Bizal relied on ‘strength,’ Ohio State support to beat cancer

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hockey Fights Cancer, the NHL will be sharing stories of those in the hockey world impacted by the disease on the 25th of each month all season long. Today, the story of PWHL Montreal defenseman Madison Bizal.

The Montreal skyline on a late winter afternoon stretched to the east as far as the eye could see, Madison Bizal looking out over the city where she now plays hockey as a professional.

Cancer seemed a fight of both forever and just days ago as the confident 24-year-old considered what changed her life forever.

“It all feels surreal, everything that’s happened,” Bizal said. “Working hard is all you can control and that’s what I was going to do. Having gone through something like this, I remember just wanting to put it aside and keep pursuing my dream to play hockey.”

From November 2020, her sophomore year at Ohio State University, through September 2023, when she symbolically rang the bell upon being declared cancer-free, Bizal lived a nightmare and a dream.

Over nearly three years, her family 12 hours away because of COVID restrictions, the native of Elk River, Minnesota pushed back nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer Through it all, she never missed a game with Ohio State, ultimately winning the 2022 NCAA Division I championship.

Madison Bizal during the national anthems before the PWHL Montreal game on March 10, 2024 at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.

Today, Bizal’s dream continues as a member of PWHL Montreal, playing in the fledgling Professional Women’s Hockey League with and against the world’s best players in packed arenas.

“I learned that I had another strength I didn’t know I had, never having been in a situation like this,” Bizal said of her battle with and recovery from the disease. “I’d never have expected that strength from myself but I was able to conquer cancer.”

Said Ohio State coach, Nadine Muzerall: “She’s the toughest athlete I have ever come across.”

Bizal was probably born to play hockey, skating with her twin brother, Connor, who today is a junior at Buffalo State University in New York.

Madison Bizal carries the puck during the PWHL Montreal game on March 10, 2024 at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.

“We’re really close. My mom will tell you that we never fought, which is like… crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I’d cry if Connor had to go into time out when we were younger.”

The siblings played together when they began hockey in Elk River, about 30 miles northwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Bizal playing boys hockey with her brother until they were 10, then a year after that, too.

College recruiters would see many qualities in this poised, strong-skating defenseman who would become a gold medalist for Team USA at the 2018 IIHF World Women’s Under-18 championship, Bizal considering her hockey IQ and decision-making skills as her greatest strengths.

But she remembers that just one visit to Ohio State was enough to convince her that she’d found her first home away from home.

“There was never really another option,” Bizal said. “Right when I stepped on campus, it felt like home. I immediately loved everything they had to offer -- academics, hockey, Ohio State’s tradition. It’s so cool to be a part of that.

Madison Bizal as a member of Team USA for the 2018 IIHF Women’s World Under-18 Championship, and celebrating the gold-medal victory with goalie Calla Frank.

“At the time of committing (to the school), you don’t even realize how special it is to be a part of the Buckeye Nation. Going to school there is so much fun for the people and the connections.”

Little did she know as a freshman in 2019, setting off into four years of sports industry study with a public management certificate in her fifth, how important those people would be in her life.

Bizal was close with friends Paetyn Levis, Gabby Rosenthal and Sophie Jaques, their bond growing tighter as Buckeyes teammates.

They all would be touched by a cancer journey that began in Bizal’s sophomore year when she felt an abnormal lymph node, a doctor in Columbus soon to tell her it should be removed.

Then came a surgeon’s November 2020 phone call that she missed in her room on campus. Alone, she called back to hear the stunning news.

Madison Bizal in an Ohio State Buckeyes portrait.

“Chaos,” she said of the emotions she felt upon hanging up. “My brain went blank when I heard the ‘C’ word from the surgeon who would do the removal of the lymph node. I wasn’t expecting anything bad when I called.

“He didn’t have a lot more information at the time, which is what I needed right on the spot. He basically said it was cancer and that my Ohio State physicians were going to be in touch for the next steps.”

Bizal made a tearful call to her parents, Terry and Beth, 800 miles away in Elk River with the pandemic by then having shut down much of the world.

She then reached out to Kevin Lennon, Ohio State’s women’s hockey trainer, and Muzerall. An incredible support network was instantly engaged.

Madison Bizal tracks the play during a PWHL game on Jan. 16, 2024 at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.

“When you’re recruiting kids, you look parents in the eye and you tell them that you’re going to take care of their baby girl, like they’re one of your own,” Muzerall said.

“I didn’t know how to tell my roommates,” Bizal recalled. “I was having a breakdown in my room. ‘Muzzy’ picked me up and got me out of my house so I didn’t have to be alone.”

