In a battle of two heavyweights of women's college hockey, the Buckeyes took this one by a final score of 3-1. For the Wisconsin fans who visit here, yes, I was sweating it out in that first period, which was dominated by the Badgers. Unfortunately for Wisconsin, Ohio State was able to keep the Badgers off the scoreboard despite the 19-2 shot advantage they enjoyed in the first period. The teams went into the first intermission scoreless, but it did not stay that way for long in the second period as Wisconsin's Maddi Wheeler lit the lamp at the 1:32 mark to put the Badgers up 1-0. After that, Ohio State began to assert their will and scored two goals later in the second period to go up 2-1 on goals from Kiara Zanon and Makenna Webster. Neither team could light the lamp in the final frame until Wisconsin pulled goaltender Jane Gervais and Ohio State's Jenna Buglioni was able to get an empty-netter with less than a half-minute left in the game to make the final score 3-1. After outshooting the Buckeyes 19-2 in the first period, the Buckeyes dominated the shots on goal the rest of the game to win that battle 34-29 (Buckeyes outshot the Badgers 32-10 after the first period). Buckeye backstop Raygan Kirk stopped 28 of the 29 shots she faced in the win. Badger netminder Jane Gervais stopped 32 of the 33 shots she faced. The two teams will wrap up their series tomorrow night at 9:00 pm EST (8:00 pm CST). Tomorrow's game will be televised on Big Ten Network, so if you get Big Ten Network, you will actually be able to watch on TV rather than streaming. For those in central Ohio, there will be the usual watch party at O on Lane.
