It had been nearly 10 years since the Ohio State women's hockey team had beaten the Gophers.
But Minnesota's 44-game unbeaten streak against the Buckeyes had to end some time. Turns out it was Friday night.
OSU edged the No. 4 Gophers 3-2 at Ridder Arena in the WCHA opener for both teams. Charly Dahlquist, a junior forward from Eden Prairie, broke a 2-all tie with a goal for Ohio State at 7 minutes, 22 seconds of third period. She had played at North Dakota last season but transferred after the school dropped its women's hockey program.
Junior forward Jacyn Reeves scored twice for Ohio State (3-0, 1-0 Big Ten) in the first four minutes of the game.
The Gophers tied the score in the second period on goals by junior defenseman Sophie Skarzynski and freshman forward Grace Zumwinkle, who has three goals, all on power plays.
"We climbed back on the two-goal hole and showed some good resilience," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Unfortunately, that third one going off our defenseman on kind of a harmless play was a tough way to lose."
Junior Kassidy Sauve made 26 saves — 17 in the second period — for the Buckeyes, who have seven Minnesotans on their roster.
Freshman Alex Gulstene had 24 saves for the Gophers (1-2, 0-1), who split their season-opening series with visiting Merrimack last weekend.
Ohio State's last win over Minnesota was 4-1 in Columbus on Oct. 20, 2007. Since then the Gophers had gone 41-0-3 vs. the Buckeyes, although their final meeting in the 2016-17 season ended in a 1-1 tie and the other three games were all decided by one goal. The Gophers lead 70-9-4 in the all-time series against Ohio State.
"Our team is learning and growing, and we have to learn from this," Frost said.
