Ohio State Buckeyes 2022-2023 ... The Drive For Duluth

[pgb-ohio]

Final Score From Saturday, January 14th
Ohio State 5
Wisconsin 0

Surprisingly Routine Win Completes 5 Point Weekend

osualum86 properly called the Friday game an Instant Classic. The Buckeyes appeared to get a boost from that memorable clash; the Badgers not so much.

Now I don't believe for a moment that there's a 5 goal difference between these two teams. But scoring first against the Badgers matters. Let UW score first, and you've got a real struggle on your hands. Score first and you make things a little easier on yourself. Score twice in the first 4 minutes? So much the better.

With the two goal head start, OSU assumed control of the game, and slowly but surely built on the lead.

Three Stars Of The Game: Decidedly Unofficial & Just For Fun

Wisconsin Honorable Mention: Vivian Jungels
I'll admit to leaning on the Scoresheet to identify the deserving Badger. On the plus/minus stat, the Freshman from Edina, MN quietly turned in a level-par performance. Not easy to do when your team loses by 5. Playing Left 'D' and making good use of her ice time, Jungels blocked 2 Buckeye shots and had 3 SOG of her own. Good job, Vivian.


Ohio State Honorable Mention: Emma Maltais
Quite a night for the Buckeyes 2nd Line. Emma had a goal and a pair of assists. That's a 3 point night. Yet Maltais merits only an Honorable Mention? Well, her linemates did even more. Keep reading.



#3 Star: Amanda Thiele, Ohio State
We interrupt this celebration of the 2nd Line to recognize Goalie Amanda Thiele. Thiele stopped all 17 Badger shots to earn the shutout. Though not severely tested, Amanda made several fine saves to help the Buckeyes maintain control. Had anything leaked through, it might have been a very different game. But the steady Thiele didn't let that happen. To lean on a phrase I've used before, perfect is perfect!

#2 Star: Paetyn Levis, Ohio State
Bagging the 2nd Buckeye Hat Trick of the season pretty much guarantees the player a Star. Paetyn got the all-important first goal, then added insurance tallies in both the 2nd & 3rd Periods.

#1 Star: Makenna Webster, Ohio State
How do you top your linemates, when they both have 3 point nights? With a 4 point night! Assists in every case. And what a set of assists!

All night long Webster was virtually impossible to separate from the puck. On the first two goals, Webster set-up linemates from behind the end line. Particularly on the second tally, the pass came after an extended dangle. For the third assist, Makenna kept the play alive, steering the puck free from a loose puck battle in the slot. To cap off her grand slam of assists, Webster fed Levis the puck that completed the Hat Trick, as time was winding down. All of that must have left her former teammates more than a little frustrated.

Speaking of which, Makenna had to be fired up to compete against her former school. Webster acquitted herself well all weekend long, playing with skill, determination & composure. A fine performance.

Was this game another Instant Classic? Nope; can't say that. Nor was this 3 Stars Post another Instant Classic. But it's my story, and I'm sticking to it. What else can I say? It's Saturday Night.



Up Next: Road Trip To St. Cloud State

[osualum86]

Ohio State completed the sweep today in dominating fashion, outshooting Wisconsin 39-17 and winning 5-0. The Buckeyes got two goals in the first period from Paetyn Levis and Emma Maltais and never looked back. Ohio State added another goal in the second period from Jennifer Gardiner to extend the lead to 3-0 at the second intermission. The Bucks were not finished and got two more goals in the third period from Paetyn Levis to finish the scoring and also finish a hat trick for Paetyn. Buckeye netminder Amanda Thiele was brilliant in this one, stopping all 17 shots she faced to get the shutout win. Wisconsin goaltender Jane Gervais stopped 34 of the 39 shots she faced. Ohio State will be on the road next weekend for a series at St. Cloud. Wisconsin returns home for a series against Minnesota State.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Can someone unconfused me?
At the beginning of the U18 World Juniors Ohio State's website listed Joy Dunne as the only OSU commit on the USA roster. But the USCHO article I just looked at of the U18's college commits show Josie St.Martin as an Ohio State commit.
Did I miss something? I just saw a post on SB Nation from back in the beginning of October announcing her verbal.

[osualum86]

Can someone unconfused me?
At the beginning of the U18 World Juniors Ohio State's website listed Joy Dunne as the only OSU commit on the USA roster. But the USCHO article I just looked at of the U18's college commits show Josie St.Martin as an Ohio State commit.
Did I miss something? I just saw a post on SB Nation from back in the beginning of October announcing her verbal.

