MINNEAPOLIS — Grace Zumwinkle scored the 16th and 17th goals of her freshman season, and senior Sidney Peters turned in a clean sheet with 33 saves to earn Minnesota its first win of the year over Ohio State, 2-0.
“We’re excited to be moving on to the Final Face-Off Championship,” coach Brad Frost said. “It was a great game tonight; I thought our team played extremely hard.”
The Gophers (23-10-3) needed to play hard, because Boston College’s loss earlier in the day meant that there would be no value in the seventh spot in the PairWise Rankings, and their only hope of an 11th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament would require winning the WCHA’s automatic bid.
Skating down the right wing, Zumwinkle was able to corral a puck sufficiently to snap off a shot that found the net to put Minnesota up, 1-0, at 2:26 of the second period.
“I’m pretty sure I hit the puck out of the air,” Zumwinkle said. “I was a little surprised it went in, but a goal is a goal.”
“It was a harder shot to read on the left side, low pad I think it went in,” goalie Amanda Zeglen said. “She’s got a great shot, a great player, and it found its way through.”
Zeglen, making just her seventh career start for Ohio State (23-10-4), handled the other 25 shots she faced flawlessly.
“She’s a pretty calm and cool type person,” WCHA Coach of the Year Nadine Muzerall said. “Not too much rattles her.”
For a long time, that was it for offense.
“[Peters] was fantastic, obviously,” Frost said.
That was particularly true in the third period, when she was called upon to make 16 of her stops.
“[It was] wild,” Peters said. “Definitely made me grateful for all the conditioning that we’ve done in the weight room.”
She also got more help from her teammates than she has at times this year.
“It was a true team effort tonight, and everybody fulfilled their roles really well,” Frost said.
Frost wasn’t able to breathe easily until Zumwinkle scored into an empty net with a minute to play.
An early scoring chance for the Buckeyes went for naught when the net was dislodged before the puck went into the goal.
“I was praying that it hadn’t gone in first, but I didn’t really get a good look at it, so I wasn’t sure what happened there,” Peters said.
Ultimately, that proved to be the only puck that Ohio State would get into the net.
“Slow start, and caught a break with that goal getting waved off right away,” Frost said. “I thought we settled in about seven minutes in and really started playing the way that we know that we can.”
Tatum Skaggs got behind the Minnesota defense minutes later, but her shot rang off the outside of the right post.
“I think we’re defending better, that’s probably the biggest thing,” Frost said.
That was paramount after yielding 16 goals over the first four meetings with Ohio State.
“Playing a team for the fifth time is always going to be harder than the first or second time you play them,” the Buckeyes’ WCHA Rookie of the Year Emma Maltais said. “They came out on top and they played a good game. We did as well; sometimes, that’s just the way it goes.”
The win was the Gophers’ first against a team in the current top 10.
“A win against a good team, gives you momentum, makes you feel good, and helps you have confidence,” Peters said. “It’s definitely going to be a good thing for us moving forward.”
For the Gophers, they will only move forward as long as they continue to win.
Despite the loss, Ohio State advances to the program’s first NCAA Tournament.
“I just wanted to say how proud I am of these fine young ladies that I’ve had the privilege to coach this past season,” Muzerall said. “I think there were a lot of people that doubted us this year, and I don’t know if they believed that we were going to be what we ended up being.”
Now they’re in the same situation as the Gophers — win or go home.
“I just told them, ‘Pause and reset, but reflect; reflect on what this feeling feels like, because you never want to have it again, because the next time, it’s over,'” Muzerall said.
