The Ohio State women’s hockey team (3-9-2,2-6-2 WCHA) will try to win its first conference home game of the year when it hosts St. Cloud State this weekend for two games at the OSU Ice Arena.
“We would really love to win that first game in our building,” said OSU women’s hockey coach Jackie Barto. “We need to start using the home ice to our advantage.”
While the Buckeyes respect St. Cloud State (3-8-0, 3-5-0 WCHA) they said they are confident they will be able to beat them.
“They are a hard-working, fairly skilled team,” Barto said. “But I think we’re going to have a great weekend. We just need to make that big play that will win us some games.”
Defender Christine Partno stressed the importance of a Buckeye victory.
“These games are huge for us,” said senior defender Christine Patno. “I think that with the way we have played recently we can win them.”
Both teams are tied for fourth place in the WCHA.
“This is a big game for a lot of teams because there are only about four points separating the fourth place team from the seventh place team,” Patno said. “I plan on every team coming out hard in the next couple of weeks because they are huge for every team right now.”
This will be the Buckeyes’ last chance for almost two months to win a home game, until they face Merychurst on Jan. 25.
Last weekend, OSU faced the always tough No. 7 Wisconsin Badgers.
While OSU didn’t win either of the games, the team played well. The Buckeyes tied Wisconsin in Madison on Friday before losing to the Badgers on Saturday.
“We played pretty good but couldn’t get our chances in the net,” said junior defender Emma Laaksonnen.
The Buckeyes outshot the Badgers 46 to 29 over both games.
“Overall, we had a good weekend,” Barto said. “In a lot of ways we out played them. We just couldn’t pull it out.”
