Late surge doesn't make up for slow start as Bulldogs fall to Buckeyes, again

DULUTH — Minnesota Duluth outshot top-ranked Ohio State by a 20-7 margin in the third period, and even picked up an extra-attacker goal in the final minute, but the surge came too late for the No. 8 Bulldogs in a 2-1 loss to the Buckeyes in WCHA play at Amsoil Arena.

A rematch of last year’s NCAA championship game won by OSU at Penn State, UMD hosts the defending national champions again at 3 p.m. Saturday in Duluth. It’s the final regular season meeting between the Bulldogs and Buckeyes, with eight of nine points in the series having been claimed by OSU thus far.

“Too little, too late,” Bulldogs coach Maura Crowell said about Friday’s effort, which resulted in the end of a four-game winning streak that saw UMD outscore St. Cloud State and Harvard by a combined 20-1 margin.

“That's a really disappointing start for us at home coming off four big wins, a nice break, plenty of energy, the hype of the game, everything going into it,” Crowell said. “And to wait until partway through the second period to really get our offense going was disappointing, because I thought we were better than them for the last 30 minutes or so, maybe the last 20. We outshot them 20-7 in the third. Would have been nice if we showed up on time.”

Fifth-year senior center Kylie Hanley scored the lone goal for the Bulldogs with 59.1 seconds left in regulation and fifth-year senior goaltender Emma Soderberg on the bench to give UMD an extra attacker.

The Buckeyes took a 1-0 lead late in the first period as fifth-year senior wing Paetyn Levis scored on a screened Soderberg. OSU got what turned out to be a crucial insurance goal from fifth-year senior wing Emma Maltais with 4:03 left in the game.

“That second one that they got in the third, that was a tough one, but I did like our response,” Crowell said. “We kind of got going at that point and I thought we got pretty close on that 6-on-5 to tie the game up. Hard not to come out for 60 minutes against a huge league rival like that.”

Soderberg finished with 25 saves on 27 shots for UMD while OSU senior goalie Raygan Kirk — starting over junior starter Amanda Thiele — made 33 saves on 34 shots, including the 19 saves in the third.

Hanley agreed with her coach that the Bulldogs needed to have a better start than they did Friday if they want to beat the Buckeyes on Saturday. The urgency shown in the third period, especially after Maltais’ goal, has to come from the first drop of the puck.

“We definitely picked up the pace as the game went on. Our start was a little slow,” Hanley said. “As the game went on, the second and third period, we really picked it up and got things going for ourselves a little bit more.

“Urgency is the biggest thing. We started winning our one-on-one battles, stopping on pucks, getting pucks to net. We ended up out shooting them in the end. Just doing all those little things right really helped us.”

3. UMD fifth-year senior wing Kylie Hanley — Scored off a snipe late for her third goal of the year and seventh point.

2. OSU senior goaltender Raygan Kirk — It was just the sixth start of the season for Kirk, who improved to 5-0-1 as the starter for OSU.

1. OSU fifth-year senior wing Emma Maltais — A teammate of UMD fifth-year senior Ashton Bell on Canada’s 2022 Olympic gold medal team in Beijing, Maltais had a goal and an assist.

Ohio State 1-0-1—2
Minnesota Duluth 0-0-1—1
First period
1. OSU, Paetyn Levis (Emma Peschel, Emma Maltais), 18:33 (pp)
Second period
No scoring.
Third period
2. OSU, Maltais (Gabby Rosenthal, Makenna Webster), 15:57
3. UMD, Kylie Hanley (Hanna Baskin, Nina Jobst-Smith), 19:01 (ea)
Saves — Raygan Kirk, OSU, 33; Emma Soderberg, UMD, 25.
Power play — OSU 1-2; UMD 0-2. Penalties OSU 2-4; UMD 2-4.