Ohio State Advances To Frozen Four

Ohio State women’s hockey is on to the Frozen Four for the third consecutive season.

The Buckeyes, who entered the NCAA Tournament as its No. 1 overall seed, dominated eighth-seeded Quinnipiac 4-2 at the Ohio State Ice Rink Saturday to advance to the national semifinals. Sophie Jaques scored two goals to lead the charge.

OSU outshot the Bobcats 44-23 in the contest, including a 24-3 edge in the second period that led to a 2-0 advantage in the frame.

After Quinnipiac managed to grab its lone lead in the first, forward Gabby Rosenthal broke through for Ohio State 12 minutes into the second period off a power play.

Roughly four minutes later defenseman Lauren Bernard fired one home to give Ohio State a 2-1 advantage, a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

The Buckeyes completed a run of four consecutive goals to grow their lead to 4-1 with forward Emma Peschel and Jaques each notching goals in the first 15 minutes of the third period.

Quinnipiac battled back to slice the deficit to two with a goal from Maddy Samoskevich, but Jaques slapped home an empty-netter with 29 seconds remaining to secure OSU’s advancement to the next round.

After winning the first national championship in school history a season ago, the Buckeyes are one contest closer to repeating. Ohio State will meet fifth-seeded Northeastern, who knocked off fourth-seeded Yale, in the Frozen Four semifinals March 17.