Well, on the bright side of things Ohio State doesn’t have to play No. 1 Wisconsin again in the regular season. The Buckeyes and Badgers wrapped up their season series on Saturday afternoon. Like two of the teams’ three previous meetings the victory was claimed by Wisconsin.
| Scoring by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1 Wisconsin | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Ohio State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The teams skated through a scoreless opening period. The Bucks had three power play opportunities in the early going but could not capitalize. Wisconsin goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens turned aside Ohio State’s seven attempts. At the other end of the ice Kaylee Remington, making her first career start as a Buckeye, stopped all 14 of the Badgers’ shots.
Wisconsin broke the scoring open in the middle frame with four unanswered goals. Alexis Mauermann, Annie Pankowski, Baylee Wellhausen, and Presley Norby each tallied for the Badgers. Remington fended off 16 of UW’s 20 shots in the period. Ohio State put a single shot on Desbiens which she successfully handled.
Mikayla Johnson added a fifth marker in the third period for a 5-0 Wisconsin victory. The visitors outshot the Buckeyes 45-11 in the contest. Remington finished her first full game in the OSU net with an impressive 40 total saves. Head coach Nadine Muzerall was pleased with the freshman netminder's performance:
“I thought she did great. She was getting peppered and hammered. There were a couple bad goals, but you only look at the goalie when it goes in, you don’t see the breakdown that happened 20 seconds before that. We were pleased with her efforts and really happy that she rose to the challenge.”
Neither side cashed in on a power play opportunity. Ohio State was 0-for-5. The Badgers went 0-for-1. The Buckeye penalty kill is flawless in its last 13 games.
This series sweep drops the women’s hockey Bucks to 8-10-2 on the season overall and 4-10-2 in the WCHA. With the first half of its schedule complete, Ohio State is now off until after New Year's. The team returns to action in a non-conference battle against Penn State on Jan. 6-7.
(College hockey may be on break but Eleven Warriors is not. You can still find a hebdomadal dose of hockey here on Friday afternoons. Midseason awards are up next week.)
