UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Ohio State Buckeyes took control in the first period of Friday’s national semifinal matchup with Northeastern and skated away with a decisive 5-0 win.
The teams felt each other out over the first 10 minutes, but on a zone entry Northeastern got caught watching the puck carrier and lost sight of Joy Dunne at the back door. Jocelyn Amos sent a cross-ice pass and Dunne tapped it in at the back door to make it a 1-0 game.
Kaia Malachino doubled the lead a few minutes later with a hustle play after losing the puck in the zone. She chased down Holly Abela, picked her pocked and headed right back at net where her shot beat Lisa Jönsson five-hole as the puck trickled past the goalie and into the net.
A minute later, Sanni Vanhanen and Hilda Svensson converted on an odd-player rush to make it 3-0. That might not have been a death knell for the Huskies, but Emma Peschel’s snipe with 0.6 seconds on the clock seemed to be a back-breaker. Northeastern didn’t clear the puck from the zone and Phio State immediately turned the play into an opportunity as Dunne circled the net and then laid the puck back for Peschel, quickly whipped it at net, beating Jönsson and the buzzer to make it a 4-0 game.
Northeastern coach Dave Flint said he thought his team was in a good spot when it was a 1-0 game at the final media timeout. But he also said his team struggled in the neutral zone and tried to do too much. And Ohio State took advantage. The game was out of reach in a matter of minutes.
Huskies forward Lily Shannon said she felt like to start the game, there was give and take between the two teams, but then Northeastern failed to calibrate to Ohio State’s push back.
Northeastern, who blocked more of Ohio State’s shots (16) than they themslves put on goal (16), played better in the second. The Buckeyes, coach Nadine Muzerall said, got complacent. She was not happy with her team’s play in the middle frame, feeling like the team felt far too comfortable and seemed to think the game was secure. At the second intermission, she said she reminded her team that it was a national semifinal and the game was not over.
“I was holding them accountable to being dialed in not just physically, not just mentally,” Muzerall said.
“I thought we weren’t doing that when we needed to do that because it’s also about momentum.”
Flint felt like when his team did get chances on net, they tried to find the perfect shot or play, instead of getting the puck to net. In the defensive zone, the Huskies played smart, but on the breakout they slowed down and tried to puck handle thorugh a Buckeye defense that was never going to let that happen.
Sara Swiderski added a fifth goal for the Buckeyes early in the third to secure the 5-0 win and send Ohio State to the National Championship game. OSU will face the winnre of the second semifinal between (2) Wisconsin and (3) Penn State. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern and will air on ESPNU.