MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin women's hockey coach Mark Johnson was in his hotel room in Bemidji, Minnesota, on Feb. 22, when his phone buzzed at around 5:30 a.m.
Jack O'Callahan, Johnson's teammate on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, had sent a text message to the group. Exactly 45 years earlier, Team USA had delivered the "Miracle on Ice," stunning the Soviet squad in the Olympic semifinals for one of the biggest upsets in sports history. O'Callahan, with time to burn after dropping his family off at the airport, reflected on a moment that would forever bind those young players.
"Oh my gosh, it's lengthy," Johnson, who scored two goals in the 4-3 win over the Russians, said of O'Callahan's text. "But it's fun and enjoyable, meaningful, impactful. It always puts a smile on your face. Then, you look at the number -- 45, that's a long time ago."
Johnson is 67, a lifetime removed from the Miracle. He showed up to LaBahn Arena on Feb. 25 with a hospital visitor's sticker on his shirt. Earlier that morning, he had stopped to see his daughter, Mikayla, who had given birth to a son, Johnson's ninth grandchild.
More than most, Johnson understands why certain teams are remembered and others are forgotten. If Team USA had not beaten the Soviets and gone on to win the gold, it wouldn't be revered. There would be no "Miracle" movie or lifetime hero status for coach Herb Brooks, or players like Johnson, O'Callahan and Mike Eruzione.
Teams are ultimately judged by the outcomes they generate. Johnson's current Wisconsin team will be no different.
If the Badgers win the NCAA tournament, which begins Thursday and culminates with the Frozen Four at Minneapolis on March 23, they will go down as perhaps the greatest team in school history. They have won seven national titles under Johnson, who has coached since 2002. Wisconsin is the preeminent program in the sport. But only once have the Badgers completed a season with only one loss, back in 2006-07, and that team had four ties. Wisconsin has just a single loss, two ties and 35 wins. The Badgers have outscored their opponents 207-42 and won 24 games by four goals or more.
They roll four lines with ease and no letup, boast elite forwards in Casey O'Brien, Laila Edwards and Kristen Simms, two-way talents like Edwards and Caroline "K.K." Harvey and a fortress in Ava McNaughton, who has stopped nearly 95% of the shots she has faced this season. Wisconsin's roster is filled with national award candidates and future Olympians. O'Brien is among the favorites for the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the nation's top player, and would become the first Wisconsin winner since Ann-Renée Desbiens in 2017.
"I don't think anybody fully grasps how good this team is and how special this season has been," O'Brien said.
But hockey is a funny sport. An awkward bounce of the puck or a superhuman goaltending effort can shift outcomes. The best teams don't always win, as Wisconsin can attest. The Badgers had 35-win squads in 2015-16 and last season that didn't capture national titles.
The randomness of hockey results is why Johnson wants his team focused on abstract goals, even during a month filled with tangible, legacy-defining ones.
"I always call it playing free," Johnson said. "It's going on the ice, especially late in the season, and just being free and putting a smile on your face. If you get to that space, you generally play individually at a real high level. And then collectively, can we do that as a group?"
ON THE FIRST day of preseason practice, Wisconsin assistant coach Jackie Crum looked out at the ice and liked what she saw. Crum, more than most, knows what great Wisconsin teams should look like.
Back when she was Jackie Friesen, she played for Wisconsin from 2001 to 2005 and served as an undergraduate assistant for Johnson's first national title team in 2006. Crum has been on the bench for four national championships as a full-time assistant.
"You look at your lineup chart and you're like, 'Oh, wow,'" Crum said. "Any of these kids can play. We haven't had that deep level."
Even the 2023-24 team, which fell just short of repeating as national champions when it lost 1-0 to Ohio State, ended the season rotating only 10 forwards. As the 2024-25 season neared, Wisconsin projected to have four strong lines and multiple defense pairings that could hold up against the rush.
The games validated Crum's optimism. Wisconsin opened with a 12-0 win against Lindenwood and won each of its first seven games by four goals or more. After rallying from a three-goal deficit to beat Minnesota 4-3 on the road, the Badgers recorded four consecutive shutouts against Bemidji State and St. Cloud State, scoring a total of 20 goals to their opponents' none.
"When we don't beat a team by a lot, it almost feels like we didn't play well, like it's a little bit disappointing, even though a win is a win," O'Brien said.
