It was a tale of two overtimes as the Ohio State women’s ice hockey team defeated defending national champion Wisconsin in the first round of playoffs this weekend in Madison, Wis.
With two Badger goals in the first period, Ohio State trailed at the first intermission. But two goals by sophomore forward Natalie Spooner tied the game for the Buckeyes in the second period.
A scoreless third period sent the game into overtime, when Spooner netted the game-winning goal just 2:30 into play.
But the Badgers refused to go down without a fight in Saturday’s game, despite freshman forward Hokey Langan’s three goals in regulation.
Langan scored two in the first period, but Wisconsin tied the game with two of their own at the end of the first period. A scoreless second period put pressure on one team to take the lead in the third.
Just 16 seconds into the third period, Langan scored her third goal of the night after a crisp pass up the ice from sophomore Kim Theut.
OSU held off Wisconsin’s offense until the Badgers pulled their goalie for an extra skater in the final minutes. Wisconsin scored, taking the game to overtime for the second time in two nights.
But less than four minutes into overtime, senior captain Raelyn LaRocque broke away from Wisconsin defenders and scored the game-winning goal to sweep the series for the Buckeyes.
Wisconsin eliminated OSU in the first round of WCHA playoffs last year. In the last 10 years, OSU only had three wins over the Badgers.
This year proved different as the Buckeyes went 4-2 against the Badgers.
With the weekend wins, the Buckeyes advance to the WCHA semifinal game against No. 1 ranked Minnesota-Duluth on Mar. 6. This is the first time the team has made it to the semifinal game since 2007.
