ST. PAUL — Ohio State scored twice on the power play and Hailey McLeod earned a shutout in net as the Buckeyes took a 4-0 win over Minnesota Thursday evening. OSU felt like they owned the game from the first puck drop. The game didn’t have the tenor of the relentless and sometimes frenetic pace that can be a hallmark of this program. Instead, the game felt controlled and composed, particularly in contrast to the disjointed, sometimes sloppy play from the Gophers.
It was a choppy opening period thanks to four penalties – two to each team – that kept the game from finding a rhythm. The Buckeyes took advantage of the first power play of the game as Maxine Cimoroni did a partial spin below the goal line and backhanded a pass across the crease to Sloane Matthews, who buried it to make it 1-0.
Kaia Malachino’s goal just after the midpoint of the game won’t be marked as a power play goal because it came three seconds after the player advantage expired, but there only four Minnesota skaters between her and the goal. She took advantage of some open ice in the high slot and put the puck top shelf to give Ohio State the 2-0 lead.
Early in the third, Cimoroni intercepted a Gopher pass and started the breakout, feeding Jocelyn Amos at center ice. Amos pulled the puck back across to beat the defender and give her clear ice in on goalie Hannah Clark.
Amos said that when she found herself with the puck and open ice to the net, she did her best not to overthink things.
“There wasn’t a lot of thinking, it’s better when I don’t think. I got around [Abbey Murphy] and looked up and tried to find the open net. Our goalie coach does an amazing job pre-scouting different goalies, so I knew what spots to look for right away,” said Amos, who potted the puck to give Ohio State the 3-0 lead.
A late interference penalty on Muprhy gave OSU one last power play in the final minute of the game and Matthews cashed in, securing the 4-0 win for Ohio State, who advance to the WCHA Tournament championship to face top-ranked Wisconsin.
With the victory in Thursday’s semi-final, Hailey MacLeod broke the OSU program record for wins in a single-season with 23.
“I was just very proud of how we broke the puck out, moved the puck 200 feet, scored on special teams and killed penalties,” said Muzerall.
“I think that was one of the better games I’d seen our team play all year,” she added.
Things were less positive on the other side of the ice. Minnesota coach Brad Frost was short and to the point to open his post-game remarks.
“[It was] just a disappointing night. [There are] not a lot a lot of positives to take away,” he said.
Visibly frustrated, Frost said he hasn’t felt like his team has come back together and played to the level they did before the Olympics. There were signs of it when they lost their first quarterfinal game agianst St. Cloud State, but things fell apart on Saturday in the confernece tournament semifinals.
“[We lacked] compete. Ohio State has a clear identity as to who they are, and if you don’t match that, you have no chance. Discipline, we lacked that. We lacked fight, like proper fight. There was a lot missing. If you’re gonna try and win a game against the number two team in the country and try to get to the WCHA championship, you need a whole lot more than that… We need our leaders to lead and lead well,” Frost said.
Murphy, who is the Minnesota captain, took three of the team’s four penalties, including an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that Frost confirmed post-game was for a verbal infraction.
Both coaches in this game as well as Wisconsin’s Mark Johnson talked about the difficulty of bringing their team back together after some were in Milan and others took on larger roles in their absense. Muzerall felt like her team found their rhythm to play together as a team as opposed to individually fantastic players with a little bit of time to adjust. For his part, Frost said he is still waiting for his team to find the cohesion and flow they had before players departed for the Olympics.
Despite Saturday’s immediate post-game feeling, Minnesota’s season will continue in the NCAA Tournament next week. The Gophers have a lot of work to do, but Frost said he thinks his team can still play for a national championship in two weeks.
“I’m certainly very upset right now and disappointed, but I still believe in our team and in our group, because I’ve seen it, and they’re awesome kids, and we just have to figure it out.”
Wisconsin and Ohio State will play for the WCHA Tournament championship title on Saturday at 2 p.m. central.