Saturday's matinee at the OSU Ice Rink in Columbus, Ohio had a postseason aura to it, and for good reason – the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team and top-ranked Ohio State University battled until the final whistle as if it was.
The Buckeyes edged the Bulldogs in the final minutes of the third period on a power play goal to escape with a 1-0 win, but not before UMD pushed OSU to the brink.
"We had a good game plan for the whole weekend, and watched some video this morning showing what it looked like and how we could improve it," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell on her squad's adjustments from Friday night. "I think certainly some of the adjustments that we made allowed us to create more offense, and make it a much more balanced game today that we easily could have won. So that's what I mean about our players. It's pretty impressive how adaptable they are, and they can see something, learn it and go execute it and it makes a huge difference. So we're really fortunate to have such students of the game in this program, and I'm just really proud of our effort."
That effort showed defensively early on, and helped rookie goaltender Ève Gascon turn away all 16 shots she faced in the first frame. Outshot 16-2 in the first period, UMD started to push back offensively, and eventually outshot the Buckeyes 9-7 in the final 20 minutes of play. OSU's lone goal came off its power play at 15:42 of the third period, and it simultaneously snapped the Bulldogs 33-consecutive penalty kill streak.
Gascon made 32 stops for UMD, which again put their bodies in front of the puck and blocked 22 OSU shots after blocking 27 in last night's skate. Amanda Thiele had 18 saves for the Buckeyes, who improved to 20-2-0 overall and 17-1-0 in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Bulldogs (13-9-2, 10-8-0) will head back to AMSOIL Arena next weekend to face the No. 2 University of Wisconsin in a matinee series that will get underway Friday at 3:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: UMD's combined shot blocking effort of 49 shots over the entire series ties for the second most blocked shots in a series over the last 10 years … the Bulldogs blocked 52 against the Buckeyes back on Jan. 21-22, 2022 (20 and 32, respectively) … UMD also blocked 49 against Wisconsin way back on Feb. 11-12, 2017 (24 and 25) … the Bulldogs effort of 27 Friday night is the second most in over 10 seasons in a single game … UMD's penalty kill streak ended at 33-straight Saturday, seven short of what appears to be a program record of 40 set between Dec. 8, 2007 through Feb. 1, 2008 … the Bulldogs have allowed just six power play goals so far this season in 67 attempts, and just one since November 18.
