North Dakota played like the team that upset Minnesota-Duluth last weekend 2-0 in outshooting Ohio State 38-27. But with 42 seconds left in overtime, Ohio State got the game-winner to gain a 4-3 road victory.
A faceoff with less than 1:00 left in overtime was won by OSU’s senior and leading scorer Jana Harrigan to sophomore Lisa Chesson. She made a pass back to junior Amber Bowman who settled the puck down and took a blast from the top of the circle that beat UND senior goaltender Amber Hasbargen high to the blocker side for the game-winner.
“I saw Jana win the faceoff and I called for the puck from Chesson, and I saw the goalie drop and I shot it high,” said Bowman. “It’s a pretty good feeling, we definately needed that as a team.”
OSU (12-14-5,9-13-3 WCHA) had been 1-6-3 over their last 10 games.
Harrigan finished the game with three points (1g, 2a).
“She’s our capitan, she’s our most potent offensive threat, she comes to play every night, and is just the leader of our team,” said Buckeyes coach Jackie Barto of Harrigan.
The Fighting Sioux (8-22-2, 3-20-2 WCHA) had the game’s better chances, mostly due to the line of seniors Anne Girtz and Devon Fingland and junior Alexia Ganon-Laplante. The line accounted for two goals and all six assists for UND. Girtz finished with three assists, Fingland had a goal and two assists and Ganon-Laplante had a goal and an assist.
“It seemed like our line just clicked and everything seemed really easy out there,” Girtz said. “Today we just carried over from Duluth and had a lot of shots and chances.”
Girtz and Fingland, along with seven other seniors, will be playing their last home game tomorrow.
“It will be that special game, the last time putting on that white jersey for the players that were the first players to put on that jersey,” said UND coach Shantel Rivard of her senior class.
“I’d like to finish my home career off with a win and maybe put some points up,” said Fingland.
Fingland is UND’s all-time defenseman point leader, with fellow senior Jessica Kovacevich ranking second on that list.
“It definitely hasn’t hit me yet, we’ll see tomorrow,” Gritz added.
OSU junior goaltender Erika Vanderveer was solid in net making 35 saves and keeping UND at bay during many barrages of shots throughout the game. The Buckeyes had many breakdowns in the neutral and defensive zones that led to chances for UND, but Vanderveer was there to stop them.
“We definitely needed her back there today, she helped us out a lot,” Bowman said. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to in front of her but she kept us in there,”
Hasbargen made 23 saves in a losing effort for UND. Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power play in the game, with both converting on one in the second period.
UND played well enough to win but could not get it done.
“I thought we had the advantage on the play, we had some quality shots and the team played great,” Rivard said of the performance.
OSU will look for a more complete effort tomorrow.
“I feel like we were lucky, we had a lot of breakdowns in our system and some trouble organizing our defensive zone,” said Barto. “We need to play our system better tomorrow.”
The two teams rematch Sunday at 12:05 pm.
