The Ohio State women’s hockey team celebrates together after a goal against St. Lawrence Friday. The Buckeyes won 5-1 at OSU Ice Rink in Columbus, OH. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
Oh, how sweep it is.
The No. 1 Ohio State women’s ice hockey team swept Minnesota State 6-1 and 4-1 at the Ohio State Ice Rink Friday and Saturday, respectively, giving the Buckeyes their seventh sweep of the season.
“Over the course of the weekend, getting those six points is important,” Ohio State assistant coach Kelsey Cline said. “Every game is a different game and a different story. At the end of the day, finding ways to win is important.”
The Buckeyes (16-2-0, 13-1-0 WCHA) sent in three goals in the first period Friday, with graduate forwards and captains Jenn Gardiner and Jenna Buglioni notching one apiece and graduate defenseman Cayla Barnes adding one of her own.
“It’s huge to have all those people contribute,” Cline said. “Whether it’s a defenseman, a forward, or the first through fourth lines, the whole lineup is able to contribute. Our team doesn’t rely on one person, all of them are capable. When it was their turn, they put it in.”
Following the goal from Barnes, the next three goals for the Buckeyes came from a defenseman. First, it was senior and assistant captain Lauren Bernard, followed by graduate Hadley Hartmetz and graduate Stephanie Markowski.
“We have a really deep defense this year,” Markowski said. “It helps our forwards out a lot when the defense is contributing. That’s been a big thing for us this year: just helping out.”
Coming in averaging 43 shots on goal the previous four games, Ohio State had just 30 Friday.
Shot selection was an emphasis in practice after scoring one goal on 47 shots Dec. 1 against St. Cloud State, Cline said.
“It’s a balance,” Cline said. “When the opportunity presents itself, if there is a shot, take the shot. We knew there were going to be shifts where they were very structured so we had to find ways to pull them out of their structure. Our shot quality started off great.”
The shot quality made itself apparent on the scoreboard, as well, as the Mavericks (7-12-0, 3-11-0 WCHA) had just one fewer shot on goal but no goals after the first period.
Senior goaltender Raygan Kirk picked up win No. 8 on the season, saving 15 shots in the victory.
Saturday’s matchup saw a much more composed Maverick team through the first 20 minutes, as the Buckeyes led 2-1 after the first period.
After a scoreless second period, Ohio State added two insurance goals in the third period, with freshman forward Joy Dunne sending in a power-play goal and an empty-netter by graduate forward Kelsey King to seal the win in the final game of the year.
Shot quality was once again an improved statistic in Saturday’s victory.
“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice and working on shooting to score,” King said. “We wanted to be intentional with our shot selection. This weekend, that was a focal point for us.”
Another improvement was reduced penalties, as coming into the weekend the Buckeyes spent an average of 8:07 in the penalty box per game but had just six minutes in the penalty box the entire weekend.
“I give credit to our team for cleaning up penalties,” Cline said. “We’ve cleaned up stick penalties, which a lot of the time just come from laziness.”
Senior goaltender Amanda Thiele notched her eighth win of the year as the Buckeye netminder, saving 13 shots on Saturday.
Ohio State is off the ice until Jan. 12, 2024, when it makes the trip to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota in a weekend series, kicking off the 2024 calendar year.
