After losing their first two games at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls National Championships, the Wisconsin Selects find their tournament survival on life support as they face the Nashville Jr. Predators on Friday in Cleveland, Ohio. Wisconsin will need some other games to go their way and will need a regulation victory over the Predators on Friday to advance to the Quarter-finals on Saturday.

Wisconsin opened the tournament on Wednesday with a 3-0 loss to the #2 ranked Boston Jr. Eagles. It was the second consecutive game that Wisconsin was shut out after losing 1-0 in the Central District Championship games two weeks ago. The Eagles scored a powerplay goal in each of the first two periods to take a 2-0 lead. They added an empty net goal late.

Boston outshot Wisconsin 32-25, with goalies Brooklyn Goodman and Eve-Marie LeClerc combining for the Eagles shut out. Makenna Hutchison kept the Selects close with a twenty-nine save performance.

The offensive drought continued on Thursday as the Northern Connecticut Lights built a 2-0 lead with a pair of second period goals. The Selects scoreless streak extended into the third period. Reese Sheehan finally broke through for Wisconsin burying a rebound, as a powerplay expired at 12:46 of the third period. Addison Gruhlke set up Gabi Heuser in the high slot and Sheehan’s rebound finally found the back of the net. The Selects pushed hard as the third period ticked down. Liliana Ficaro took a hooking penalty with 2:06 to play and with the Selects goalie Greta Woelber pulled for an extra attacker, Wisconsin tied the game. Senior Addison Gruhlke used some of her ECA Stars late game magic snapping a pass from Heuser past goalie Juliette Belanger to send the game to overtime.

The Selects dominated the three-on-three overtime putting ten shots on the NCTL net. The Northern Lights ended it on a face-off with twenty-three seconds remaining in overtime. Kaylyn Reynolds got loose coming off the wall and drilled a wrist shot under the bar to send Wisconsin to defeat. Belanger stopped 38 shots for NCTL and Woelber 23 for Wisconsin.

“It has been a frustrating three games, going back to Central Districts,” said head coach Emily Bauer. “The good scoring opportunities have been there every game, we just haven’t been able to finish them off.”

The Predators are 24-13 on the season and have split their first two games of the tournament, losing NCTL 4-1 and defeating Boston 3-1. Wisconsin and Nashville will drop the puck at 4:00pm on Friday.