No. 1 Buckeyes Face off Against No. 5 Yale in Frozen Four Semifinals
3/16/2022 2:54:19 PM | Women's Ice Hockey
ADDITIONAL INFO: Tickets | Tournament Central | Bracket
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No. 1 Ohio State vs. No. 5 Yale
Date: March 18, 2022
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Venue: Pegula Ice Rink
Watch: ESPN+ / TSN (CAN)
Rosters: Ohio State | Yale
Season Stats: Ohio State | Yale
Game Notes: Ohio State | Yale
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 1 Ohio State women’s hockey team is off to University Park, Pa. as it readies to take on five-seed Yale in the NCAA Championship semifinals on Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. This year’s Frozen Four will be played at Pegula Ice Arena on the campus of Penn State.
The Buckeyes’ semifinal game, as well as the first semifinal of the Frozen Four, will be televised on ESPN+ with commentary by Clay Matvick, A.J. Mleczko and Hillary Knight. The games will also be broadcast on radio by Westwood One with Brian Tripp and Kendall Coyne Schofield on the call and streamed on TSN in Canada.
The winner of the game will advance to Sunday’s national championship game at 4 p.m. and play the victor of semifinal No. 1 between Minnesota Duluth and Northeastern.
Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament
- Ohio State is making its fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last five seasons and is on its third consecutive quest for a national title.
- The Buckeyes are the one-seed in the tournament for the first time in the 23 years of the program.
- Last weekend, OSU hosted NCAA Championship games for the first time in program history. The Buckeyes played in front of a sold out crowd at the OSU Ice Rink in the team’s first NCAA Championship game in Columbus.
- With the quarterfinal win over Quinnipiac, the team improves to 3-2 in the tournament. The Buckeyes’ first NCAA Tournament win came in 2018 with a 2-0 quarterfinal win over Boston College and the second was against Boston College again in 2021.
- This year marks the second time in program history that Ohio State has earned the WCHA’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with their 2022 Final Faceoff Championship win.
- OSU has advanced to the Frozen Four three times. This year, the team aims to reach its first-ever national championship game.
Buckeyes in a Nutshell
- For the second week in a row, Ohio State is the top ranked team in the nation. In the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey poll, the Buckeyes are receiving 188 overall votes and 17 of 19 first-place votes. In the USCHO.com poll, the team has earned 150 points and 15 first-place votes.
- Ohio State advanced to the 2022 Frozen Four with a 4-3 double overtime win over Quinnipiac last Saturday. The game was just the second double overtime game in program history for Ohio State and marked the first time the Buckeyes have played an NCAA Championship game on home ice. Clair DeGeorge scored the gamewinning goal as well as the team’s second goal of the game to lead the Buckeyes to the Frozen Four.
- Ohio State won the program’s second-ever WCHA Final Faceoff trophy two weeks ago at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. The team recovered from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to take a 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota in the title game. Sophie Jaques scored both the game-tying and gamewinning goals for Ohio State.
- Liz Schepers, Sara Saekkinen, Amanda Thiele and Jaques earned All-Tournament Team honors while Jaques was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
- Paetyn Levis continues to lead the team with 22 goals on the year. Jaques (21) and Schepers (21) join Levis with 20-plus goal seasons.
- Jaques continues to pace the team with 38 assists and 59 points overall this season.
- Thiele leads the Buckeye goaltending crew with a 16-3-0 record on the year. She has posted a .940 save percentage this year.
Notable Notes
- The Buckeyes are first in the country with 170 goals this season. Ohio State has set a program record in goals and assists (281) this year.
- Ohio State has converted on 36.96% of its power play opportunities this season. Jaques leads the team with 11 power play goals while the Buckeyes have recorded the second-most power play goals (34) in the country.
- The Buckeyes landed 77 shots on goal last game against the Bobcats, a program record SOG in a single game.
- Ohio State has come from behind to win its last three games. At the Final Faceoff, the Buckeyes’ opponents were first on the board in both contests. Last weekend, Quinnipiac was first to score. Ohio State improves to 7-3-0 this season in games when opponents score first.
- Jaques has come up clutch for the Buckeyes this season, tallying a team-high five game-winning goals. Last week, she scored the third goal for Ohio State against Quinnipiac, assisted the first and was on the ice for the overtime goal.
- Schepers has recorded a point in each of Ohio State’s five postseason games this year. Levis has scored at least a point in four of the five postseason games.