Bizal’s parents came to Columbus for two appointments with her doctor, the first to generally discuss the cancer, the second to lay out the treatment protocol. Only her father was allowed in the hospital because of COVID restrictions.

Many tears were shed with Levis, her heartbroken best friend and roommate who was always at her side.

Madison Bizal of the Ohio State Buckeyes protects the puck from Maddi Wheeler of the Wisconsin Badgers during the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Frozen Four championship final on March 19, 2023 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Wisconsin defeated Ohio State 1-0 for the title.

“Tears from the whole team when they found out, it was very emotional,” Bizal said. “It’s really crazy to think that I was there by myself, basically, through the whole, entire thing. My thought process was that I just needed to get this done.

“And I wasn’t alone. I had people picking me up and supporting me after I left the hospital. The nurses were great, too, when they saw that I was by myself.

“I was going through a lot, and I didn’t want to make people go out of their way thinking that they needed to be supportive of me. Everyone wanted to help me in their own way. I just didn’t want to be a burden for anyone.”

Treatment was Rituxan infusion intravenous injection, “not like chemotherapy, so I didn’t lose my hair,” Bizal said. “I felt pretty much fine through the whole thing. I’d be knocked out by the Benadryl and Tylenol that made sure I didn’t have a reaction, but otherwise I didn’t feel anything from the drug.

PWHL Montreal’s Madison Bizal (6) plays the puck against PWHL New York forward Paetyn Levis, Bizal’s best friend, during a game Jan. 16, 2024, at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.

“I wasn’t good with needles before,” she added, laughing, “but I am now.”

Bizal would miss practice on Tuesdays, undergoing treatment, then report back to the team on Wednesdays to prepare for weekend games.

“Practicing and playing was definitely a distraction for what was going on,” she recalled. “I didn’t have to think about any of that when I was at the rink, so that was nice.”

Ohio State didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament in her freshman year, then lost in the national semifinals her junior year following the COVID cancellation as a sophomore.

Still undergoing treatment as a senior, though less frequently by now, Bizal and the Buckeyes won the 2022 championship, a storybook finish if ever one were written.

“I was mostly just focusing on the victory,” Bizal said of the wild celebration that followed. “It was really cool to even experience that, having gone through everything, being in the moment with my teammates. It was so special for us, each and every one of us… so emotional, the best moment ever.”

Madison Bizal carries the puck during Montreal’s PWHL game against Boston at the Verdun Auditorium on Jan. 13, 2024 in Verdun, Quebec.

Bizal’s final treatment followed in July 2023, the bell joyfully rung with her family two months later at the medical center within sight of the Ohio State rink. She will require checkups the rest of her life, her most recent one last Christmastime, her next this summer.

Still catching her breath in September 2023, at home in Elk River, Bizal sat to watch a stream of the PWHL’s historic first player draft. And then she heard her name called by Montreal, the team’s first choice in the eighth of 15 rounds, No. 43 of 90 players selected in all.

Two dear Ohio State friends were drafted, too: Sophie Jaques, 10th overall by Boston, and Levis, 57th by New York.

If Bizal experienced culture shock moving from Elk River, population about 26,000, to Columbus, about 900,000, imagine a new country, a cosmopolitan city of 1.8 million that speaks predominantly French and a new professional league.

“I was so excited, so happy,” she said of being drafted by Montreal. “I’d never been to the city, but I’d heard so many good things. It’s been a cool experience to be part of a different culture, learning so many different things.”

Madison Bizal kisses the ice in celebration following Ohio State’s 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Frozen Four championship victory against Minnesota-Duluth at Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pennsylvania.

She has yet to visit Bell Centre, home of the NHL Canadiens, where Bizal and her teammates will play Toronto on April 20.

The two teams faced off at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 17, the home team winning 3-0 before a women’s hockey world-record crowd of 19,285. That record will fall next month beneath the Canadiens’ 24 Stanley Cup banners, 21,105-seat Bell Centre selling out for the NHL arena rematch within 20 minutes of general tickets having gone on sale.

“All I know is it’s going to be loud,” Bizal said. “The crowds have been incredible, so engaged in Verdun and at Place Bell in Laval (where PWHL Montreal play home games).”

Her inspirational cancer battle in her recent past, Bizal is looking much more to her future. As she speaks, it is stretched out far and wide below her in Montreal, and she is profoundly appreciative for all who rallied to her side during an extraordinary time in her life, then and now.

“Having people around you is so important,” she said, “great people who make life, and being at the rink, so much fun.”