Ohio State dominates Boston College 3-1 in NCAA women's hockey quarterfinals

The Ohio State women’s hockey team dominated the final two periods of its NCAA tournament quarterfinal Tuesday night against Boston College, winning 3-1 at Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pa.

The Buckeyes will play Wisconsin on Thursday in the Frozen Four. The Badgers defeated Ohio State 3-2 in overtime to win the WCHA championship on March 7.

The Buckeyes (13-6-0) trailed Boston College 1-0 after one period but overwhelmed the Eagles (14-6-0) in the final 40 minutes. They outshot BC 27-4 in the second period and 16-4 in the third for an overall 48-13 shot advantage.

Still, it took a while for the Buckeyes to cash in against goaltender Abigail Levy. Jenna Buglioni finally broke through on a power play, assisted by Liz Schepers and Tatum Skaggs with 3:27 left in the second period. Three minutes later, Brooke Bink poked in a rebound off a shot by Paetyn Levis after Madison Bizal kept the puck in the zone.

"We have a very young team," Buckeyes coach Nadine Muzerall said. "A lot of them haven't played at the national tournament, I think there were a few jitters, but a lot of it too was Boston College. They came out flying.

"Once everybody got a few shifts in and we could get back to rolling our lines and getting a rhythm and becoming a little more balanced, we did a great job."

Gabby Rosenthal added an insurance goal in the third period, assisted by Skaggs and Emma Maltais.

Boston College opened the scoring midway through the first period on a wrist shot by Savanna Norcross. That was the only shot that got by Andrea Braendli, who made 12 saves.

Northeastern will play Minnesota-Duluth in the other semifinal on Thursday. The Buckeyes wanted to savor their win Tuesday without looking ahead to the rematch against Wisconsin.

The Buckeyes didn't want to look ahead to the rematch with Wisconsin just yet. They made the NCAA tournament last year and were at the airport gate ready to board their flight to Minneapolis when the pandemic ended their season abruptly.

They wanted to savor this win.

"Obviously, last year was disappointing," Skaggs said. "The thing that you have to keep in mind is that everyone went through the same exact thing. Everyone had the same feeling. It just stinks because we were on such a high last year winning the WCHA, and then obviously it got cut short.

"This feeling right now is something that we deserve to feel. We're excited because we deserved to go to the national tournament last year, and it just didn't happen. So our time is finally now."

Brabinowitz@dispatch.com

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