Wisconsin's three-peat just became a goalie question

Wisconsin has enough skaters to beat most of the country without its best player for a weekend. What it doesn't have, at least not proven, is a way to win a third straight national title without Ava McNaughton. That's the question hanging over Madison after one period of bad luck in Canton.

McNaughton left Friday's opener at St. Lawrence at 13:21 of the second period with an apparent lower-body injury, hurt making a save with the game tied 2-2. Wisconsin hasn't given an update, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Badgers then scored four straight and won 6-2, and on Saturday they finished the sweep 6-0.

So the scoreboard says nothing is wrong. The scoreboard is lying a little.

Why the goalie is the whole story

McNaughton isn't a nice piece of a deep team. She's the spine of it. She backstopped titles in 2025 and 2026, won national goalie of the year in 2025 and was the 2026 NCAA tournament's most outstanding player. She went to Milan with Team USA in February.

Last season she posted a .939 save percentage and a 1.35 goals-against average in 32 games, even with the Olympic break.

Mark Johnson's teams always have scoring. Kelly Gorbatenko scored twice Friday, Charlotte Pieckenhagen had four points, and freshman Rosalie Tremblay got her first college goal on the power play. That part of the machine is fine.

The question is behind them.

Meet Rhyah Stewart

Sophomore Rhyah Stewart came in cold and stopped all 11 shots she saw over the last 33-plus minutes. That's a small sample, but it's a clean one. She isn't a walk-on, either.

She won all three games she played for Canada at the 2024 U18 Women's Worlds, where Canada took bronze, and she has waited behind the best college goalie in the country ever since she arrived.

Is she ready to carry the No. 1 team for a month? I'd bet she's ready to keep the Badgers winning in September. Whether she's ready for Ohio State in a February WCHA weekend is a different question, and nobody gets to answer it yet.

Meanwhile, in Columbus

Here's why this matters beyond Madison. Ohio State, No. 2 in the country and the preseason WCHA favorite, swept No. 5 Penn State on the same weekend: 2-1 in overtime, then 2-1 again. Penn State freshman Morgan Stickney made 44 saves in the overtime game and still lost, which tells you how much the Buckeyes had the puck.

Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News wrote this weekend that the national picture may be changing. I think that's right, with one condition. If McNaughton misses real time, the WCHA race tilts toward Columbus before October even starts. If she's back in two weeks, this was one scary period and a good look at Wisconsin's backup plan.

Either way, the most important update in women's college hockey this week will come from a trainer's room, not a scoreboard.

The W read: Wisconsin keeps winning with Stewart in net, but a healthy McNaughton is the difference between the favorite and a favorite.