Nadine Muzerall is back again, in Minnesota and in the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four final

Nearly a decade after she left Minnesota, Ohio State women’s hockey coach Nadine Muzerall is back in something of a homecoming this weekend at the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four at Ridder Arena.

Ontario-raised, the former Gophers star and assistant coach still is the program’s all-time leading goal scorer with 139.

In nine seasons, Muzerall now has led the Buckeyes to four consecutive Frozen Four finals — and won two of them with a chance to make it three out of four Sunday afternoon against once-beaten Wisconsin.

“I’d like to say I have drank the Kool-Aid and I bleed scarlet and gray now,” Muzerall said when asked if she feels at home. “However, how can it not?”

The ties run deep.

Her college coach, Gophers women’s hockey founder Laura Halldorson, offered her advice years ago that she follows today. On Thursday, Halldorson took Muzerall’s mother and two children to lunch while Ohio State practiced for the national semifinal it won Friday 4-2 against Cornell.

When the team bus rounded the corner toward Ridder Arena, Muzerall recognized the street corner on University Avenue where she first saw her future husband, Gophers football fullback Ryan Venturine, 25 years ago. “It took me 13 years to like him, though,” she said. “He was very persistent.”

Current Gophers head coach Brad Frost hired Muzerall as an assistant coach in 2011. She credits Halldorson, Frost and former Gophers assistant Joel Johnson for her growth as a player and coach.

“Brad Frost was the first person by my bedside when I had my first child,” Muzerall said. “So we have a very good relationship.”

“I didn’t know that,” Frost said playfully. “I just want to verify I was only at my wife’s bedside when she was giving birth.”

But as Frost remembers it, they were together the day Muzerall gave birth.

“I remember her having contractions on the bench and I’m like, ‘OK, you can go now,’ ” Frost said. “She was like, ‘Oh, I’ll be fine,' ” and she gave birth that night. We have a lot of great history together, and I’m very happy with the success she’s having at Ohio State.”

Muzerall was a Gophers assistant when they reached five consecutive Frozen Four finals — and won four of them — before Ohio State came calling in 2016 with a program 10-25-1 the year before. Her husband was working in the yard of a new home they had just bought when she wondered if she wanted the job.

“He looked me in the eye and said, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ ” Muzerall said. “This is The Ohio State. It doesn’t get any bigger than this. Pretty much whatever you need, you’ll have. I told him, coming from Minnesota, the hockey team isn’t that successful, and he just said, ‘Well, go fix it.’ ”

Frost told her the same, calling the Big Ten football school a “sleeping giant” in women’s hockey because of the university’s resources and proximity to Ontario and Canadian recruiting possibilities.

She took the job. Ohio State reached its first Frozen Four in 2018, coincidentally played at Ridder Arena without the Gophers, who did not qualify.

“That seems a long time ago, with a lot going on in my personal life and seeing these young women I have coached now married and having their own children,” Muzerall said. “It has been a long journey but a fun journey.”

Halldorson attended Ohio State’s Frozen Four game in 2018, bringing gifts and advice.

“She just said, ‘Coach their hearts and you can’t go wrong,‘ ” Muzerall said. “Although we’re very different personalities and maybe different coaching styles, we always had passion and love for our athletes, and I’ve learned a lot of that from her. She said just remember that advice because they’ll play for you. You just got to make sure they know you’ll love them, no matter what.”

The Buckeyes have made the Frozen Four championship game all four seasons since 2022. They beat Minnesota Duluth 3-2 in 2022, lost to Wisconsin 1-0 in 2023, beat the Badgers 1-0 last year and now play them again Sunday.

They’ve done so with judicious use of the transfer portal and wide-ranging recruiting from British Columbia and Sweden to Edina, Northfield, Excelsior, Apple Valley, Stillwater and Plymouth.

“I’m not surprised she has done a good job,” Frost said. “She’s very passionate. Her team, honestly, plays to her identity and personality at times. She’s kind of in-your-face, appropriately. Hard worker. Hard on pucks as a player. She loved to score goals. It’s just been fun to see her lead that group at Ohio State and bring from the middle of the pack in the WCHA toward the top.”

3 p.m., Ridder Arena

TV: ESPNU

The same teams are meeting in the national final for a third consecutive season. Ohio State won 1-0 last year, Wisconsin won by the same score in 2023. The Buckeyes are going for their third championship in four seasons, having beaten Minnesota Duluth in 2022 as well. Wisconsin reached the final after beating the Gophers 6-2 Friday night while Ohio State advanced by beating Cornell 4-2 in the night’s first semifinal. Badgers senior center Casey O’Brien won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award on Saturday. She was one of three finalists; the other two were her teammates, Lalia Edwards and Caroline Harvey.