Freshman forward Joy Dunne (16) celebrates her game-winning goal in Ohio State’s 1-0 national championship victory against No. 2 Wisconsin at the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics.
When you’re tied 0-0 late in a national championship game against your biggest rival, who do you turn to?
For Ohio State women’s ice hockey, the answer was freshman forward Joy Dunne.
Dunne scored the game-winning goal in Ohio State’s second national championship victory in program history, as the Buckeyes downed No. 2 Wisconsin 1-0 at the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire, on Sunday. While some freshmen might be rattled playing in the postseason for the first time, the national Rookie of the Year said she came to Ohio State for moments like this.
“Going back to when I made my decision to come to Ohio State, the goal was to win a national championship and to become a better player every day, and that’s what happened,” Dunne said. “When [head coach Nadine Muzerall] was recruiting me, everything she said was true, and she meant it.”
Beyond wanting to win a championship, Dunne said she wanted to help her teammates get revenge.
Last season, Ohio State fell in the national championship to the Badgers by the same score, 1-0. Although Dunne wasn’t on the team then, she said her leaders made her feel the importance of getting redemption.
“As a freshman, we had such great leadership, like, we didn’t play in that game last year, but we felt that,” Dunne said. “We felt that hunger because we wanted our seniors and the girls that are done with their college [careers] to win this national championship for them and with them.”
Before the championship game, Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson said losing to Ohio State twice on the road in November was a defining moment for the maturity of freshmen like goaltender Ava McNaughton, who started the title game and made 27 saves. Dunne said instead of having a specific game that prepared her for high-intensity moments, it was her connection with Ohio State’s leaders that set her up for the third-period game-winner.
“It was really stuff behind the scenes,” Dunne said. “Our practices are sometimes harder than our games, in a good way. So having that moment of like, ‘This is a team, everyone has [the] same goal in mind, the same vision, and we’re gonna go for it,’ I think that was like my welcome to college hockey.”
With a roster that Muzerall called the “most skilled” she’s coached in her 13-year career, Muzerall knew the camaraderie Dunne described would be key to the Buckeyes’ success.
“I knew on paper, individually, they were very talented,” Muzerall said about her 10 incoming transfers and freshmen. “I knew the things that I was worried about in the beginning of the year weren’t going to be the problems at the end of the year. It was just us meshing and creating our chemistry and our thing. You have to put it all together and you have to trust that they have the mindset to do it as well because it’s blow for blow every game.”
Ohio State’s transfer class was loaded with stars, including Olympic gold medalist Cayla Barnes and Boston College leading scorer Hannah Bilka.
But after finishing the season with a team-leading 24 goals, Dunne said she and her fellow freshmen felt like seasoned veterans themselves.
“Because our leadership was so good from returners and transfers, everyone brought that, and my roommate Jocelyn [Amos] and I were talking about it, and we know we’re freshmen but we don’t feel like it,” Dunne said. “On this team, we’re so close, friends with anyone and just bonded like sisters.”
