Taylor Heise's two goals lead Gophers women's hockey over Ohio State

Senior forward Taylor Heise, who leads the nation in points, scored her 19th and 20th goals of the season as the No. 2 Gophers women's hockey team beat No. 3 Ohio State 5-3 Saturday afternoon at OSU Ice Arena.

The victory for Minnesota (20-7-1, 15-6-1 WCHA) broke a six-game losing streak against the Buckeyes. OSU won 2-1 in overtime in the series opener.

"A really big win here tonight," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "As a staff we're really proud of our team. Obviously our first period was not what we wanted, but our upperclassmen led us in the second and really turned the tide for us.

"Maggie Nicholson with her first goal as a Gopher was really special. That really got us going in the second to get us up 4-1. Credit to Ohio State for battling back, but our team did enough to get the win in regulation and a huge four-point weekend for us. I'm really happy about it and proud of our group and looking forward to getting home."

Ohio State (19-5, 15-5) took a 1-0 lead in the opening period on Paetyn Lewis' goal three minutes into the game.

But Minnesota took over with four goals in the middle period. The first three came in a four-minute stretch. Maggie Nicholson, a sophomore defenseman, tied the score at 1-all at 2:06, then Heise (3:33) and Madeline Wethington (5:56) build the lead to 3-0 and it was Heise again (8:18) with her second goal of the game for her 46th point of the season.

The Buckeyes tried to rally with the first two goals of the third, scored in the sixth and 11th minute by Sophie Jaques and Liz Schepers — who had the overtime winner the day before.

It stayed 4-3 until Audrey Wethington, Madeline's sister, got the final goal for Minnesota with 1:31 left on an empty-netter.

Makayla Pahl had 32 saves for the Gophers, Amanda Thiele 23 for OSU.

The Star Tribune did not travel for this event. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews before and/or after the event.