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If you haven’t been paying attention, it might be time to start. The Ohio State women’s ice hockey team has transformed into one of the best programs in the country. The Buckeyes won the national championship last season and are at it again, and have been widely considered the best team this year as well, currently sitting at No. 1 in the PairWise Rankings.
There’s no doubt going to be another run toward a national championship to keep an eye on, but first, the Buckeyes needed to take care of business in their own WCHA conference. That box was checked emphatically on Sunday with OSU beating No. 6 Wisconsin in Madison to clinch its first-ever WCHA regular-season title.
The margin for error wasn’t much for Ohio State. The Buckeyes entered Sunday up by just one point in the standings and needed to take care of business or face the possibility of falling behind the Badgers in the standings thanks to an overtime loss to Wisconsin the night prior.
But OSU took care of business 3-1 thanks to three dramatic unanswered goals late after falling behind 1-0 early on in the third period. Emma Maltais scored the clutch tying goal late on the power play with just 4:17 remaining in the contest.
P3| BUCKEYE GOAL!
@emmamaltais17 ties it up at 15:43 on the power play! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/vQyprIsy94— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 19, 2023
Then, amazingly, with under a minute of game time left, defenseman Madison Bizal found the back of the net to give Ohio State the lead and set off a celebration of what seemed to be the reality of its first-ever WCHA conference title won.
P3| BUCKEYE GOAL!
MADISON BIZAL FOR THE LEAD
#GoBucks / @madison_bizal pic.twitter.com/JLWqBUXUCW— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 19, 2023
But that wasn’t all. Madison Bazil would score on another power play goal to give the Buckeyes the 3-1 margin of victory and an opportunity to take a championship photo at mid-ice in Madison.
P3| MADISON BIZAL AGAIN!!
#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/VHXCwRmMQF— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 19, 2023
Coming back to Columbus with some hardware
#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/1qUFNpIFKH— Ohio State Women's Hockey (@OhioStateWHKY) February 19, 2023
Congratulations to the Ohio State women’s ice hockey team. Now go get that WCHA Tournament title and bring home a second-straight national championship.
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By: Phil Harrison
Title: Ohio State women's hockey clinches WCHA regular-season championship
Sourced From: buckeyeswire.usatoday.com/2023/02/19/ohio-state-womens-hockey-clinches-wcha-regular-season-championship/
Published Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 02:18:31 +0000
