made it 2-0 midway through the third on a shot from the faceoff dot that went under the glove of Kayle Osborne.
Kristýna Kaltounková pulled Colgate within 2-1 with 2:10 to play, but Laila Edwards sealed it with an empty-netter.
Wisconsin rolled into the NCAA tournament after beating Ohio State in the WCHA championship game.
Ohio State 4, Clarkson 1
Sloane Matthews scored a go-ahead goal with 6:48 left to play as Ohio State beat No. 4 Clarkson 4-1.
Matthews, Joy Dunne and Hadley Hartmetz all scored in the third period for Ohio State. Matthews slid in a loose puck in front of the net to break a 1-all tie. Dunne, the Julie Chu rookie of the year recipient, scored her 23rd goal of the season, and Hartmetz followed with an empty-netter.
Ohio State (34-4-0), which is in the Frozen Four for the fourth straight season, will seek its second national championship in program history after winning in 2022.
Clarkson (33-5-2), which scored on a power play in the fourth overtime to beat Minnesota 3-2 in a regional final, was looking to advance to its first national title game since winning it in 2018.
Clarkson opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game when Anne Cherkowski took a pass from captain Brooke McQuigge and spun in front of the net for a shot past Raygan Kirk.
Makenna Webster tied it at 1-all with 6:07 left to play in the first when she drove to the net all alone, following a turnover, and put it past Michelle Pasiechnyk.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.