Wisconsin leads the nation in both points (576) and goals (207), while the No. 2 team has 391 points and 207 goals. The Badgers have the nation's top three assists leaders -- O'Brien, Simms and Harvey -- while Edwards ranks fifth. They lead the nation in both power play percentage (.361) and penalty kill percentage (.916).
Edwards ranks third in goals per game, while four Badgers rank in the top 11. McNaughton has six more wins than any other goalie, and leads the nation in goals-against average while ranking second in save percentage (.947).
"A lot of the teams I've been on, we've either been stronger at forward, stronger on D, and it's always worked out, but something about this year, it's like every single aspect," Edwards said. "We've got a great power play, great penalty kill, we're scoring, we're having fun. I just think, yeah, this is a special team."
Wisconsin also has qualities outside of the stat sheet that typically translate toward championship runs. A core of 11 players remains from the last national title team, including O'Brien, who led that squad with 48 points, and defenders Vivian Jungels and Harvey, who were plus-45 and plus-42 on the season, respectively. Most of the team also experienced the heartbreak of last March, when the Badgers were shut out for just the second time all season, in the biggest game.
There's also experience gained from Team USA's collegiate select team, which Harvey captained to a win in the Six Nations tournament in Finland last year. Seven other current Badgers competed for that squad, while four others played for Team Canada. Harvey also helped Team USA win a silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and a number of others have already had extensive international hockey careers.
"What's great about having a combination of young and older, more experienced players, is we've been in these spots before," Harvey said. "I just keep reminding the younger girls, 'Hey, we're going for this thing. You can't be scared. You've got to be ready for the opportunity, no matter who it is. It could be you guys. Don't look down the bench. Just make it happen.'
"There should be no fear, just excitement."
The no-fear approach feeds into Johnson's main objective for a team where anything short of a championship will be deemed a disappointment.
"They can play at a real high level," he said. "They've shown it internationally, they've shown it in their time here. Now, when they're playing well, can they play free and not worry about the fear of not playing well?"
MARCH IS A busy month in women's college hockey, as championships are won and individual honors are handed out. As Wisconsin chases team titles, for the WCHA and then the NCAA, it also must deal with the stream of awards -- and perhaps snubs -- coming to the best roster in the sport.
"All of a sudden, they come out with a roster for the world championships, and here comes the WCHA team, here comes the player of the year," Johnson said. "All this stuff comes in and it can have an impact on your group. I should have made second-team, I should have made first-team, that's all part of what we go through. But can you take those distractions and eliminate them?"
Last week, four Wisconsin players -- O'Brien, Harvey, Edwards and Simms -- were named among the 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier award. The Badgers claimed the WCHA's forward of the year (O'Brien), defender of the year (Harvey) and coach of the year (Johnson) awards. Five players -- Edwards, Harvey, McNaughton, Simms and Lacey Eden -- were named to the Team USA roster for the 2025 International Ice Hockey Federation women's world championship, to be played next month in Czechia.
O'Brien admits the award buzz can impact how individuals play, and ultimately shift the team's performance. A spot on national teams is every hockey player's dream, especially those who play for a Team USA legend in Johnson.
But O'Brien is confident in herself and Wisconsin's other leaders not to let anything derail their team. Individual recognition isn't new for the Badgers stars. Plus, they can't control who ends up where or with what awards.
"At the end of the day, none of that matters," O'Brien said. "When you step into the Wisconsin locker room, we're our own team. We have our own values. We're playing for each other. We're not playing to get a spot on the next roster."
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The Badgers' vast experience isn't the only thing that helps them handle recognition. This particular Wisconsin team celebrates everything. When they're reviewing game or practice film and see a strong back check, they "start screaming for, like, five minutes," O'Brien said.
When Paul Valukas, Wisconsin's strength and conditioning coach, recently introduced a new intern to the team, players erupted into applause.
"We have no idea who this girl is, but everybody's just screaming," O'Brien said. "It's just a funny environment. But any time you kind of get recognized for something, you just feel that support from everybody."
Wisconsin's dominance has created very few genuine moments of adversity, but there have been some. After a 5-0 win at Minnesota, the Badgers found themselves down 3-0 the next night, midway through the second period. They scored four straight goals to win.
