Max Steigauf / Sports Director

The St. Cloud State women’s hockey team opened up WCHA play on Friday night against the best team in the country. The Huskies travelled to Columbus, Ohio to face the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Last year the Huskies played the Buckeyes five times last year getting outscored 30-5 by the perennial powerhouse. On Friday though the Huskies looked to snap that narrative and a 13-game losing streak in Columbus.

The Huskies would start the four and a half minutes of the game in their own defensive end. The Buckeyes fired eight shots at St. Cloud’s goalie Sanni Ahola. Mid way through the first period however the Buckeyes would get a chance to flaunt their dangerous powerplay when Emma Gentry went to the penalty box for a two-minute tripping minor. Ohio State started to get comfortable firing multiple shots on goal until an errant change left the Buckeyes with too many skaters on the ice with 14 seconds left on their powerplay. It was now the Huskies turn to go on the powerplay with about seven minute left in the first period. About one minute into St. Cloud’s powerplay though the Buckeyes would make another mistake sending Kenzie Hauswirth to the sin bin for roughing gifting the Huskies a five-on-three. However, the Huskies would fail to capitalize on this opportunity. Late in the first period the Huskies’ captain Taylor Lind would draw a costly penalty with 21 seconds left in the first period. The Huskies would hold off the Buckeye attack to end the first period scoreless.

Entering the second period the Huskies would be on the penalty kill for the first minute and 39 seconds. The Buckeyes didn’t need that much time. Ohio state won the faceoff and Sophie Jaques would break the scoreless tie within the first 20 seconds of the second period.  Ohio State wasn’t done they would score again two minutes later when Gabby Rosenthal doubled the lead for the Buckeyes. The Huskies wouldn’t quit down two goals. They fought back and about a minute later alternate captain Klara Hymlarova would score assisted by Bailey Burton and Taytum Geier. The Huskies had battled back and quickly brought the game back to one score. The next nine minutes would be a lot of back-and-forth hockey until Ohio State’s Gabby Rosenthal tripped up a Husky sending St. Cloud on another powerplay. St. Cloud’s powerplay would once again walkaway empty handed after a handful of shots. This seemed to energize Ohio State and the Buckeyes spent the remainder of the second period trying to get another puck past Ahola to no avail.

The Buckeyes would once again find the back of the net to start a period though. About a minute and a half into the third the Buckeyes would once again start a period scoring early when Sloane Matthews scored her first goal of the season. After another hard-fought push into the offensive end St. Cloud would retreat as Ohio State set up their deadly offense again. Nearly six minutes into the third the Buckeyes would strike again as Sloane Matthews netted her second goal of the game and of the season to put the Buckeyes up 4-1 over the Huskies. Once again, though St. Cloud refused to give up and midway through the third the Huskies would cash in their second goal of the game. Jenniina Nylund scored her second goal of the season with Taylor Lind and Regan Bulger assisting on the goal. Even though the Huskies were still down by two goal they celebrated Lind’s 50^th point of her career. Later in the third with time running out St. Cloud pulled their goalie for an extra skater, and Ohio State would eventually score one final goal to put the St. Cloud State Huskies away in game one, 5-2.

The Huskies played well against the #1 team in the nation, and it showed. Coach Brian Idalski said, “I was happy for the opportunity to play a talented team like Ohio State…. I definitely thought we took some steps in the process of learning what it looks like to be a competitive team in the WCHA. I’m happy with that.”

The Huskies are now 2-1 overall and will play the Buckeyes later today at 2 pm still searching for their first WCHA points of the young season.