Over the weekend, the No. 1 ranked Wisconsin Badgers (28-4-2, 18-4-2 WCHA) took on the No. 10 Ohio State Buckeyes (18-12-2, 12-10-2) at home, in two evenly-matched and intense games.
Both games ended in a tie and resorted to a shootout to cap off the teams’ regular seasons as they enter the WCHA playoffs.
The Badgers came off a strong weekend where they defeated Minnesota Duluth in both games, looking to build on seven straight wins.
They played Ohio State earlier in the season where they split the two games in Columbus, Ohio. Their matchup last time proved to be an exciting series to watch and this past weekend did not disappoint.
In their first game Friday, the Badgers jumped out to an early lead with a goal from Abby Roque who took advantage of a power play opportunity.
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Penalties seemed to be the story of the game, with the Badgers picking up three penalties and the Buckeyes accruing four.
With a scoreless second period, the Buckeyes tied it up in the third period, sending the game into overtime.
With another scoreless period in overtime, the game ended in a tie but still went into a shootout to see who would gain an extra point in the WCHA standings.
Ohio State was able to win the shootout, which showed the strength and dominance of both teams’ goalies.
The matchup Saturday proved to be just as exciting, as once again the game was sent into overtime.
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This time, it was Ohio State who took an early advantage, scoring two goals on the Badgers to go up 2–0 after two periods of play.
Despite being down, the Badgers played an incredible third period, scoring two unanswered goals in the final five minutes of regular play. The goals by Sophie Shirley and Emily Clark respectively sent the game into overtime, where it once again went scoreless resulting in a tie.
Ohio State again won the shootout, gaining another extra point in the WCHA standings.
The series against Ohio State marked the end of the regular season as the Badgers head into the WCHA playoffs. The ties against Ohio State knocked the Badgers out of first place in the standings, making the Minnesota Gophers the No. 1 seed.
With the Badgers being the No. 2 seed, they will play the No. 7 St. Cloud State in a best of three-game series at home to see who advances to the next round.
The first game will be played on Friday with the puck dropping at 4 p.m. Tune into 100.9 FM to hear the game live or follow it on Twitter @BadgerWHockey.
