Sophomore forward Jocelyn Amos (17) skates towards the puck during No. 2 Ohio State’s game against St. Thomas Friday at the Ohio State Ice Rink. The Buckeyes won 5-1 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association First Round. Credit: Grace Hamor | Lantern Reporter
The Buckeyes opened their postseason with a bang.
No. 2 Ohio State (26-6-3, 20-6-3 Women’s Collegiate Hockey Association) blew past St. Thomas (9-24-2, 6-22-1 WCHA) to claim a dominant 5-1 win Friday night at the OSU Ice Rink, winning their first game of the WCHA postseason tournament.
Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall said her team’s intensity will always increase at the start of the postseason.
“We’re going to turn up the dial a little bit more because it’s playoff time,” Muzerall said. “We’re going to continue to feed off of that energy for the next few weeks.”
The Buckeyes wasted no time getting on the board. Less than two minutes into the first period, forward Joy Dunne grabbed the first goal of the game to put the Buckeyes ahead 1-0.
But Ohio State didn’t stop there.
With just seven minutes left in the first period, defender Emma Peschel sunk the puck into the net to raise the Buckeyes’ lead to 2-0.
Four minutes into the second period, Ohio State defender Mira Jungåker fired the puck under the arm of Tommies’ goalie Dani Strom, securing the third goal of the game for Ohio State.
It only took 30 seconds into the third period for the Buckeyes to get back on the board.
Forward Jocelyn Amos shot past three St. Thomas defenders to grab the power-play goal that extended Ohio State’s lead to 4 points.
It wasn’t until three minutes before the end of the third period that the Tommies got their first and last goal of the game. Forward Cara Sajevic netted a power-play goal to cut the Buckeyes’ lead to 4-1.
But that wasn’t enough to save St. Thomas.
Less than a minute later, Ohio State came back with its fifth goal of the game, scored by Jungåker, to seal the deal for Ohio State, 5-1.
Thiele said Ohio State must continue to improve down the stretch of the playoffs to survive and advance.
“We have to elevate our game,” Thiele said. “We’re trying to end someone’s season right now. That’s really difficult to do, so we have to bring more intensity and be on our game for the full 60.”
Ohio State will be back on home ice Saturday at 3 p.m. for the second of a possible three-game series against St. Thomas.
