The Ohio State Women’s Ice Hockey team raise their sticks in the air after their game against Minnesota State on Jan. 22. Ohio State won 3-0. Credit: Gabe Haferman | For The Lantern
After a week off, the Buckeyes brace for a familiar heavyweight opponent.
No. 4 Ohio State (9-5-0) travels to take on No. 2 Minnesota (9-5-1) this weekend. The Golden Gophers went to overtime in both games of their latest series with Wisconsin, tying one and losing one.
Ohio State and Minnesota have met four times this year in two separate series, splitting each. The most recent one came two weeks ago in Columbus, where the Buckeyes dropped the first game 7-4 and won the second 3-1.
“Playing the No. 2 team five and six times is never an easy thing,” Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall said. “Our philosophy stays the same — playing fast, playing aggressive — but we’re going to tweak some things based on our opponent.”
Muzerall is not only familiar with the Golden Gophers because of the previous four matchups this year; she helped raise some of the banners the teams will be skating under.
Muzerall had a legendary career playing and coaching at Minnesota, helping the Golden Gophers to six national championships. She still leads Minnesota in all-time goals scored and points.
“It’s a little more personal for me,” Muzerall said. “It makes me a little more competitive. It is kind of like trying to beat your brother, your friend.”
Muzerall and the Buckeyes had plenty of time to prepare for the rematch with a week off from competition.
“You need to be ready to change things up playing each other so much,” Muzerall said. “We can circle back and try to target some things we did well last time and things we can tighten up on this time around.”
Ohio State did not lack scoring in the last series, spreading out the offense as they have all year. The team now has five players in double-digit points, including senior forward Emma Maltais, who has netted two goals and assisted on eight this season and just eclipsed 100 career assists at Ohio State, becoming only the second player to do so.
Maltais was also part of five of the seven goals in the Minnesota series leading to WCHA Player of the Week honors.
“We’ve had a lot of secondary scoring and that has contributed to our success,” Muzerall said. “The team is very deserving and I think they’re really itching to compete again this weekend.”
A large part of the secondary scoring has come from freshman forward Jenna Buglioni with a team high in goals and freshman defenseman Riley Brengman with seven assists. Both were honored for their play last month, with Buglioni winning WCHA rookie of the month and Brengman winning defenseman of the month.
“Jenna finishes — when she gets an opportunity, she finishes,” Muzerall said. “Brengman, we’re really excited about her, just the way she plays, she’s doing a really great job on all 200 feet up the ice.”
Minnesota has no shortage of offense to counter. The Golden Gophers are second in the conference in goals scored at 44, led by senior forward Grace Zumwinkle with a team-high 11 goals.
Both teams play strong defense to compliment their offenses, each led by WHCA goalie of the year award watch list recipients.
Ohio State leans on junior goaltender Andrea Braendli, who has a 1.98 goals against average and .921 save percentage.
Minnesota redshirt senior goaltender Lauren Bench also populates the watch list with a 2.18 goals against average and a save percentage of .921.
“Andrea is a competitor, I think our team has done a really good job around her,” Muzerall said. “She’s very independent, and in her own goalie world, she gets into her own zone.”
Braendli has led the Buckeyes to the best penalty kill percentage in the league at 94.1 percent. They were 25-for-25 going into the Minnesota series two weeks ago, but the Golden Gophers were able to bring that to an end with two power-play goals.
“Our penalty kill is very good,” Muzerall said. “Our team has done a really good job keeping shots to the outside.”
The Buckeyes and Gophers faceoff Friday at 5:07 p.m. and Saturday at 2:07 p.m. in Minnesota.
