WCHA play opens with a tough task
The #2 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s hockey team started the season off with a pair of non-conference series against team from Hockey East. While Hockey East is always a good conference, its not the WCHA. The WCHA annually has the best teams in the nation, and once again that appears to be the case. Minnesota will find out right away as the Gophers will open conference play this weekend on the road in Columbus as they take on the #4 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
Minnesota is coming off of their first home series of the year where they swept Boston University 1-0 on Friday and 5-2 on Sunday. Abbey Murphy has let the way for the Gophers with five goals and a pair of an assists. She has scored at least one goal in every single game this season for the Gophers. In goal, the Gophers have been backstopped by Skylar Vetter who is 3-0-0 to start the season with a .912 save percentage. She recorded her 12th career shutout last Friday against BU, the seventh-most in program history.
Ohio State is the reigning NCAA Champion but has had a slow start to the season. They opened up play at home against Minnesota-Duluth two weekends ago and were swept by the Bulldogs. Since then they have swept Bemidji State and then last weekend the Buckeyes headed to #8 St. Lawrence and pulled out a pair of wins taking home the first game 3-2 in overtime and winning the second game 5-3. A trio of Buckeyes each have four goal on the season including Jenna Buglioni who also heads the team with seven points. Goaltenders Amanda Thiele and Hailey MacLeod have been splitting time so far this season with three games played apiece. Both own 2-1-0 records on the year. Thiele leads the way with a 2.00 goals-against average and MacLeod paces the duo with a .894 save percentage.
Minnesota will look to try and reverse the trend of recent poor play against the Buckeyes. Ohio State is 6-3-1 in the last 10 meetings against the Gophers and outscored the Gophers 13-1 in their last two meetings. Not only that but the Gophers will be going up against a very motivated Ohio State team. Friday night the Buckeyes will be dropping their 2024 NCAA Champions banner, and will be trying to get their head coach Nadine Muzerall her 200th career win. Muzerall of course is a former Gopher star and assistant coach.
It should be a great weekend for hockey in Columbus. Friday night’s game will face off at 5PM, and Saturday’s game will begin at 2PM. Both games will stream on B1G+.