The Ohio State Buckeyes hoist the Julianne Bye Cup after clinching the WCHA regular season title with a 4-1 win against St. Thomas at the Ohio State Ice Rink Saturday. Credit: Reid Murray | Design Editor
Ohio State won its first regular-season conference title in program history last February.
Three hundred sixty-three days later, the Buckeyes are repeat champions.
Ohio State won the Julianne Bye Cup, awarded to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s regular season champion, with a 4-1 victory against St. Thomas on senior day at the Ohio State Ice Rink Saturday.
“This team is just so relentless and resilient,” head coach Nadine Muzerall said. “I think it’s arguably the toughest trophy to win in women’s hockey and it just shows our entire body of work, and to turn around and do that again the next year says a lot about Ohio State women’s hockey. Now we’re creating a tradition of our own.”
Before Muzerall began coaching Ohio State in 2016, the Buckeyes had never finished higher than fourth in the WCHA standings. Muzerall said her players’ unity has guided Ohio State’s journey from middle-of-the-pack status to a perennial powerhouse.
“You have a vision and you have to believe in it, and you have to have 24 young women believe in it as well,” Muzerall said. “They wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I constantly remind them nobody’s bigger than the brand and we play for it. They know that and they don’t care who puts the puck in their net. They just want to win, and they want to do it together.”
Before the No. 1 Buckeyes (28-2-0, 25-1-0 WCHA) came away with the cup-clinching win, St. Thomas (8-24-1, 2-23-1 WCHA) gave them a run for their money.
Ohio State had its back against the wall early as St. Thomas’ freshman forward Ella Boerger scored the opening goal 17 seconds into the game. The Buckeyes looked to their most experienced players to come back, as all four Ohio State goals were scored by seniors or graduates.
“It was a lot of adversity that we faced,” graduate defenseman Cayla Barnes, who scored the Buckeyes’ first goal in the first period, said. “It’s nothing that we haven’t faced before, so the energy on the bench was so consistent, being strong, having a lot of energy.”
The Buckeyes’ offensive success continued in the second period when senior defenseman Lauren Bernard gave Ohio State a 2-1 lead with a shorthanded goal at 6:33.
“Our penalty kill is honestly a momentum changer for us in games,” Bernard said. “We just go, go, go. We’re all over teams, we try to create chaos and as soon as the puck’s turned over, we attack, and if we see a moment to go, we’re going to try and score.”
St. Thomas goaltender Calla Frank stood in Ohio State’s way all three periods, recording a season-high 49 saves. Barnes said the Buckeyes had to put high pressure on the senior netminder to get on the scoresheet.
“She was seeing pucks really well, controlling her rebounds, so she really challenged us to put a few by her,” Barnes said. “We used our speed and our forecheck getting shots on net, peppering her and getting them turned around a little bit and eventually finding the back of the net.”
After graduate forward Kenzie Hauswirth extended Ohio State’s lead to 3-1 at 13:58 in the second period, graduate forward Hannah Bilka scored the Buckeyes’ final goal on the power play with just under 11 minutes remaining in regulation.
Muzerall said her team will celebrate the Julianne Bye Cup victory while keeping its eyes set on the looming WCHA and NCAA tournaments.
“You’ve got to compartmentalize,” Muzerall said. “We look at it as three different chapters, and we just went through chapter one. Now the focus is just going to be, we have two very big games next weekend, and then when that happens, now, it’s playoff time for our conference. You can’t look too far ahead of what the end goal is, because then you’ll get lost.”
Ohio State will close out its regular season with two road games at No. 2 Wisconsin beginning Friday. The Buckeyes clinched their first Julianne Bye Cup in program history at Wisconsin last season with a 3-1 win on Feb. 19, 2023.
Game one will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday and stream live on Big Ten Plus. Game two’s puck drop is set for 9 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
