Ohio State’s women’s hockey team cruised into the WCHA Final Faceoff semifinals with a two-game sweep of St. Thomas over the weekend. The Buckeyes opened up the best-of-three series with a 5-1 win on Friday, followed by a 4-1 win on Saturday. The first round victory clinched Ohio State’s ninth straight Final Faceoff semifinal appearance. Now the Buckeyes will be looking for their third WCHA Final Faceoff title, winning the conference tournament previously in 2020 and 2022.
In the series opener against
St. Thomas, Sara Swiderski set the tone early, scoring goals in the first and second periods to give Ohio State a 2-0 lead. Joy Dunne followed up with a goal less than a minute after Swiderski’s second tally. Jordyn Petrie and Hilda Svensson capped off the scoring for the Buckeyes with third-period goals. Swiderski recorded a career-high four points in the victory. Sanni Vanhanen, Svensson, and Joy Dunne each added two points, while Hailey MacLeod only had to stop seven shots in goal.
Much like the series opener, Ohio State jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Saturday before St. Thomas was able to get on the scoreboard. Hilda Svensson netted the first goal of the game at the 13:27 mark of the first period, followed by a goal from Sweden teammate Mira Jungåker. Sanni Vanhanen had the final two goals of the game for Ohio State to eliminate the Tommies from the conference tournament. Svensson and Jungåker each had three points in a win.
In Saturday’s victory, Emma Peschel added an assist, giving her 100 career points. Along with becoming the 22nd Buckeye to reach the 100-point mark in the scarlet and gray, Peschel is the third active Ohio State player to reach triple digits in points during their career. Along with reaching the career milestone, Peschel was named WCHA Player of the Month on Monday, leading the Buckeyes during February while Joy Dunne, Hilda Svensson, Sanni Vanhanen, and a number of other Buckeyes were playing in the Olympics in Italy. Peschel had three goals and nine assists in eight games.
Now the Buckeyes turn their attention to Minnesota, whom they took three out of four regular-season meetings from. The teams first met in Minnesota in the middle October, with Ohio State winning the first game 4-1 after jumping out to a 3-0 lead heading into the third period. The Golden Gophers responded with a 6-3 win the next night, scoring the first three goals of the game before Joy Dunne got the Buckeyes on the board late in the first period. Eventually, goaltender Hailey MacLeod was pulled from net after allowing four Minnesota goals.
The two squads met in Columbus last month, although a number of heavy hitters from both sides were on Olympic duty. Along with the contingent of Buckeyes representing their country in Italy, Minnesota was without leading scorer Abbey Murphy. Ohio State built a 4-0 lead before the Golden Gophers netted two goals in the final period. Then on Valentine’s Day, Minnesota got on the scoreboard first before Buckeye goals from Grace McGoshen, Maxine Cimoroni, and Sloane Matthews clinched a 3-1 win.
Minnesota enters the semifinals coming off a series win over St. Cloud State, which took the Golden Gophers to the limit in the best-of-three series. Following a 1-0 loss in overtime in the first game last weekend, Abbey Murphy scored two goals in the 4-1 win on Saturday. In the deciding game on Thursday, Minnesota was paced by two-goal performances from Bella Fanale and Josefin Bouveng to advance to the semifinals. The victories improved Minnesota’s record to 26-10-1 on the season.
Leading the Golden Gophers in scoring this year is Abbey Murphy, who has notched 38 goals and 26 assists for 64 points. Minnesota has three other skaters with at least 40 points, as Ava Lindsey, Josefin Bouveng, and Jamie Nelson have all reached that mark, while Bella Fanale is second on the team with 20 goals. Between the pipes for most of the year has been Hannah Clark, with the goalie posting a 19-7-1 record with a 1.91 goals against average and three shutouts.
Despite Minnesota hold a 85-33-7 record all-time against Ohio State, the Buckeyes have made up some ground since Nadine Muzerall took over as head coach 10 years ago. Since her hiring, Ohio State is 25-18-4 against the Golden Gophers. Some of the spirited performances could have something to do with Muzerall being a former Minnesota player.
Ohio State and Minnesota are slated to start at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, with the winner moving on to meet the winner of the other semifinal on Thursday between Wisconsin and Minnesota State in Saturday’s final.
