MINNEAPOLIS – The Ohio State Buckeyes advanced to the WCHA Championship game with a 2-1 win over Minnesota Duluth on Friday afternoon. They’ll face the winner of the semifinal between Wisconsin and Minnesota in the title game Saturday at 2 pm Central.
The teams played an incredibly even, back and forth game for most of the 60 minutes, but OSU benefited from a fluke goal to gather momentum and scored again just 58 seconds. That would prove to be enough to put the game out of reach.
A hallmark of the Buckeyes’ play is a strong forecheck and constant pressure on their opponent deep in their defensive zone. Brook Bink said they have a team rule to keep at least one player on the ice, making themselves a pest as the rest of the team changes. Midway through the second, it was Bink who was up in front of the net as Ashton Bell gathered the puck and circled back to start on a breakout. Bell fumbled the pass a bit and it hit off Bink and deflected back into the net to put Ohio State up 1-0.
Less than a minute later, UMD won the puck back on defense. Maggie Flaherty tried to flick it up and out of the zone, but Emma Maltais was floating back towards the blue line, where she was able to catch it, drop it to the ice and let go of a slapshot that made it a 2-0 game. The puck was still bouncing when Maltais got her stick on it and UMD goalie Emma Soderberg was screened by two defenders, so she didn’t see the flight of the puck as it beat her in the far top corner.
Both opportunities came because the Buckeyes did not drop back or give the Bulldogs space to start breaking out of the zone.
“We focus on playing a relentless game and I think both of those opportunities came from relentless efforts with Brooke (Bink) and with Sophie (Jaques) trying to attack the net,” said Maltais.
While the forecheck is always a part of Ohio State’s game, coach Nadine Muzerall said it was a particular focus against UMD because they’d seen they could make plays and cause mistakes against Soderberg when she left her crease to try and corral pucks. OSU scored on just such a play in the 2022 National Championship game.
“Putting pucks on her and having her mishandled plays is important for us. Because of our style of forecheck, we want her to feel the rush coming from us and make bad decisions,” said Muzerall.
Minnesota Duluth pulled Soderberg with four minutes left in the third period and were able to get a goal back as Nina Jobst-Smith lit the lamp during the 6-on-5. But Ohio State buckled down on the ensuing faceoff and tied up the puck, effectively killing the final two minutes of the game and keeping the Bulldogs from getting a chance to pull Soderberg again or get set up in the zone.
It was disappointing for UMD to fail to advance to the title match, but it is expected that they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, so their season is not over. That makes this just another opportunity to get better. Last season, the Bulldogs lost to Minnesota in the WCHA semifinals and then took down the Gophers the following weekend in the NCAA quarterfinals. They are no strangers to taking this disappointment and using it to fuel the rest of their postseason.
“I thought it was back and forth and there were moments that we had a lot of momentum, especially in the second half of the game, moments that they had a lot of momentum. We made a push at the end with a beautiful goal on the six on five and sort of ran out of time, but it was a really good hockey game and we keep learning,” said Crowell.
The Buckeyes mixed up their lines at times during the game, playing matchups and looking for a way to get past Soderberg.
“I feel confident, especially in our top nine forwards that we can rotate lines as needed for the betterment of the team against who we’re playing and feel confident that they’re going to do their job,” said Muzerall.
Ohio State will be looking for their second-straight WCHA Tournament title. They won their first regular season title and hope to complete the double. Muzerall said the feeling of going through the postseason this year is different from the last one, where they hadn’t yet won the national title. She described the desire to win it all as an itch that drove her and the team. This year, the weight of expectation to stay on top is different and heavier, she said.
They’ll look to take the next step in their run to repeat Saturday.
