Ohio State freshman forward Jordan Baxter battles with Bemidji State’s Genevieve Hendrickson at the faceoff dot during Ohio State’s 11-1 win Feb. 2. Ohio State will face Bemidji State in the first round of the WCHA tournament Friday-Sunday. Credit: Aiden Ridgway | Lantern Photographer
After falling short in last season’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament as the top seed, the No. 1 Buckeyes are looking to right the postseason ship.
Their conference tournament run will begin with a best-of-three quarterfinal series against Bemidji State (4-28-2, 3-24-1 WCHA) at the Ohio State Ice Rink. The series will take place Friday and Saturday, with game three slated for Sunday if necessary.
“It’s a different mindset once we hit playoffs,” senior goaltender Raygan Kirk said. “You’re putting everything on the line. You might not have a Monday to reset and look forward anymore, so you have to put it all out there on the ice and play like it’s your last game.”
The Bemidji State series will be a rematch of last season’s quarterfinals, where the Buckeyes defeated the Beavers 4-1 and 2-1. Ohio State has won four consecutive games against Bemidji State this season, but Kirk said facing the Beavers in the postseason presents a new challenge.
“A lot of times you’re ending people’s careers,” Kirk said. “If you lose, for a lot of teams, you’re done. We played them just a few weekends ago, so we’re building off of that, but also knowing it’s going to be a totally different game.”
Buglioni said adjusting to Bemidji State’s defensive style was a challenge in their most recent series, where Ohio State won 11-1 and 9-1 on Feb. 2 and 3.
“They’re hard to play against,” Buglioni said. “They pack it in in the defensive zone and they block a lot of shots. They’re gonna play us really hard, they’re physical and they work hard, so we’re gonna have to be ready for that.”
In the early February series, Ohio State scored three shorthanded goals — two from Buglioni — in its 9-1 win Feb. 3. Buglioni said staying strong on the penalty kill was an important factor in the Buckeyes’ success that weekend.
“We’ve been really focusing on our little details in our defensive zone and that leads us into how effective we can be in the offensive zone,” Buglioni said. “You saw our [penalty kill] putting up some goals that weekend, and that’s exciting to be able to still be that aggressive and be a threat even when we’re down a man.”
Ohio State enters the tournament coming off its first loss in 16 games at No. 2 Wisconsin on Saturday. Buglioni said the Badgers’ comeback victory could be a lesson as Ohio State enters postseason play.
“We had a great first period but we kind of let up a little bit,” Buglioni said. “We need to be able to play a full 60 minutes. That loss might be a good wake-up call for us, leading into the playoffs, that the next game is not guaranteed and we need to bring our best every period and every shift that we go out there.”
Bemidji State is currently on an eight-game losing streak, taking its most recent win on Jan. 27 against St. Thomas.
The Beavers are led in scoring by Taylor Nelson and Gabbie Smith, who each have 12 points through 34 games. Bemidji State’s starting goaltender, Eva Fillipova, ended the regular season with a 4.08 goals-against average and .884 save percentage in 19 starts.
If Ohio State defeats Bemidji State, it will face the winner of No. 8 Minnesota Duluth and No. 10 St. Cloud State at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis Feb. 8.
Game one of the first-round series will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, with puck drop set for 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. All first-round games will stream live on Big Ten Plus.
