Buckeyes come away with sweep against Minnesota in home opener.
Credit: Zachary Rilley | Lantern File
For the third straight week, Ohio State women’s ice hockey brought out the brooms.
The No. 2 Buckeyes (7-1-0, 6-0-0 WCHA) swept No. 4 Minnesota (5-2-0, 3-2-0 WCHA) in their weekend series at the Ohio State Ice Rink in their home opener, winning in overtime 4-3 Friday and 6-5 Saturday.
On Friday, graduate forward Hannah Bilka gave the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead in her first home game at Ohio State, netting her fifth goal as a Buckeye.
In front of a sold-out crowd, Bilka said the atmosphere was “electric” in Columbus.
After each Buckeye goal, the Golden Gophers responded with their own, ultimately tying the game at three apiece with 4:30 left on redshirt-junior forward Abbey Murphy’s goal that sent the game to overtime.
Graduate forward Jennifer Gardiner scored the game-winning goal 1:39 into overtime, her second goal of the night and her 11th multigoal career game.
“I thought I was going to pass the puck,” Gardiner said. “[Jocelyn Amos] was basically telling me to shoot and I saw that opening on the far side, it was just a good play.”
Senior goaltender Raygan Kirk picked up her fourth straight win, saving 25 shots in Friday’s victory.
In Ohio State’s last overtime win Sept. 30, senior forward and captain Jenna Buglioni won the game in overtime against Colgate. This time around, Ohio State relied on another captain in Gardiner to ice the game for the Buckeyes.
“Having great players and clutch players, it’s completely different,” Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall said. “Who is going to show up when you need them to show up, and [Gardiner and Buglioni] aren’t captains by accident. On the ice, you need that clutch player.”
A two-sport standout in field hockey and ice hockey, senior forward Makenna Webster made her season debut Friday as well.
Saturday’s matchup saw an 11-goal affair, with Minnesota jumping out to a 2-0 lead after one period before Ohio State would outscore the Golden Gophers 6-3 in the next two frames.
“We just talked about sticking to our game and not worrying about what the other team is doing,” Jocelyn Amos said. “We make sure we are doing our systems the way we play Buckeye hockey, so we go back to that and remember our roots.”
Amos, a freshman forward, turned in her first multi-goal performance as a Buckeye, notching her second and third goals of the season.
“Coming in, with a lot of older girls, they help you grow your game in practice,” Amos said. “Playing with Gardiner and Bilka, it makes it easy.”
Ohio State scored four goals in the second period, storming back after the two-goal hole it fell in earlier to make it a 4-3 Ohio State lead after two periods.
Goals from sophomore defenseman Emma Peschel and graduate defenseman and Clarkson transfer Stephanie Markowski extended the Ohio State lead to 6-4 in the third period, a dimension that makes Ohio State a national championship-caliber team, Muzerall said.
“If you just have one line just trying to do it all, it’s not going to sustain for very long,” Muzerall said. “You do need scoring from all five on the ice, and if you do, you know you’re hard to defend against because everybody is a threat.”
Despite the win, Ohio State went 1-for-6 on the power play and gave up three power-play goals to the Golden Gophers.
“We were struggling with special teams,” Peschel said. “On that power-play goal I scored on, [Muzerall] just told us to go out and play normal five-on-five. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates, but it’s definitely something we need to work on.”
Next up, Ohio State takes the trip to Bemidji, Minnesota, to take on Bemidji State in another Western Collegiate Hockey Association matchup Friday and Saturday.
Puck drops at 7 p.m., 6 p.m. CT Friday and 4 p.m., 3 p.m. CT Saturday. Both contests can be streamed on Big Ten+.
