No. 2 Ohio State Hosts WCHA First Round Series vs. St. Thomas

No. 2 Ohio State vs. St. Thomas
Date: Feb. 27/Feb. 28/March 1*,2026
Time: 6 p.m./3 p.m. /3 p.m.*
Venue: OSU Ice Rink – Columbus, Ohio
Watch: B1G+
Live Stats: OhioStateBuckeyes.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 2 Ohio State women's hockey team starts its postseason push this weekend in Columbus with the WCHA First Round. The best-of-three series between the No. 2 seed Buckeyes (30-4-0, 24-4-0 WCHA) and No. 7 seed St. Thomas is set to begin Friday, Feb. 27 at the OSU Ice Rink.

Game one faces off at 6 p.m. Friday with game two scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday. If needed, a third game will be played between the Buckeyes and Tommies at 3 p.m. Sunday. The games will be streamed on B1G+ (subscription required).

The winners of the first round series advance to the WCHA Kwik Trip Final Faceoff. The Final Faceoff this year will be held March 5 and 7 at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, Minn.

Buckeyes in a Nutshell

Ohio State finished the regular season second in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings. The team finished the year with 70 points, just two points shy of first-place Wisconsin. Ohio State has finished top two in the league for the last five seasons.
The Buckeyes earned their 30th win of the season last weekend at Bemidji State. Ohio State has 30-win seasons four of the last five years. All of the program's 30-win seasons were achieved during head coach Nadine Muzerall's tenure.
Ohio State is 38-37 all-time in the WCHA tournament. The Buckeyes and Tommies meet for the second consecutive season in the WCHA First Round. Ohio State head coach Nadine Muzerall has led the Buckeyes to a 22-8 record in WCHA tournament games.
Five Buckeyes have hit the 30-point mark this season - Joy Dunne (44), Hilda Svensson (44), Jocelyn Amos (38), Sloane Matthews (37) and Maxine Cimoroni (32). Dunne has scored a team-high 25 goals and Svensson's 29 assists are a team high. Svensson and Cimoroni are both in the top 10 for points scored in a rookie season by a Buckeye.
After four series shorthanded, Ohio State will have its 2026 Winter Olympians back on the bench this weekend to start the post season. Five current players represented Ohio State at the Winter Games. Dunne won a gold medal with Team USA. Mira Jungåker, Jenna Raunio and Hilda Svensson helped Sweden advance undefeated out of Group B and into the Olympic semifinals and Sanni Vanhanen made her second Olympic appearance with Finland.
Ohio State's power play has improved to fifth nationally. The team was 50 percent last weekend, scoring on three of four opportunities in game one at Bemidji State. With power play goals in six of its last eight games, Ohio State's power play is 28.1 percent on the year. Dunne, Matthews and Kaia Malachino have five power play goals this season. Svensson leads the team with 13 points on the power play and Matthews second (11). Fourteen of the Buckeyes' 19 skaters have a power play point.
Matthews and Peschel are on track to become the newest members of the century club at Ohio State. Peschel needs two points for 100 for her career and Matthews needs three. They would join Dunne and Amos as the current Ohio State players with 100 career points on the team.
In goal for the Buckeyes, Hailey MacLeod has earned a 20-3-0 record, a .925 save percentage and 1.64 goals against average this season. MacLeod is second in season wins by a Buckeye netminder.

Series History – Buckeyes vs. Tommies

Ohio State and St. Thomas meet at the OSU Ice Rink for the second time in just over a month. The Buckeyes defeat the Tommies 2-1 in overtime and 5-0 Jan. 23-24 in Columbus.
Ohio State is 22-0-0 against St. Thomas since the teams first met as conference opponents to open the 2021-22 season.
The Buckeyes' only overtime games this season were against St. Thomas. Of the four conference points Ohio State has given up to St. Thomas, all four were overtime wins for the Buckeyes.

Last Time Out

Ohio State swept its final regular season series at Bemidji State last weekend.
In game one, Kaia Malachino scored a hat trick and the Buckeyes went 3-for-4 on the power play for the 7-1 win.
Ohio State won game two, 6-3, with three-point games from Jocelyn Amos, Maxine Cimoroni and Emma Peschel and another multi-goal game from Malachino.
Hailey MacLeod finished the weekend with 32 saves in 120 minutes of play for a .889 save percentage.
Peschel scored a team-high seven points on the weekend while Malachino led the team with five goals.
The Buckeyes swept the regular season against the Beavers with the wins.

Up Next
The winner of this weekend's WCHA First Round series advances to the 2026 WCHA Kwik Trip Final Faceoff. The semifinals will be played March 5 and the championship game March 7 at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena in St. Paul, Minn. on the campus of the University of St. Thomas.

#GoBucks

Departments

Media

More

University

Information

Athletic Facilities

Athletics

The Team Shop

Get In The Game

Purchase Tickets

Purchase Tickets

Ticket Office

Resources

Schedules