Head coach Nadine Muzerall speaks to the Ohio State women’s ice hockey team from the bench during a 6-5 win over Minnesota Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
In recent years, the Ohio State women’s ice hockey program has become the gold standard for excellence in athletics.
Over the past six seasons, the Buckeyes have earned four Frozen Four appearances, two Western Collegiate Hockey Association Championships and a national championship in 2022.
It can all be traced back to the beginning of the 2016-17 season with the arrival of head coach Nadine Muzerall.
Muzerall, a former national championship-winning player, assistant coach and head coach, has transformed the Ohio State women’s hockey program from a below-average team to one of the top programs in the nation.
The Player
It makes sense that Muzerall has found success as a coach, as it reflects her immense success as a forward at the University of Minnesota from 1997 to 2001.
From early on in her career as a Golden Gopher, Muzerall was an offensive powerhouse and was trusted to take the majority of the shots for her team.
“I was definitely more of a shooter,” Muzerall said. “But my shot percentage was pretty bad because I took so many.”
By the end of her collegiate career, Muzerall finished with numerous records in the Minnesota record book, including first place in goals (139), goals per game (1.08) and powerplay goals (40).
In her four seasons at Minnesota, Muzerall earned two national championships in 2000 and 2001 and was a two-time All-American in 1998 and 2000, making her one of the most accomplished collegiate players in the sport.
The Assistant Coach
After Muzerall was inducted into Minnesota’s “M” Club Hall of Fame Sept. 27, 2007, she began to set her eyes on collegiate coaching.
She began as an assistant coach for the Golden Gophers at the beginning of the 2011-12 season under head coach Brad Frost.
Upon her arrival, Muzerall was able to lend some of her offensive expertise to the Minnesota program and shared her philosophy on team scoring.
“When you are in the offensive zone and you see the four other players that you can pass that puck to and you trust them,” Muzerall said, “I think that’s the biggest thing when you’re playing sports such as hockey.”
The Golden Gophers were a powerhouse under the leadership of Frost and Muzerall, winning three WCHA championships between 2011 and 2016.
But their most impressive stat of all is that out of the five years with Muzerall as assistant coach, the Gophers made five trips to the NCAA finals and won four national championships in the process (2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016).
The Head Coach
After her five-year stint at Minnesota, Muzerall came to Ohio State at the beginning of the 2016-17 season for her first collegiate head coaching position.
Before 2016, the Buckeyes had never even qualified for the NCAA tournament, but that quickly changed once Muzerall took over.
Under Muzerall, the Buckeyes qualified for the NCAA tournament five times in seven seasons, mainly attributed to the intensity Muzerall brings to the squad.
“She’s going on all cylinders at every moment,” graduate forward Jennifer Gardiner said. “We practice like we play the games, like every drill is just as intense.”
After winning the program’s first-ever WCHA championship in 2020, Muzerall cemented Ohio State as a team to be taken seriously.
The pinnacle of the program’s success finally came in 2022, when the Buckeyes won their first-ever national championship, just five seasons after Muzerall took over.
From a program that couldn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament to a national championship squad, Muzerall has changed the culture of Ohio State women’s hockey and said she plans to continue to uphold this standard during her tenure as head coach for one of the top programs in the nation.
The Buckeyes fell short of back-to-back championships as they were defeated by Wisconsin in the title game in 2023. However, they remain hopeful to win a second national championship by the end of the current 2023-24 season.
