Ohio State women’s hockey defends home ice against Lindenwood

Hannah Smith
Sun, 06 Nov 2016 19:07:39 +0000
Ice Hockey, Sports, Buckeyes, Lindenwood, Maddy Field, ohio state, osu, women's hockey

OSU sophomore forward Maddy Field (22) takes on Minnesota redshirt senior defender Lee Stecklein (2) during the Buckeyes game against the Gophers on Oct. 22. Credit: Emily Lehmkuhl | For The Lantern

Vying to break its four-game losing streak, the Ohio State women’s hockey team hosted Lindenwood this weekend at the OSU Ice Rink. OSU (5-6-1) was able to defend home ice and shut out the Lady Lions (0-8) on both Friday and Saturday.

The two wins marked OSU’s first victories on home ice this season and wrapped up a six-game homestand.

Sophomore defenseman Lauren Boyle said that having two shutouts is huge for the Buckeyes and serves as a way to repay redshirted sophomore goaltender Kassidy Sauve.

“Sauve has been outstanding the entire season and to be able to give her something in return is really big for us,” Boyle said. “It’s a huge thank you to Sauve… it shows a lot about the [defense’s] character.”

Friday’s game started off with multiple scoring attempts from the Buckeyes, including narrow misses from freshman forward Samantha Bouley and junior forward Julianna Iafollo.

The Lady Lions defense was sharp early, holding OSU scoreless with the Buckeyes outshooting the Lady Lions 12-10.

Lindenwood returned to the ice with a more aggressive style of play, outshooting OSU 7-1 in the first seven minutes of the period.

Despite the effort from the Lady Lions, OSU sophomore forward Maddy Field put the Scarlet and Gray ahead with about 1:30 left in the period. The goal was Field’s fifth of the season.

The momentum from Field’s goal carried into the third period where the Buckeyes continued to attack the net. ?Their efforts proved successful when sophomore forward/defenseman Ariana DePinto scored with eight minutes left to play.

Freshman defenseman Katie Mikkelsen and Iafollo quickly followed DePinto’s lead by scoring in quick succession, securing a 4-0 victory for OSU.

Simply put, Sauve described the Buckeyes’ first home win of the season as “awesome.”

“It’s nice to win at home and the atmosphere was great,” Sauve said. ”We had a lot of people [come] and it was nice to see people cheering for us.”

Lindenwood entered Saturday’s game looking to flip the script on the Buckeyes, but OSU was able to open up the scoring and not look back.

Fourteen minutes into the first period, OSU went on the powerplay when Boyle buried a shot past Lindenwood goaltender Morgan Skinner.

Boyle added some cushion to the lead four minutes later, finding the back of the net over Skinner’s left shoulder and scoring her second goal of the game and season.

The Lady Lions kept OSU off the scoreboard in the second period and much of the third. It wasn’t until Boyle solidified the Scarlet and Gray’s victory with an empty net goal with six seconds remaining in the game. The tally completed her first career hat trick and made the final score 3-0 in favor of OSU.

Despite being the Buckeyes’ only scorer in the game, Boyle said the execution on the first powerplay set the tone for the Buckeyes.

“That power play…has been brewing up a bit of storm, so seeing it come together is really nice,” Boyle said.
The Buckeyes travel to St. Cloud, Minnesota, next weekend to take on conference foe St. Cloud State.