Good question. I read that we had three recruits in U18's ... Joy Dunne for Team USA, Jordan Baxter for Team Canada, and Jocelyn Amos for Team Canada. I had not seen Josie St. Martin's name. That would be great! You probably already saw this, Hockeybuckeye, but the BIG Ten Network had a great piece on Coach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw026GeuOKc

Well, the Buckeyes had an afternoon tilt with the St. Cloud Huskies and Ohio State was able to come away with a 6-2 win on the road. Ohio State opened the scoring in the first period on goals from Makenna Webster and Jenn Gardiner to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Ohio State opened the scoring in the second period on a Paetyn Levis goal to go up 3-0. The Huskies got on the board next on a goal from Emma Gentry to cut the Buckeyes' lead to 3-1. Ohio State's Hadley Hartmetz would light the lamp next to make it 4-1 Bucks. St. Cloud's Dayle Ross scored late in the period to send the teams into the final intermission with Ohio State leading St. Cloud 4-2. Paetyn Levis would get her second goal of the game to put the Buckeyes up 5-2 and Kenzie Hauswirth finished the scoring to put Ohio State up 6-2, which is how it ended. Ohio State outshot St. Cloud 37-16 in this one with Buckeye goaltenders Raygan Kirk and Amanda Thiele combining to stop 14 of the 16 shots they faced in the win. St. Cloud netminder Jojo Chobak stopped 31 of the 37 shots she faced. The two teams will wrap up their series tomorrow with game time at 4:00 pm EST.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Good question. I read that we had three recruits in U18's ... Joy Dunne for Team USA, Jordan Baxter for Team Canada, and Jocelyn Amos for Team Canada. I had not seen Josie St. Martin's name. That would be great!

I scrolled back on OUS's team website clear to prior to the start of the season and no mention of St.Martin - very odd!
But she was quite the spark plug in the World Juniors, she'll fit in well here.
I did see the video about our coach, I'm not ashamed to admit it choked me up.

[osualum86]

I did see the video about our coach, I'm not ashamed to admit it choked me up.

I got choked up at Penn State last March when we won it all, and I got choked up at that video, too, not ashamed to admit. Hell, I cry at movies. Mrs. 86 loves that I am not afraid to show my emotions. Funny, back in the 2017-18 season, I think it was after the 1-0 win at home vs Wisconsin when they were ranked #1. I gave Coach a big hug and I was crying. LOL, I think it freaked her out a little because she was probably not used to fans getting emotional over big regular season wins (that would have been expected at Minnesota, so not something people would get emotional about). I think she was very understanding that we couldn't "act like we had been there" because we had never been there, at least at first. Back in the day, and you remember those days, we were not beating #1 teams, even at home. So, after that one, I was crying happy tears, and I sure cried some happy tears in Hockey Valley back in March! It was really touching to see Coach get emotional when she was asked about what was said in the huddle, and by golly, the girls did exactly what she said! I will never forget that last couple minutes ever! That last couple minutes, our girls just owned the puck and they could not get Soderberg pulled until there was 43 seconds to go in the game. The rest is history. Hope to be crying some more happy tears in a couple months! Cannot wait to see you in another week vs Minnesota State!

[ARM]

I scrolled back on OUS's team website clear to prior to the start of the season and no mention of St.Martin - very odd!

St. Martin's a HS junior, so she won't sign an NLI until November. Programs can only comment on recruits after they've signed. Players who have verbally committed will only be mentioned by sources not connected to the college program.

[robertearle]

I googled a bit.

A guy named Eric St Martin - quite obviously her father - retweeted in October a tweet from a youth club about how Josie had committed to Ohio State.

https://twitter.com/eandk1

https://twitter.com/YouthHockeyHub/s...96750794768385

(She was uncommitted in June for the U18 tournament. I mentioned to either Mrs. Bergmann or one of the Janecke family that I hoped she was enjoying her visit to Madison. I guess not enough... )

[Hockeybuckeye]

St. Martin's a HS junior, so she won't sign an NLI until November. Programs can only comment on recruits after they've signed. Players who have verbally committed will only be mentioned by sources not connected to the college program.

I thought it might be something like that. Thanks for the info!
I thought she was VERY good in the recent U18 tournament. It will be quite interesting to see how much she progresses by the time she comes here (providing she does sign) I'd imagine at least a few top programs will try to flip her.

