The Minnesota–Wisconsin ice hockey rivalry is an intercollegiate ice hockey rivalry between the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

and

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

. An extension of the broader rivalry between the two schools, which includes the Paul Bunyan's Axe football game, the rivalry series is between two of the most successful in collegiate hockey. Including results from both men's and woman's play, the programs have combined for 23 NCAA titles and 59

Frozen Four The annual NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the top men's team in Division I. Like other Division I cham ...

appearances over their histories. The men's programs compete in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

, while the women's programs have resided in the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...

(WCHA) since the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

first began to sponsor the sport for women.

Men's ice hockey

Series history

The rivalry has its origins in informal play beginning in 1922, before halting 12 years later. The rivalry was revived in 1965 with Wisconsin resuming its sponsoring of the sport. In the 1981 season, the teams met for their first and only matchups to-date for the national championship. After three periods, the Badgers topped the Gophers by a score of 6 to 3 under head coach Bob Johnson. After competing together in the

since 1999, both teams moved to their all-sports home, the

, in anticipation of the 2013–14 season as part of widespread NCAA realignment in hockey. While questions surrounded the continuation of many of the rivals' other historic series, such as

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

and Minnesota Duluth, their rivalry with each other continued uninterrupted. As of the end of the 2023–24 season, Minnesota leads the series 184–103–25.

Rival accomplishments

The following summarizes the accomplishments of the two programs. *Wisconsin vacated results from the 1992 NCAA tournament

Game results

Women's ice hockey

Series history

Since women's ice hockey became an NCAA sport, the two have been the flagpole programs, with frequent Top-5 meetings and matchups in the NCAA tournament and three national championships. The rivalry is fueled by the local nature of its players; in 2019, 24 players on the two rosters hailed from either Minnesota or Wisconsin. After the Badgers prevailed in the 2019 national title, no team has been ranked lower than eighth nationally during any of their meetings. As of the end of the 2024–25 season, Minnesota leads the series 58–57–16.

Rival accomplishments

The following summarizes the accomplishments of the two programs.

Game results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry College ice hockey rivalries in the United States Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey Wisconsin Badgers men's ice hockey Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey