© Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
On Sunday afternoon, Wisconsin junior Kirsten Simms added her name to a legendary list of athletes with all-time clutch moments to hand the Badgers an NCAA women’s hockey championship. Think Kris Jenkins hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win an NCAA Championship for Villanova. Malcolm Butler’s Super Bowl-winning interception against the Seattle Seahawks, or LeBron James’ iconic chase down block in the 2016 NBA Finals.
Simms rose to the occasion to meet those moments not once, but twice for a Badgers team that was hanging was by a thread/
The first of those two moments, and perhaps the most impressive, came in regulation. The Badgers trailed Ohio State 3-2 with time quickly running down. But the Buckeyes took a too many women on the ice penalty, putting Wisconsin on the power play. During the power play, an Ohio State play covered the puck with their glove while in the goalie crease. That gave the Badgers a penalty shot with 18 seconds remaining.
Score the penalty shot and the game was almost certainly headed to overtime. Miss and the Buckeyes would almost certainly be crowned national champions.
Here’s the clip of Mark Johnson asking “Who wants it?”
Kirsten Simms – Hand up right away.
Clutch. pic.twitter.com/7CseebpHUD
— Badger of Honor (@BadgerOfHonorFS) March 23, 2025
Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson called his team over to the bench and looked down the line. Twice he asked “who wants it,” trying to figure out who would take the penalty shot. Simms did not shy away from the moment. Her hand went shooting up. It was her shot to take … and she made no mistake.
The Plymouth, Mich, who was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, the Heisman Trophy of Women’s Hockey, took the puck, skated toward the Ohio State goaltender and proceeded to deke her out of her skates before calmly slotting the puck into the back of the net. Tie game.
KIRSTEN SIMMS TIES UP THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME WITH 18.9 SECONDS REMAINING 😱
OVERTIME ON ESPNU NOW 🍿 pic.twitter.com/jwxx3Lx4Et
— ESPN (@espn) March 23, 2025
“I wanted to see who wanted to step up and own it and who felt comfortable in this setting because you can’t have one ounce of negativity in your mind as you pick the puck up,” Johnson said of the moment. “I give her a lot of credit because I don’t know if I would have taken the shot if the coach looked at me and says ‘OK, who wants to shoot?'”
But that wasn’t enough for Simms. See, she’s built different. Simply tying the game does nothing to cement her legacy. So, less than three minutes into overtime, she picked up a rebound and fired it home, handing the Badgers a record fourth national championship.
“It still hasn’t really totally set in with me and at the end of the day I’m just super happy that we’re bringing that trophy back to Madison,” Simms said afterward. “No matter how the job got done, it got done and we’re taking that trophy home with us.”