The #3 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers get their first early season test this weekend when the #2 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes come to Ridder Arena for a WCHA series. While it’s always a big deal when the Gophers and Buckeyes face off, this series takes on even more weight considering it will be the only time in the regular season that these two teams will meet at full strength. The return trip to Columbus between these two teams is in mid-February, or right in the middle of the 2026 Olympics. Minnesota and Ohio State each
will be missing 4-5 of their star players in that series. Thus, this weekend is magnified even larger as a measuring stick for these two teams at full strength until they may meet in the postseason.
The Gophers enter the weekend with a 6-0 record after season opening sweeps of Boston College, at Boston University and a home and home against #10 St. Cloud State last weekend. Minnesota skated to a 4-1 victory on Friday night at Ridder Arena, before heading up I-94 on Saturday, winning 5-3 Saturday afternoon in St. Cloud. The hero as it has been all season for the Gophers has been 5th year senior Abbey Murphy. She leads the nation with 18 points and 12 goals in six games and is now tied with Hannah Brant for the second most in program history with 115 for her career. Her target she is chasing is the 139 career goals scored by Nadine Muzerall—who will be on the opposing bench this weekend as the Buckeyes head coach.
The entire Gopher offense has clicked this season leading the nation with 37 total goals and a 6.17 goals per game average. Besides Murphy, Ava Lindsay leads the nation with 11 assists on the year. Defender Sydney Morrow’s seven points have her tied for third in the nation for most points be a defender. Bella Fanale’s eight points have her third in the nation in freshman scoring. But the job will be a lot tougher against the Buckeyes this weekend.
Ohio State comes into Ridder with a 4-0 record on the season. Ohio State swept a series at national power Colgate to open the year before sweeping Bemidji State in Columbus last weekend. The Buckeyes have a large contingent of international players who will be on the squad this weekend but will be missing when these two teams face off in February. The Buckeyes are led by a trio of Swedes including freshman Hilda Svensson who leads the Buckeyes with 6 points on the seas. Sophomore Mira Jungaker and freshman Jena Raunio are right behind with 5 points each. Ohio State also has star American Joy Dunne as well with four points. They are loaded as much as the Gophers are offensively and rank second in the nation averaging 5.5 goals per game.
Where the Gophers have a slight edge is in goal. Sophomore Hannah Clark has been one of the best in the nation so far entering the weekend with a 0.6 goals against average and a .968 save percentage both second in the nation. Freshman Layla Hemp has been good as well allowing just 1.88 goals in three games thus far, but Clark is the Gophers #1 by far. The Buckeyes have been riding UMD transfer Hailey McLeod so far who has started all four games. The senior went 8-1-1 in a backup role for Ohio State last season and this year she enters this weekend with a goals against average of 1.92 and a save percentage of just .857. Four of her seven goals she has allowed have been on the power play, where the Gophers have been exceptional scoring on nearly 24% of their attempts. OSU has struggled on the penalty kill with just a 75% success rate, where the Gophers are killing penalties at greater than a 95% clip.
It should once again be a great weekend of hockey between these two powerhouses. Minnesota if they can keep up their level of play should have a good chance to cut into the advantage the Buckeyes have had on the Gophers since the hiring of Muzerall away from Minnesota where she was an assistant to Brad Frost. Ohio State is 14-7-2 against the Gophers in Minneapolis since she took over the program in 2016.
Both Saturday and Sunday’s games are slated for 2 PM faceoffs. Saturday’s game will only stream on B1G+, while Sundays will also air live on Fox9+.
