Ohio State’s women’s hockey team secured their sixth straight trip to the Frozen Four with a 6-1 win over Yale on Saturday in Columbus. Now the Buckeyes will head east to University Park, PA with their third national championship just two wins away.
The semifinal opponent for Ohio State will be the Northeastern Huskies on Friday, with the winner moving on to face the winner of the second semifinal between Penn State and Wisconsin.
By making the Frozen Four this season, Ohio State became the third program
to make six consecutive Frozen Fours, and they are the only active program with at least four consecutive appearances in the Frozen Four.
The Buckeyes have a 6-5 record all-time in the Frozen Four, winning the title in 2022 and 2024. Nadine Muzerall and company will be trying to repeat their success from 2022 when they won the national title at Pegula Ice Arena, where this year’s Frozen Four will be contested.
The Buckeyes improved their record in the NCAA Tournament to 13-4 with their win over Yale on Saturday. Jocelyn Amos opened up the scoring six minutes into the game to give Ohio State an early lead. Yale would equalize five minutes later when Molly Boyle found the back of the net. The Buckeyes and Bulldogs would head into the first period intermission tied 1-1.
Ohio State took control of the game when Kaia Malachino scored 3:39 into the second period. Sloane Matthews would double the lead three minutes later, followed by a Jordan Baxter goal with five minutes to go before the second period intermission to push Ohio State’s lead to 4-1. Matthews and Amos would add goals in the third period to give the Buckeyes a 6-1 victory.
Jocelyn Amos finished the game with two goals and two assists, tying her single game career-high with four points, the fifth time in her career in which she recorded four points in a game. Sloane Matthews was right behind Amos with three points in the victory. The Bulldogs were under constant pressure throughout the game, as the Buckeyes outshot Yale 49-23.
With her four points last time out, Jocelyn Amos is third on the team with 46 points on the season. The only Buckeyes to record more points so far this season are Hilda Svensson and Joy Dunne. Svensson has 50 points and a team-high 32 assists in her first season at Ohio State, while Dunne leads the Buckeyes with 26 goals and has 48 points.
Matthews increased her point total on the season to 43 points following her output against Yale. There are 10 Ohio State skaters with at least 20 points this season.
Along with an offensive onslaught, Ohio State also was stout defensively. Goaltender Hailey MacLeod finished the game with 22 saves, marking her fifth straight game where she allowed less than two goals.
The starting goaltender for the Buckeyes now has a 25-3 record on the season with five shutouts, a 1.48 goals against average, and a .932 save percentage. The combination of an outstanding offense and a defense that has been tough to crack has Ohio State outscoring their opponents 174-63 on the season heading into the Frozen Four.
Meeting the Buckeyes in Friday’s first semifinal will be the Northeastern Huskies. Ohio State holds a 8-3-2 advantage all-time against Northeastern, with one of those wins coming in a 2023 Frozen Four semifinal. The Buckeyes beat the Huskies 2023 3-0 in Duluth before falling to Wisconsin in the title game.
Seniors Emma Peschel and Sloane Matthews played on the 2023 and will be looking for their second semifinal win over Northeastern in their final season in the scarlet and gray.
To get to the Frozen Four for the fourth time in school history, Northeastern defeated Minnesota 4-2 on Saturday in Minneapolis. The Huskies erased any doubt in the result early with three goals in the first period. Eloise Caron scored five minutes into the game, followed by goals from Stryker Zablocki and Mia Langlois.
The final goal for Northeastern came off the stick of Morgan Jackson at the 12:21 mark of the second period.
Goaltender Lisa Jönsson made 45 saves in the win over the Golden Gophers, with the only two pucks getting past her coming from Abbey Murphy in the third period. The goalie for the Huskies pushed her record to 21-6-1 on the season. Jönsson has four shutouts this year, a 1.61 goals against average, and a .942 save percentage.
As a team, Northeastern has only allowed 66 goals, while scoring 115 times.
Leading the offensive charge for Northeastern is Stryker Zablocki, who has 19 goals and 44 points during the 2025-26 season. Just behind Zablocki is Lily Shannon, who also has 19 goals and has tallied 43 points. The other Huskies with at least 10 goals this season are Morgan Jackson, Allie Lalonde, and Eloise Caron.
Ohio State and Northeastern are scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon and can be streamed on ESPN+. The winner of Friday’s first semifinal will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Penn State and Wisconsin in Sunday’s championship game, which will also start at 4:00 p.m. ET.
