A packed house assembled to watch the fifth-ranked women's hockey Buckeyes raise their Frozen Four banner on Friday. The Bucks and No. 8 Colgate then treated fans to an electric back-and-forth battle befitting the teams' top-10 standing. And the Scarlet and Gray sent the home crowd home happy with a big win.
| Scoring by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 8 Colgate | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| No. 5 Ohio State | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
The Raiders emerged from the first period with a 2-1 lead in spite of an early charge by Ohio State and Tatum Skaggs' third goal of the young season. Being on the losing end of the scoreboard clearly didn't sit well with the Scarlet and Gray. They unleashed a righteous hell on the visitors in the middle frame.
| Buckeye Goal Scorers (Assists) | Pd | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Tatum Skaggs (Emma Maltais, Charly Dahlquist) | 1 | 13:21 |
| Rebecca Freiburger (Sophie Jaques) | 2 | 2:05 |
| Charly Dahlquist (Jincy Dunne, Emma Maltais) | 2 | 7:00 |
| Lauren Boyle (Sara Saekkinen, Charly Dahlquist) | 2 | 14:01 |
The Buckeyes outshot Colgate 22-7 in the second period. Three of those shots found the back of the net. Just two minutes into the period Rebecca Freiburger opened the floodgates with her first lamplighter of the year. Charly Dahlquist crushed the go-ahead goal at the seven-minute mark.
Colgate scrambled to find a way to slow the Buckeyes down. The Raiders finally stumbled across an unlikely solution: special teams. Back-to-back power plays fizzled out for the Buckeyes. Then, skating 4-on-4, Jessie Eldridge evened the score at 3-3.
The teams eventually returned to even strength, though. And 13 seconds later, Lauren Boyle restored Ohio State's lead. The tally would turn out to be the final score and game-winning goal of the contest although the heated action continued until the final horn.
OSU's offense kept buzzing in the third period but couldn't pull away from the Raiders. Colgate goalie Julia Vandyk, making a strong showing in net despite the score, thwarted the Bucks at every turn.
However, the Raiders' hopes for a rally were snuffed out by netminder Amanda Zeglen and a notably tightened Buckeye defense. Ohio State blocked 13 shots in the stanza compared to the team's five blocks in the first two periods combined. Freiburger had three stops herself in a single shift late in the game.
This was an important win for the Buckeyes. Colgate is a talented, experienced team, expected to contend for another NCAA berth. A victory over the Raiders looks good on OSU's resume and in the Pairwise rankings. That second period rally was also one heck of a statement. Take note, hockey world. Ohio State is no flash-in-the-pan, can't-win-without-Sauve, one-and-done Cinderella.
The Bucks and Raiders clash again tomorrow afternoon. Puck drop is scheduled for 3pm ET. If you're headed out to the Ice Rink be aware that parking is weird and not free due of the home football game.
- Those retro-looking jerseys are super sweet. You can disagree, but you'll be wrong.
- Ohio State outshot Colgate 45-32 for the game.
- Tatum Skaggs (7), Rebecca Freiburger (5) and Sophie Jaques (5) led all Buckeye shooters.
- Charly Dahlquist (one goal, two assists) and Emma Maltais (two assists) registered multi-point outings.
- OSU's balanced scoring continues, four goals from four different players tonight.
- Freshman Sara Saekkinen picked up a helper on the game-winning score for her first point as a Buckeye.
