The women’s hockey Bucks are one step closer to the WCHA semifinals. Their Game 1 battle with the Mavericks went down to the wire. In the end OSU’s leading point-getter, Emma Maltais, showed why she leads the pack.
| Scoring by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota State | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| No. 10 Ohio State | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Another Buckeye leader kicked off the scoring. A little over five minutes into the game, top sniper Tatum Skaggs added to her team-leading goal total. The sophomore’s seventeenth tally of the season staked the Bucks to a 1-0 lead.
MSU’s Brooke Bryant knotted the score with a power play goal at the 14:19 mark. The officials really let them play tonight. This was the only advantage of the game for either side.
With a minute to go in the opening frame, Lisa Bruno restored Ohio State’s lead. Check out the slick snipe by the senior defenseman. It was her second goal of the season.
Holy...... snipe @lisabruno_ #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/ZNVPrLBUSj
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) March 1, 2019
Bryant would strike again early in the third period, tying the score at 2-2. The Buckeyes battled to regain their edge, but Abigail Levy stood tall for the visitors. The MSU goalie turned aside all 17 shots she faced in the frame. (Well, except for Liz Schepers’ disallowed goal.)
The teams headed to overtime. But Maltais wasn’t interested in a long, drawn-out extra session. She put the Mavericks down with the gamewinning goal just 28 seconds into overtime. Following up her own rebound like a boss.
Tonight was a battle that was finished off in style thanks to @emmamaltais17 #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/k0T9vC3uBB
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) March 2, 2019
"Sophie [Jaques] made an unbelievable pass to me. Then I went in and thought I saw the five-hole but [Levy] saved it. So I just tapped it in. The rebound was luckily there for me."
"[Maltais] is the person you want to have the puck on her stick at that time of the game," noted Nadine Muzerall. "It was a great pass from Sophie. We were talking about the neutral zone and how we have to move the puck up quickly on this team and we took advantage of that today. It was a nice rebound shot that Emma got, continuing to go to the net and not curling wide and having bad habits. It was a clutch goal from a clutch player."
Although her team came away with the win, Muzerall saw some room for improvement going forward. "I though that we had way too many turnovers," the Buckeye coach said. "We have to bear down and protect the puck a lot more than we did. We knew we could generate our offense and get opportunities but we were slipping away from the defensive side of the game. And we need to bear down defensively, especially in playoff hockey."
The teams take up arms again tomorrow at 3pm ET in Game 2. With a win the Bucks can bounce the Mavs from the tournament and advance to the WCHA’s Final Faceoff.
- Ohio State outshot Minnesota State 42-21 in the game including a 17-8 margin in the third period.
- Lauren Boyle, Tatum Skaggs, and Emma Maltais each paced the Bucks with six shots on net.
- Freshman goalie Andrea Braendli made 19 stops in her first postseason victory.
