Gophers women's hockey will face Ohio State one more time in NCAA tournament

The Ohio State women's hockey team beat the nation's second- and third-ranked teams in overtime this weekend at Ridder Arena to earn the program's first WCHA tournament championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

The Buckeyes' reward: a return trip to the Twin Cities next weekend.

The Gophers will face Ohio State again Saturday, as the eight-team NCAA tournament field was revealed Sunday night.

The Buckeyes beat the Gophers 4-3 in Saturday's WCHA semifinals, then defeated defending national champion Wisconsin 1-0 Sunday. But the fifth-ranked Buckeyes (24-8-6) were not one of the four teams seeded for the NCAA tournament. The Gophers (27-6-3) were named the No. 4 seed and will play Ohio State for the sixth time this season; the Buckeyes have won three of the first five meetings.

"We're really honored to be in position to host and to be one of eight teams left in the country," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "We're excited to have OSU coming back here, obviously a team we're very familiar with. We've had some great battles here over the five games we've played, and I'm sure Saturday will be another great one. We're looking forward to it."

Wisconsin (28-5-3) is the No. 2 seed and plays host to Clarkson on Saturday. Top-ranked Cornell was named the top seed and will play host to Mercyhurst. The other quarterfinal features Princeton at No. 3 seed Northeastern.

In Sunday's WCHA title game, Tatum Skaggs scored her second OT winner in less than 24 hours. She scored 4 minutes, 25 seconds into overtime, beating goalie Sydney Scobee between the pads. On Saturday, Skaggs scored 4:56 into OT vs. the Gophers.

Buckeyes goalie Andrea Braendli made a season-high 41 saves and set a program record with her 20th victory of the season.