After a crushing 8-1 loss against Ohio State University Friday night, the St. Thomas women’s hockey team was unable to bounce back Saturday, finishing off the Buckeyes series with a 6-2 loss at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.
Junior forward Luci Bianci scored her second goal of the weekend and third of the season on a shot during a partial breakaway, getting the Tommies (4-7-1, 2-7-1 WCHA) on the board toward the end of the second period. Acting head coach Bethany Brausen found “a really good response” from the team.
“It was a close game early on, which is great,” Brausen said. “I thought the girls came out and played unbelievably well.”
After a slow first period with only one goal from the Buckeyes (10-2-0, 10-2-0 WCHA), graduate student forward Clair DeGeorge scored her fifth goal of the season halfway into the period. The offensive side of both teams picked up in the second period.
Power play goals from senior defender Sophie Jaques just over a minute into the period, and another from graduate student forward Liz Schepers around five minutes later kicked things off for the Buckeyes before Bianci’s even-strengthened unassisted goal for the Tommies.
Ohio State senior forward Gabby Rosenthal responded to Bianci’s goal three minutes later with her 10th of the season, the most in the conference. After a review determined that it was a goal, St. Thomas first-year forward Lauren Stenslie finished off the period putting the biscuit in the basket with less than 10 seconds left in the second period, bringing the score to 4-2 going into the third period.
This was the second series this season for the Tommies’ against Ohio State. In its first two games of the season, the Tommies lost 6-0 and 4-1 respectively against the Buckeyes.
“That was such a good game to be a part of and just grow from when we first played them,” Stenslie said.
Going into the third period, Ohio State senior forward Sara Saekkinen tipped another one in for Ohio State just over seven minutes into the third period, before Schepers put in another one for the Buckeyes four minutes later to finish off the scoring.
Senior Alexa Dobchuk spent the game in net for the Tommies, stopping 58 out of 64 shots from the Buckeyes.
“I feel like it’s easy when your whole team is in it,” Dobchuk said. “When I wasn’t there, my teammates were laying out and blocking shots and it just makes my job easier to be in the game when everyone else is working.”
St. Thomas will take next weekend off, and will be back at home at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20 against No. 2 Wisconsin-Madison. Brausen is thankful for the opportunity to have some time off before facing the top team in the conference.
“When you got Ohio and Wisconsin, it never hurts to break that series up a little bit,” Brausen said. “If you can mix in an off weekend … I think it’s a welcomed opportunity for everyone.”
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.