"I didn't see a quit," Crum said. "I felt this confidence on the bench, like, 'Yeah, we're gonna get the next one.'"
Minnesota also pushed Wisconsin on Saturday night in the WCHA championship, as neither team led by more than a goal before the Badgers answered a Gophers goal in the final minute with one of their own to prevail 4-3.
Other than Minnesota, only one opponent has truly tested Wisconsin, a notable and familiar foe: Ohio State. The Buckeyes handed the Badgers their only regulation loss, way back on Nov. 16. After a 6-0 Wisconsin blowout at LaBahn Arena on Jan. 2, the teams met two days later at Chicago's Wrigley Field, where it was 24 degrees at puck drop.
The game featured three ties and two lead changes, and couldn't be decided in regulation. Ohio State's Jenna Buglioni beat McNaughton for the only goal of the shootout, giving the Buckeyes the extra point in the standings, although the game goes in the books as a tie.
"They're our rival, usually at the end of the year," Harvey said. "It's always a challenge playing them and trying to figure out that one extra pass or shot that's going to beat them, because obviously, the last two years, it's been 1-0, a close game all the way up until the end."
Simms scored the only goal in Wisconsin's national title win over Ohio State in 2023. Last year in Durham, New Hampshire, the Badgers had 26 shots but never found the net, and they lost on a third-period goal by the Buckeyes.
The Ohio State series is personal for Edwards, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, but left to attend high school and play for a top prep program in Rochester, New York. She would follow her older sister, Chayla, a defenseman for Wisconsin, and play for the Badgers.
"My whole family is obsessed with Ohio State football, and I still love watching their football team, but football only," Edwards said with a smile. "I'm always getting questions, like, 'Why didn't you go there? You're from Ohio.' I went to the place that checked off all my boxes, and so being on the other side of the rivalry, oh well, so be it. It's funny to see Ohio on the other side of my rivalry."
JOHNSON ISN'T A big numbers guy. He leaves those to his longtime assistants, Crum and Dan Koch. Johnson relies on what he sees, hears and feels from the bench.
He coaches through the lens of a former player. Johnson understands what it's like to be a star, which he was at Wisconsin -- he helped the Badgers to the 1977 national title and earned All-America and WCHA honors -- and then with Team USA and in the NHL, where made the 1984 All-Star Game as a member of the Hartford Whalers. But he also understands the life of a fourth liner, which he was as an NHL rookie with Pittsburgh, unsure of how long he'd be at hockey's highest level.
"The mindset they're in, I've been in that mindset," Johnson said. "I help them guide through that because, at the end of the day, similar to our 1980 team and other teams that I played on that were good and had a chance at the end, you need everybody. Your four to six minutes or eight minutes are equally as important as her 15 to 18 minutes. What are you going to do with that? Are you going to embrace it? Are you going to own it?"
Edwards calls it "an honor" to play for Johnson, adding that while Johnson rarely talks about his past, the players are very aware of what he accomplished long before they were born. She gets chills when memes of the 1980 Winter Olympics appear in her social media feed. Edwards estimates she has watched the "Miracle" movie at least 50 times. When O'Brien attended her brother Max's senior day game at Colby College, she was peppered with questions about what it's like to play for Johnson.
She and Edwards credit Johnson for not making Wisconsin all about himself. He doesn't overcoach and encourages them to showcase their individual talents within some key parameters.
"At the end of the day, he knows that he's not the one on the ice, as much as he wishes he could still be," Edwards said. "We're the ones who have to get the job done."
The truth is Johnson enters the NCAA tournament with a loaded roster and as a heavy favorite -- much like the 1980 Soviets did, as opposed to the squad for which he played 45 years ago. Any win over Wisconsin, even coming from Ohio State, would be considered an upset. If the Badgers prevail and take home the national title, meanwhile, they could go down as one of the best teams since Minnesota's undefeated 2012-13 squad -- the gold standard in the sport.
Edwards thinks it's important that players process what the season could mean with a national championship to cap it off. The freedom that Johnson wants comes with not being afraid of either failure and, perhaps, immortality.
"If and when this team reaches its potential, we'll be able to win every game that we play, beat any team that we play, and have fun while doing it," Edwards said. "When we're at our best game and all working together, I don't think anyone can beat us."