For a second day in a row, the No. 5 women’s hockey Buckeyes and the visiting Huskies pushed their contest beyond the bounds of regulation time. Ohio State attacked the net from the opening faceoff and kept the pedal to the floor throughout the game. Solid shot blocking by St. Cloud and impressive goaltending by rookie Emma Polusny thwarted the Bucks at every turn.
| Scoring by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | Final | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Cloud State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No. 5 Ohio State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Buckeye goalie Kassidy Sauve wasn’t any more generous. By the end of 60 minutes, neither side had managed to solve the stingy netminders. The deadlock continued through the overtime session. Once again the teams logged an official tie and squared off for a shootout to determine ownership of the extra conference point.
| Buckeye Goal Scorer | Pd |
|---|---|
| Liv Halvorson | SO |
Polusny and Sauve dueled through two rounds of the shootout without giving an inch. In the third round Sauve stoned St. Cloud's leading goal scorer, Julia Tylke. Then senior Liv Halvorson faced down Polusny. The wily veteran roofed her attempt for a 1-0 Buckeye shootout win.
The final score does little to demonstrate lopsided this game really was. Are you familiar with Corsi Percentage? For those who aren't, Corsi calculates a team’s shot attempts and compares that number to its opponent’s in an attempt to determine something like a time of possession stat. (The idea being that one has to possess the puck in order to shoot it.)
The Corsi formula is shots on goal + shots which miss the net + shots that are blocked by the opponent. In this game Ohio State put 41 shots on net, missed 14 and had 20 blocked. The team’s Corsi For number was 75. St. Cloud's number was 30 (18 shots on net, six shots missed, and six blocked).
So you can see that roughly 71% of the 105 shots attempted in the contest came from Buckeye sticks. That is a really high number. It is also much more indicative of how OSU controlled the tilt.
Today’s result brings Ohio State’s record to 11-3-4 overall and 8-2-4-3 in the WCHA. The Buckeyes win their season series with St. Cloud by a 2-0-2-2 margin, including three shutouts for Sauve. They claim 10 of a possible 12 points. Next week is a bye for the Scarlet and Gray. After that they will travel to Mercyhurst for a non-conference series December 15-16.
