One day after the No. 8/9 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team took its offense at No. 2 Ohio State University, the Buckeyes returned the favor Saturday afternoon at AMSOIL Arena.

OSU's turn to showcase its firepower led to a 6-2 setback for the Bulldogs, who had knocked off the Buckeyes 5-2 Friday night with their own brand of attack.  

"I thought we didn't look like we had any gas in the tank for day two and they had plenty so that's frustrating," said Bulldog head coach Maura Crowell.  "It wasn't a lack of desire on our players' part at all,  they just outworked us and they took advantage of the opportunities that they had when we were stuck in the D zone. That was a good team. They came in here and showed us that if we want to be highly ranked like that we have to be able to, you know, bounce back or go for two big games. That's what we're looking for is consistency from Friday to Saturday night against top opponents."

OSU used a power play at 12:13 of the first period to pull ahead 1-0, and doubled that with a goal from Paetyn Levis at 15:20.  The Buckeyes scored just one goal a little over a minute into the second period, and after the second intermission, OSU led the Bulldogs 3-0.

The Buckeyes struck twice at 5:08 and 7:10 of the third period, but UMD finally broke through 47 seconds later when Gabbie Hughes clipped the puck through traffic back to Elizabeth Giguere for the Bulldogs first goal at 7:47.  UMD made it a 5-2 game at the 16:34 mark when Hughes trickled one through, with assists credited to Clara Van Wieren and Brenna Fuhrman.  The points secured the ninth-straight game Hughes has notched at least a point, extending her career-single season scoring streak.

OSU added an empty net tally with just 1:03 remaining, the seventh time this season the Buckeyes have scored six or more goals in a game.

Emma Soderberg had 34 saves for UMD for a total of 73 in the series.  The Bulldogs were 0-of-4 on their power play, marking the only series so far this season that UMD has not logged a goal with an extra skater.  OSU went 1-of-3 on its power play and had 25 saves from Amanda Thiele.  The Buckeyes outshot UMD 40-27 and improved to 15-3-0 and 13-3-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

The Bulldogs (8-6-0, 7-5-0) will close out the 2021 portion of their season next weekend in Minneapolis, Minn. when they face the No. 5 University of Minnesota at Ridder Arena in another WCHA showdown.  Game time for Friday night is set for 7:01 p.m., while game two is slated for 3:01 p.m. on Saturday.

BULLDOG NOTES: Gabbie Hughes extended her current scoring streak to nine games and has compiled five goals and 15 assists for 20 points over that span … This marks the longest-scoring streak in her career in a single season…(Hughes' longest total scoring streak began on  Feb. 22, 2019 of her rookie year and ran all the way into the following season, ending on Nov. 1, 2019.  Over those 12-straight games, Hughes recorded 10 goals and eight assists for 18 points.)