Ohio State women’s hockey wrapped up its regular season schedule on Saturday with one final tilt at North Dakota. The first-goal rule again proved true, only this time UND made the initial strike. The Fighting Hawks went on to top the Buckeyes by a score of 3-2.
| scoring by period | 1 | 2 | 3 | final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| North Dakota | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
The Bucks did some good things. Maddy Field scored her third goal of the series. Lauren Boyle chipped in another power play tally. OSU won the special teams battle, going 1-for-4 on the power play and shutting North Dakota out in each of its four advantages. But in the end UND edged the Scarlet and Gray.
| buckeye goal scorers (assists) | pd | time |
|---|---|---|
| Maddy Field (Liv Halvorson) | 2 | 3:10 |
| PP - Lauren Boyle (unassisted) | 3 | 14:04 |
Kassidy Sauve stopped 26 shots and claimed a spot for herself in the NCAA’s record books. Sauve now ranks in the top 20 all-time for single season saves (1,040 and counting). She joins Lisa Steffes as just the second goalie in Buckeye history to surpass the thousand save mark in a single season. Steffes holds the team record with 1,085 saves. It is quite likely that Sauve will overtake her next weekend.
| final wcha standings | pts |
|---|---|
| Wisconsin Badgers | 74 |
| Minnesota Golden Gophers | 64 |
| Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs | 62 |
| North Dakota Fighting Hawks | 41 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 28 |
| St. Cloud State Huskies | 26 |
| Bemidji State Beavers | 25 |
| Minnesota State Mavericks | 16 |
Coach Nadine Muzerall pointed to poor puck protection as one of her team’s bigger challenges today, saying via OSU’s press release, “We did not play a defensive game at all for [Sauve] today. Too many turnovers, too many giveaways, too many lackadaisical bad passes in crucial areas of the ice. We have to own that and be better.” However she sees the loss as a learning opportunity heading into the conference tournament. “We talked yesterday about having some positive energy going into the postseason, but on the flipside we’ll learn a lot from how we played today.”
Speaking of the conference tourney… With today’s loss the Buckeyes wrap up the regular season with a 13-16-5 overall record. They went 7-16-5-2 in the WCHA and tallied 28 conference points. Bemidji State and St. Cloud State both dropped their finales so that total will be enough to secure fifth place for the Bucks. Not too shabby for a team the preseason poll projected to land in seventh.
Ohio State’s No. 5 seeding sets up a first round conference tournament match up against these same Fighting Hawks. No. 4 North Dakota hosts the best-of-three series next week. The winner then advances to Minneapolis for the single-elimination semifinals and WCHA championship game.
We’ll have a preview rundown for you next week. For now, congratulations to the Buckeyes on their hard fought and well deserved regular season finish.
- Check out the official boxscore from Saturday's regular season finale here.
