MINNEAPOLIS — Ohio State will play for their third national championship in four years after knocking off No. 3 Cornell 4-2 on Friday evening at Ridder Arena. This is the fourth straight title game for the Buckeyes.
Joy Dunne’s breakaway in the opening minutes of the game gave the Buckeyes the quick start they wanted. With just the second shot of the game, she forced Cornell goalie Annelies Bergmann to make a save. The rebound came out to her right where Makenna Webster was trailing the play. She easily scored to give OSU the 1-0 lead just 2:24 into the game.
Some fancy stickwork from Joy Dunne and Sloane Matthews put the puck on Jenna Buglioni’s stick to Bergmann’s right, which drew the goalie to the side. Buglioni saw Brooke Disher creeping in from the blue line and laid the puck back to her at the top of the circle. Disher’s one-timer made it a 2-0 game.
Cornell came charging back in the second. They could not convert on a short 5-on-3 or the following power play, but shortly after Lily Delianedis broke through for the Big Red on what looked like a blown play after a faceoff. Georgia Schiff’s shot from above the right circle hit Delianedis on the way to the net. But Delianedis collected the puck to quickly turn and shoot as she lost her footing, tucking the puck inside the near post to make it a 2-1 game.
Just more than a minute later, Cornell’s Kaitlin Jockims picked off a wayward clearance pass from OSU’s Emma Peschel along the right boards. She cut in on net and beat Amanda Thiele top shelf to tie the game at 2-2.
Muzerall said that at intermission, she didn’t get on her team, but instead stayed calm and tried to meet the team where they were.
“I think they’re very resilient. A lot of people probably thought I went in and gave them an earful, but I did a little reverse psychology and said, ‘Hey, we got this. There’s 20 minutes left in the game. We got to get back to our dominant play that we had in the first and just relax, take a breath and do five minute increments because of the TV time outs.’ That’s what they needed. I was once told ‘coach what they need’ so I coached what they needed,” she said.
But the Buckeyes pushed back in the final frame led by Dunne, who scored twice in less than four minutes to put her team ahead for good. She turned what could have been a broken chance as the puck slipped away from Webster into a top-shelf snipe to put her team ahead 3-2.
Then she dove and threw her stick at a loose puck that came through the crease, redirecting it into the net to push the game to 4-2.
Cornell struggled to get zone time after that and were kept from pulling the goalie until under 90 seconds left by the strong Buckeye forecheck. OSU survived a late push and skated off with the 4-2 win.
In the third period, Muzerall could be seen hugging Webster and Dunne on the bench. For a coach known for her toughness, it was a surprisingly touching moment. But Muzerall said that while she can challenge her players a lot, she’s also empathetic – something she said that has come from being a mom.
“I just wanted to tell them that I loved them and I’m proud of them, and we needed this from them… I just wanted to give them a hug and just enjoy the moment, because oftentimes there’s so much happening and it’s so stressful trying to get to the buzzer. But I just took a second and said, ‘Hey, let’s just hug this out’ because it was unbelievable at a key moment again, by your key players,” Muzerall said.
