Ohio State women’s hockey clinched its second straight conference championship on Saturday.
The No. 1-ranked Buckeyes secured this year’s WCHA regular-season title with a 4-1 win over St. Thomas on Saturday, improving their record to 28-2 overall and 25-1 in conference play this season.
The Julianne Bye Cup stays in Columbus for another year #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/HGzZTKI7sc
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 17, 2024
After giving up a goal to St. Thomas’ Ella Boerger just 17 seconds into the game, Ohio State scored four unanswered goals and outshot its opponent 53-13 to cruise to the conference championship-clinching victory. Cayla Barnes, Lauren Bernard, Kenzie Hauswirth and Hannah Bilka all scored goals for the Buckeyes.
With a win in its final home game of the regular season, Ohio State had the opportunity to celebrate a conference championship in front of its home crowd at the OSU Ice Rink even though there is still a week to go in the regular season. While the Buckeyes will conclude the season by playing the second-place team in the conference, Wisconsin, in Madison next Friday and Saturday, the Badgers are now unable to catch the Buckeyes in the conference standings as Ohio State enters the regular season with a three-game lead over Wisconsin.
A special moment on home ice #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/17KH0ixuo3
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 17, 2024
Ohio State put itself in position to clinch the conference title with a 12-1 win over St. Thomas on Friday in which it broke the program record for goals scored in a game. Hannah Bilka scored a hat trick while Jenn Gardiner, Jordan Baxter and Joy Dunne all scored two goals and Makenna Webster, Cayla Barnes and Sloane Matthews each scored one goal to lead the Buckeyes to a record-setting night.
All 12 goals from tonight's bc we know you wanna see them #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/8Sq7veHm2h
— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 17, 2024
Two years removed from winning the first national championship in program history, Ohio State sits in position to be the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament with the best record in Division I women’s college hockey this year.
First, the Buckeyes will look to finish the regular season with two more wins over Wisconsin – the team that beat Ohio State to win the national championship last year – next Friday (8 p.m., B1G+) and Saturday (9 p.m., B1G+). They will then return home for the first round of the WCHA Tournament, in which they will host the No. 8 seed in the conference in a best-of-three series from March 1-3.
Before any of that, though, Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall wants her team to cherish its second straight WCHA regular-season championship, which she considers to be as tough as any trophy to win in the sport.
“This team is just so relentless and resilient, I’m just very proud of them,” Muzerall said. “I think it’s arguably the toughest trophy to win in women’s hockey, with our league and it just shows your entire body of work, and to turn around and do that again the next year says a lot about Ohio State women’s hockey and how we’re creating a tradition of our own.”
Barnes and Bernard said after the game that it was exciting to win the conference championship in front of their home fans.
“I think it was extra motivation for us today to be able to win that in front of them,” Bernard said.
