Max Steigauf / Sports Director

The St. Cloud State Huskies women’s hockey looked to earn a split in Columbus against the number one ranked Buckeyes on Saturday. The Huskies Dropped game one 5-2 on Friday.

              The Huskies started the game on the back foot successfully killing an Ohio State powerplay. Shortly after that the Buckeyes would unleash a barrage of shots and St. Cloud State goalie Sanni Ahola made every stop except one. The Buckeye flurry once again scored first with Paetyn Levis cleaning up a rebound near the crease. The Huskies would skate toe-to-toe with the Buckeyes. With a minute and ten seconds left in the first the Buckeyes would tuck another puck behind Ahola in another scrum. The Huskies, despite a well-played first period, would head into the first intermission down 2-0 to the #1 team in the nation. St. Cloud was far from laying down though playing a scrappy first period against the Buckeyes.

              St. Cloud would waste no time in the second period. The Huskies would receive a powerplay after an interference call. Junior foward, Emma Gentry would fire in her third powerplay goal of the season as Baily Burton successfully screened Buskeye’s goalie Amanda Thile. The Buckeyes quickly responded when freshman Sloane Matthews tipped a puck out in front of the net that Ahola couldn’t stop. Ohio State would score again when Sydney Morrow would slip the puck past Ahola. Originally the goal was waved off, but the officials would allow it handing morrow her first collegiate goal as well. The uphill battle wasn’t getting any easier for the Huskies, and with nearly five minutes left in the second period Huskies Captain Taylor Lind would spend two minutes in the penalty box for cross checking. The Buckeyes would make Lind and the Huskies pay scoring quickly into their power play to move up 5-1 over St. Cloud State. The second period would finally come to an end, but it was a costly one. St. Cloud State would allow three goals and be outshot by the Buckeyes 17-2 in the second.

              At the start of the third period the Huskies would make a change at goaltender as Jojo Chobak, the Duluth transfer, would come in relief of Sanni Ahola. This was Chobak’s second career game for the Huskies. Chobak shut out RPI in her first appearance in net for the Huskies and now she was looking to shut down the Buckeyes offense. Chobak and the Huskies would shut down Ohio State’s offense for a while, but a tripping penalty with eleven minutes left would once again put Ohio State on a powerplay. The Buckeyes would score on a crowded shot bringing their lead to 6-1 over St. Cloud State. The scrappiness we saw earlier started to return to the game after that and with seven minutes remaining in the game both teams would get incidental minors. With a minute left in the four-on-four the Huskies would get a four-on-three after Jenna Buglioni got a little too rough on the boards. The Huskies would make a statement with a beautiful tic-tac-toe powerplay goal by Jenniina Nylund. Taylor Lind, and Dayle Ross assisted on the scoring play as the Huskies finally answered back with five minutes left in the game. The rough play didn’t stop after that goal though. With a minute fifty seconds left the Huskies and Buckeyes would, for the third time, receive incidental minors, and both teams would play with four players for the rest of the game as the Huskies fell for the second game in a row to the #1 team in the nation.

              After their first glimpse at WCHA play this year the Huskies looked solid through large portions of this series it was just minor lapses that cost the Huskies big in the end. When asked about this past weekend Coach Idalski said, “Just the need for us to tactically be better with our structure and understand risk, work ethic and compete level. I thought it was a good weekend for us learning-wise” the Huskies will play Wisconsin next weekend.