Hockey Women Chase Win No. 21, Men Visit Gophers

This week both the men's and women's hockey Bucks face capable but inconsistent opponents. Ohio State's men take on a Minnesota team that owns an impressive non-conference record but is sub-.500 in the Big Ten. In their regular season finale, the OSU women host Bemidji State, a team that has given the top 10 fits this season.

No. 6 Buckeye Men at No. 9/10 Minnesota

This week the Bucks face their second consecutive road series against a top 10 team. The Gophers are a talented but somewhat inconsistent squad. They own victories over current No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 3 St. Cloud, No. 7 Clarkson, and No. 9 North Dakota. They are also just 9-10-1-1 in Big Ten play with seven of their nine wins coming against Michigan State and Wisconsin. Their eleventh-ranked defense has given up 5+ goals to Michigan on three separate occasions.

Minnesota comes into this week’s series off its best B1G results of the season. The Gophers swept the Badgers last week by scores of 4-2 and 7-1. Tyler Sheehy topped the scoring chart with five points in the series. Netminder Mat Robson (who has displaced two-time B1G Goalie of the Year Eric Schierhorn) stopped 61 of 64 shots. For their efforts, they earned the Big Ten’s First and Third Stars of the Week.

The Second Star of the Week went to Buckeye goalie Sean Romeo who led the Scarlet and Gray to a split at No. 1 Notre Dame. OSU’s top scorers took a bit of a back seat in two high-quality team efforts. Twelve different Buckeyes recorded a point in Saturday's win.

Ohio State iced its first-ever series sweep of Minnesota back in December. I’m not sure we can expect a first-ever season sweep this week. The Gophers, for all their weirdly underwhelming results, are very good at home (12-5-0). But the Bucks are playing well and Romeo is rock solid in net. They aren’t coming away from this series empty-handed. I’ll go with another split.

• Check out pre-series interviews with assistant coach JB Bittner, defenseman Wyatt Ege, and goaltender Sean Romeo here.
• Although the match-up isn't set quite yet, Ohio State will host a first-round Big Ten tournament series March 2-4. Tickets are on sale now. 

No. 6 Buckeye Women vs. Bemidji State

Last week the Ohio State women rallied for a split at Minnesota State. Back up netminder Amanda Zeglen started both games in net for the Buckeyes. She stopped 29 total shots and brought her season record to 3-1-0, all against the Mavericks. Grace Zarzecki netted a goal in Friday’s loss. Rebecca Freiburger, Charly Dahlquist, and Emma Maltais tallied for OSU on Saturday as the team tied the program record for single-season wins.

Now the team looks to take sole possession of that record. The Bucks seek win No. 21 in this week’s regular season finale against Bemidji State. If they get it, that win will also lock up a second place finish in the WCHA. The Scarlet and Gray only need two points in this series to secure that spot.

Prior to Saturday’s contest, Ohio State will honor seniors Liv Halvorson, Julianna Iafallo, Dani Sadek, and Lauren Spring along with Jessica Dunne. This group has seen the program through two coaching changes during their Buckeye careers. They have guided the team through some tough times and led the turnaround to this season's historic run. 

Associate head coach Peter Elander rightly points to this group as the foundation of OSU's success. "When a program is set to break its all-time wins record it really comes down to the players that have been there for four years." But he is quick to point out the Bucks don't have anything in the bag just yet. "This can be a great weekend, not only for our seniors, but for the whole team. Everyone has worked real hard to get this far, but we still have a long way to go." 

While the Buckeyes are certainly favored in this series, they can’t overlook Bemidji. The Beavers are 1-3-0 in their last four games which were all contested against the league’s last place teams, Minnesota State and St. Cloud. But this BSU squad has also defeated No. 7 Minnesota this year and taken No. 1 Wisconsin to overtime in back-to-back games.

The Beavers gave the Bucks some trouble in their last meeting. Bemidji claimed a tie and shootout win before falling to OSU, 5-4, in the series finale. Still, Ohio State is highly motivated and the Buckeyes have been lights out at home this year. I will both predict the sweep and (if necessary) own the jinx.  

• Entering the final week of the regular season, OSU rookie Emma Maltais trails Minnesota rookie Grace Zumwinkle by just two points in the WCHA scoring race.
• Hear more from Peter Elander here and get Olivia Soares' take on the season here.
• Don't miss the final episode of Chasing History or A Game Day in the Life of Kassidy Sauve.
• Congrats to future Buckeye Madison Bizal on being named a finalist for Minnesota's Ms. Hockey Award!