ST. PAUL — They waited until the final 5:30 of play, but the Ohio State Buckeyes secured their third-ever WCHA Tournament Championship on Saturday and wrapped up the top seed in the NCAA Tournament at the same time. It is OSU’s third confernece tournament victory – they last won in 2022 after earning their first in 2020.
It was a back and forth game that Ohio State dominated for periods throughout, but they could not seem to find the back of the net. A power play early in the third was spent entirely in the offensive zone, but Wisconsin’s defense kept the shots to the perimeter to stymie the Buckeyes and keep them off the board.
It was actually the Badgers that scored first with 10:02 left in play as Lacey Eden tapped in a pass at the doorstep on a feed from Kelly Gorbatenko, who’d circled behind the net to find her.
That seemed to shake things loose for Ohio State as five minutes later, Hilda Svenssion redirected a shot from distance by Emma Peschel to tie the game 1-1. From there, it took just two more minutes for the Buckeyes to take the lead as Jordan Baxter’s shot from the top of the right circle beat Ava McNaughton.
Buckeye coach Nadine Muzerall praised her team for not getting frustrated after the Badger goal and for sticking to the game plan.
“They stuck to it, and they trusted in it, even though it can become frustrating when you’re dominating on shots and opportunities and those good ones aren’t going in,” she said.
Defender Emma Peschel said the team had been getting good scoring chances all game and that they knew they’d have to score to win the game, no matter what.
“We knew that we couldn’t let up,” she said.
“We like to be in front of the net and we like to be scrappy. The puck goes in however it goes in and no one asks how.”
In the end it was a game of inches, with a redirected puck and a deflection of a Badger skate that made the difference in the scoreline, but Muzerall felt like her team’s play up until that point helped “earn” the bad bounce that made a difference since McNaughton had stopped all the grade-A chances.
As they had for much of the game, the Buckeyes put pressure on Wisconsin as time wound down and the Badgers struggled to get McNaughton off the ice for an extra attacker until there was just over a minute left in the third. UW got an extra boost with 19.9 seconds left when Jocelyn Amos was whistled for tripping, but MacLeod and the OSU defense stood strong to take the win.
MacLeod was stellar all weekend for an OSU team that tends to get more noticed for offense then defense, putting up 50 minutes of shutout hockey against the first- and fourth-ranked teams in the country.
“Goaltending is a must when you want to win national championships and make that push. [MacLeod] only gave up one goal this weekend that definitely wasn’t her fault and I think that speaks volumes of how strong [MacLeod] has been in the back half of this season, and we feel very confident relying on her. I’ve just been very proud of how she’s been playing this year, and she’s going to take us all the way,” said Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall.
The Buckeyes put pressure on Wisconsin’s transition game, not allowing the Badgers to easily or cleanly leave the zone. They also dominated in faceoffs, particularly through the first two periods. Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson said that not only does that take his team out of the possession style they prefer to play, but it has them chasing the puck. He said Ohio State was much closer to playing their A-game than the Badgers were, particularly in the second period when he felt his team merely survived the frame.
“We need to make sure next Saturday in Madison we’re closer to our A-game than we were today,” Johnson said.
Muzerall said she viewed Saturday’s game as the first in a best-of-two series – she expects that the Buckeyes and Badgers will meet for a national championship in two weeks’ time. She’s happy her team got the first win and will carry momentum into the NCAA Tournament.
While disappointed in this game, Eden said the loss is something the Badgers will learn from and fuel them as they prepare for the final weeks of the season.
“It’s something that will stay in the back of my mind. This is game that we wanted to win. It’s frustrating, but we can definitely use it as motivation. Getting a little chip on our shoulder, working jut a little bit harder in practice to cinch a few things up and come out even stronger,” Eden said.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will air on ESPNU at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.