John Gilbert UMD/Ohio State story

The following is an article by John Gilbert about OSU's unbeaten streak ending to UMD, posted on WCHA.com:

As role-reversals go, this was a classic. Ohio State travels to Duluth to face the University of Minnesota Duluth's perennial women's hockey power - a familiar scene during the eight-year history of the two programs. That's where things became unfamiliar.

A two-part quiz is in order: 1. One of the two teams extends its nation's-best unbeaten streak to 10 games (9-0-1) by cruising to a 3-0 shutout victory in the first game. 2. One of the two teams snaps out of its own nine-game (1-7-1) slump, in which it had scored only one goal in the four most recent games - all losses - by winning the second game.

Which team is which? The easy money would say UMD is the answer to question 1, because the Bulldogs have been on hot streaks every year, and had lost only two of 34 previous games against Ohio State; and that Ohio State would be the answer to question 2, because the Buckeyes have always been competitive, but it has been a difficult quest to reach elite status, and besides, UMD had never had such a prolonged slump.

The logical answers would be: wrong, and wrong, Zamboni-breath!

It is the Ohio State Buckeyes who go into the holiday break as the hottest team in the country, by stretching their streak on Erika Vanderveer's 3-0 shutout. Even though their program-record unbeaten run came to an end in the second game at Duluth, the Buckeyes had long left behind their own five-game losing streak during a 2-5 start by rising to 7-6-1 in the WCHA and 10-7-1 overall. Strong goaltending and defensive play, and balanced scoring all came together for coach Jackie Barto, whose objective-setting Buckeyes fittingly started the 9-0-1 streak with a 2-1 victory over Minnesota, and it lasted through the 3-0 victory at Duluth, in which defenseman Tessa Bonhomme scored in the opening minute of both the first and second periods, and team scoring leader Erin Keys, who assisted on the first two goals, made it 3-0 with her 11th goal, only five minutes into the second.





And it is the UMD Bulldogs who stumbled through a school record slump that reached its lowest point when they were shut out by Vanderveer despite 11 power-plays that were both a tribute to the Buckeye penalty-killers, and a study in ineptitude for a Bulldog team that opened the season 8-0 in the WCHA and overall but are now 10-5-1 in the league and 10-7-1 overall. Program record slump? Four straight losses compare to the fact UMD had only lost three in a row twice - last year and in their first season of 1999-2000. And a and had only one winless streak that went as long as four games, in that first season, when they played top-two rated New Hampshire and Minnesota back to back.

Perhaps it was predictable that when OSU's unbeaten streak ended, and UMD's slump was snapped, it would be of seismic proportions - and it was, as Noemie Marin scored three goals and Tawni Mattila two as UMD went 6-12 on power-plays and romped 9-1 by hurling 50 shots at Vanderveer. But even that couldn't dampen the spirit of the Buckeyes and coach Barto.

"They came out hard, and played with purpose, on a mission," said Barto. "Give Duluth credit."

It was considerably easier to be gracious in defeat than in past years, when losses to UMD were pretty consistent, now that the Buckeyes have cracked the nation's top 10, and have moved up impressively enough to stretch the WCHA's "top three" to a "top four" with Wisconsin, Minnesota and UMD.

This time, Barto set some small objectives for little victories in the third period, and after being outshot 45-17 through two periods and eventually trailing 8-0, Katie Mahoney's goal broke Kim Martin's shutout bid and Ohio State outshot the Bulldogs 17-5 in the third period.

Barto had to be upset about the constant stream of Buckeyes going to the penalty box in both games, with 17 infractions for 45 minutes in the first game - 2:47 of it spent facing 5-on-3 power-plays - and 15 for 38 minutes in the second - unusual numbers for a team that entered the weekend in the nation's lowest percentile of being penalized. That resulted in 23 power-plays for UMD in the two games, to 10 for Ohio State. But Barto held her cool.

"The officials do the best they can, and we try to do the best we can," said Barto, in a wonderfully subtle evaluation.

Always organized, Barto sets goals for her teams, but to suggest that is the reason for OSU's record surge is because of those goals is oversimplifying things.

"Within games, I'll set some goals, and I set some pretty high goals for the season before we started," said Barto. "One was to challenge the top teams in the WCHA, and another was to make the NCAAs.

"I think the strength of our team is that we've had outstanding goaltending, and good team defense, and everyone has been contributing," said Barto. "Keys has been a big contributor on offense, and leads us in goals and assists, but during our streak, I think we found that the girls play hard for each other, and everybody works to do the little things that lead to success."

Keys, who played at Cretin-Derham Hall high school in St. Paul, has emerged as a strong scorer this season and leads the team with 11-13-24. She plays right wing with Peckles at center, and Jody Heywood at left wing on an all-junior line. But other than second line sophomores Morgan Marziali, who has 7 goals, and Hayley Klassen, who has 5, no other forward has more than four goals.

The scoring of the defense has been a real strength. Senior Amber Bowman (5-17-22) and Bonhomme (9-11-20), a junior, form a formidable first tandem on defense that no other team in the country can match, and junior Lisa Chesson (5-11-16) is close behind.

"Tessa Bonhomme, Amber Bowman, and Lisa Chesson are three of the top defensemen in the league, and they're all among our top scorers," said Barto.

Vanderveer, a senior from Bradford, Ontario, is the pillar of strength in goal who has been the beneficiary of the team's uplifted play this season. She had given up just nine goals in the 9-0-1 streak, and for the whole season she stood 10-2-1 with a 1.31 goals-against and a .954 save percentage, and she made 41 saves in the second game, and the nine goals only raised her goals-against average to 1.86, and lowered her save percentage to .938.

"I don't think we helped her much in that one," said Barto. "Erika is a competitor, and this won't bother her."

As for the slowly evolving parity within the WCHA, Wisconsin, Minnesota and UMD are still there, but Ohio State is leading the way for the rest of the WCHA, where Minnesota State, St. Cloud State, and Bemidji State have improved considerably, and North Dakota is rebuilding.

"I don't think anyone can take a night off any more in our league," said Barto. "We played very well and it was an exciting stretch during our streak, but now we'll have to see what happens as we get closer to the league playoffs and the NCAAs,"

Those objectives are still out there, and another streak can wait until after the holidays.