- Levis leads the Buckeyes with nine points in the postseason, fueled by a five-point WCHA quarterfinal game against St. Cloud State.
- By advancing her team to the Frozen Four, head coach Nadine Muzerall is up for the 2021-22 Division I Coach of the Year award, presented by CCM and the American Hockey Coaches Association. Muzerall, who hit her 100th career win five games into the season, has led Ohio State to a program-record 30 wins this season and a number one ranking and seed in the NCAA Championship tournament.
WCHA Postseason Awards
- Jaques added two postseason conference awards to her collection this week, earning the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year award and Outstanding Student-Athlete honor as well. She is just the second Ohio State player to be recognized as the league’s outstanding student-athlete and third to earn the defender of the year award.
- Four Buckeyes earned All-WCHA honors following the regular season. Jaques picked up the First Team nod while Liz Schepers and Andrea Braendli were named to the second team. Jenna Buglioni garnered Third Team honors for the Buckeyes.
- Ohio State head Coach Nadine Muzerall earned the league’s Coach of the Year award for the third time in six years. She has led the Buckeyes to a record breaking 29-win season.
Have a Season, Sophie!
- Buckeye blueliner Sophie Jaques is one of the top point producers in the NCAA this season.
- She is a top-10 finalists for the 2022 Patty Kazmaier Award, just one of two defensemen up for the award.
- She leads the team, and the country, with a +49 and has been on the ice for half of Ohio State’s 170 goals this season.
- The defenseman leads the team with 41 blocked shots on the year.
- Jaques has scored the most single-season points by a true defenseman in 20 years. Her 59 points ranks her second among year-by-year true defensemen points leaders nationally since the 1999-20 season.
- She averages the third-most points per game (1.6389) and is second in power play goals (11) in the country this season despite being at least one game behind the leaders.
- Her 59 points on the year are the third-most by a skater this season. The senior is just seven points behind the leader with three less games played.
- Jaques took the Ohio State record for points in a single season by a defenseman in the Buckeye’s series at Minnesota State on Feb. 5.
- A civil engineering major from Toronto, Ont., Jaques became the 14th Buckeye to record 100 career points on Feb. 12 and the third defenseman to hit the milestone.
Buckeye Record Watch
- With the NCAA quarterfinal win last weekend, the Buckeyes finish the 2021-22 home slate with a program record 17 wins at the OSU Ice Rink.
- Jaques is now tied with Emma Maltais for points in a single season (59) by a Buckeyes.
- Jaques and Schepers have both broken into the top-10 in career assists by a Buckeye. Jaques, who has 70 helpers for her career, ranks tied for ninth while Schepers is tied for seventh with 73.
- Schepers’ 63 career goals ranks fifth among all-time Buckeyes and her 136 points are good for sixth all-time.
- Jaques, who joined Schepers with 100 career points as a Buckeye this season, is now in sole control of second-place in career points (108) by an Ohio State defenseman.
- Thiele’s goals against average (1.29) this season currently ranks as the program-best mark in the category. Braendli’s 1.68 ranks second.
History vs. Yale
- Before the two teams face off on Friday, Ohio State and Yale have only met three times prior.
- The Buckeyes are 2-1 against the Bulldogs all-time, with both wins coming in OSU’s series sweep of Yale during the 2004-05 season.
- Ohio State’s sweep of Yale in 2005 was the last time the teams played.
- All three matchups have been decided by one goal (0-1 Ohio State loss 11/27/1999, 5-4 OT Ohio State win 1/14/05, 3-2 Ohio State win 1/15/05).
Buckeyes in the Classroom
- Fifteen members of the women’s hockey program have earned WCHA All-Academic Team honors, the conference announced Wednesday.
- This Buckeyes All-Academic Team honorees represent every student-athlete who met the one-year attendance at their current institution requirement by the conference. The honor is awarded to student-athlete who have maintained at least a 3.00 GPA over the last two semesters.
- In addition, 14 players earned WCHA Scholar-Athlete honors for achieving GPAs of 3.50 or higher.
2022 Winter Olympics
- Emma Maltais, Natalie Spooner and Team Canada took gold on Wednesday night. The pair earn Ohio State women’s hockey’s fourth gold medal and 11th podium finish overall.
- Jincy Dunne earned silver in her Olympic debut for Team USA.
- Minttu Tuominen and Team Finland won the bronze medal match against Switzerland on Wednesday morning. The medal is Tuominen’s third of her Olympic career.
#GoBucks
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