MINNEAPOLIS — For the second consecutive year, the Clarkson Golden Knights will play for the National Championship.
Patty Kazmaier top-three finalist Loren Gabel scored the game’s lone goal, a sudden-death overtime winner with 3:48 left in the first overtime period to send Clarkson to the title game.
Gabel, who along with senior goalie Shea Tiley and senior defenseman Savannah Harmon, were named first-team All-Americans Friday evening, took a crossing pass from freshman Elizabeth Giguére and buried it one-time to win the game for Clarkson.
“It all started with a good back check by Michaela Pejzlova,” said Clarkson coach Matt Desrosiers. “She really had to dig in and get back on the back check in order to disrupt their play.”
Ohio State goalie Kassidy Sauve was spectacular in the NCAA tournament for the Buckeyes. She played 126:08 of scoreless hockey, making 71 saves over the course of the quarterfinals and semifinals, but Gabel was able to beat her.
“She played the puck well, played the player well and we just got her moving laterally and put the puck in the back of the net,” said Gabel, who wasn’t much sure where the puck went in, other than that it was glove side. “I just got it right off my stick, put everything I could into in and put it in the back of the net.”
Harmon said post-game that Clarkson is a defense-first team. She’s a blue-liner that often steps up into the play, but in the overtime she and her teammates were focused on protecting their part of the ice.
“Obviously everyone is itching, you want to be the one to get the goal,” she said. “(We were focused on) taking care of the d(efensive) zone because we knew the offense would come from there. Defense first,” she said.
It was the second straight overtime game the Clarkson played — they defeated Mercyhurst 2-1 in the NCAA quarterfinal last weekend to advance to the Frozen Four.
The experience they gained from that win, one they said last week they dug deep to pull off, was crucial to their ability to withstand Friday’s onslaught.
“Here we go again,” said Harmon. “We finished it last week, let’s do it again. We didn’t want to be there, but I’m glad we had the experience under our belts to be able to finish it.
The script for how to pull off this win wasn’t any different than the one they used last weekend, said Desrosiers.
“I think we just had to get back to basics, we talked about that going into overtime and drawing on the experience of last weekend. We knew exactly what to do – just keep calm and even keel and we were able to do that,” he said.
“You know you’re going to have to weather at times. You know the other team is probably going to have to weather some storms and whoever weathers those storms the best is probably going to be the one on top. … We knew that the team that kept it simple and got the chances when they needed to was probably going to come out on top. Thankfully that was us.”
The Buckeyes out-shot Clarkson 41-33, including 18-7 in the third period, but could not find put the puck away. Ohio State appeared to score midway through the second period, but it was immediately waved off as one of the officials had called the Buckeyes for interference.
Ohio State also hit the pipe twice, but could not seem to find a way to put one past Clarkson goalie Shea Tiley. Their 41 shots were the most the Golden Knights had faced all season. Clarkson’s previous high was 32, way back in the season-opener against Northeastern on September 29.
It was Ohio State’s first trip to the NCAA tournament and the Frozen Four.
“Obviously not the result we wanted or what we came here for. But it does not dictate the season these young women have had,” said Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall. “They played their hearts out, just fell short. It doesn’t dictate who they are as individuals.”
The Golden Knights have appeared in four of the last five Frozen Fours and won the title in 2014 and 2017. They will go on to face the winner of the second semifinal between Wisconsin and Colgate in the National Championship game Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.