[Hockeybuckeye]

I'm at a loss about today's game. St.Cloud's defense was much better today and their goaltender was outstanding. But that being said the SOG difference was off the chart, we kept the puck in the offensive end pretty much the entire game but we seemed to lack the spark from Fridays game. Several whiffed shots when the net was wide open or dingers off the post along with too many shots into the goalie's gut. Shot placement for the most part today was bad. Thiele made some amazing saves but St.Cloud scored both goals on her Achilles heel of not getting over quick enough and sealing off the post against wraparounds but I won't fault her on the second goal, I didn't see who it was for OSU but we had a girl on the weak side of the net who somehow never saw the player coming around the back side of the net with the puck and made no defensive play.
We escaped by the skin of our teeth in OT when St.Clouf had the two on one breakaways that by all rights should have given them the win!

[nobody72924]

I'm at a loss about today's game. St.Cloud's defense was much better today and their goaltender was outstanding. But that being said the SOG difference was off the chart, we kept the puck in the offensive end pretty much the entire game but we seemed to lack the spark from Fridays game. Several whiffed shots when the net was wide open or dingers off the post along with too many shots into the goalie's gut. Shot placement for the most part today was bad. Thiele made some amazing saves but St.Cloud scored both goals on her Achilles heel of not getting over quick enough and sealing off the post but I won't fault her on the second goal, I didn't see who it was for OSU but we had a girl on the weak side of the net who somehow never saw the player coming around the back side of the net with the puck and made no defensive play.
We escaped by the skin of our teeth in OT when St.Clouf had the two on one breakaways that by all rights should have given them the win!

Sanni Ahola, St. Cloud goalie, carried her team today. She is an amazing goalie.

OSU didn’t play their best. OSU didn’t play with fire and went through the motions with no passion. Both goalies gave up goals this weekend that made me ask, “huh?”. Both goalies made some great saves but both goalies gave up some bad goals.

On the good side OSU won 2 this weekend. Win and move on.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Both goalies made some great saves but both goalies gave up some bad goals.

On the good side OSU won 2 this weekend. Win and move on.

Thiele's only weakness seems to be her defense against the wraparound which has happening in previous games otherwise she's solid!
Yes we got the win but not all the points which become more and more critical at this point and the rest of the season if we want the regular season titles. A sweep of Minnesota on their home ice will be required. We'll have to play absolutely flawless to achieve that.

[robertearle]

I'm at a loss about today's game. St.Cloud's defense was much better today and their goaltender was outstanding. But that being said the SOG difference was off the chart, we kept the puck in the offensive end pretty much the entire game but we seemed to lack the spark from Fridays game. Several whiffed shots when the net was wide open or dingers off the post along with too many shots into the goalie's gut. Shot placement for the most part today was bad. Thiele made some amazing saves but St.Cloud scored both goals on her Achilles heel of not getting over quick enough and sealing off the post but I won't fault her on the second goal, I didn't see who it was for OSU but we had a girl on the weak side of the net who somehow never saw the player coming around the back side of the net with the puck and made no defensive play.
We escaped by the skin of our teeth in OT when St.Clouf had the two on one breakaways that by all rights should have given them the win!

This is why Mark Johnson says the regular season championship is the hardest one to win. You can get hot for a weekend and win the WCHA tournament. You can get hot, get a couple bounces for two weekends and win a national championship. But to win the WCHA regular season championship, you have to be consistently good over a LONG period of time

[osualum86]

As others have alluded to, the Buckeyes escaped St. Cloud with a sweep, but left a point on the table in the process as the game went into overtime. Ohio State's Sophie Jaques scored the only goal of the first period to put the Bucks up 1-0 at the first intermission. St. Cloud's Svenja Voigt scored the only goal of the second period and the teams went into the second intermission tied 1-1. Jenna Buglioni put Ohio State on top 2-1 in the third period. Less than two minutes later, the Huskies' Addi Scribner tied it at 2-2 and that is how regulation ended. The teams went into overtime where Ohio State's Jenn Gardiner scored to give the Buckeyes the 3-2 win. Ohio State outshot St. Cloud 50-17 in this one with Buckeye netminder Amanda Thiele stopping 15 of the 17 shots she faced to get the win. St. Cloud's Sanni Ahola was outstanding in this one, stopping 47 of the 50 shots she faced in the loss. Ohio State will return home to take on Minnesota State next weekend while the Huskies will host Bemidji State next weekend. Listened to Coach Nadine's postgame presser. Needless to say, she was not happy with our performance today.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Needless to say, she was not happy with our performance today.

I'm sure there will some points made in during their next session in the film room.