Columbus, Ohio – Liz Schepers, a junior forward from Mound, scored the first and final goals of the game for No. 9 Ohio State to lead the Buckeyes to a 4-3 victory over the No. 2 Gophers on Friday in WCHA hockey.
Her third goal, at 12 minutes, 4 seconds of the third period, came about two minutes after the Gophers' Emily Oden had tied the score at 3-all.
"Tough result tonight," Gophers coach Brad Frost said. "Our team played a good third period, but when you play a good team like Ohio State you've got to play a full 60 [minutes]. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do that."
Minnesota outshot the Buckeyes 18-8 in the third period.
Ohio State's Andrea Braendli had 33 saves. Sydney Scobee stopped 27 shots for the Gophers (8-1, 4-1 WCHA).
Scheper gave the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead just under two minutes into the game. Grace Zumwinkle tied the score for the Gophers with the first of her two goals in the 15th minute.
Ohio State (5-2-2, 3-2-2), which has eight Minnesotans on its roster, retook the lead in the second period, scoring twice. Gabby Rosenthal, a sophomore forward from Blaine, made it 2-1 Buckeyes at four minutes and Emma Maltais gave Ohio State a 3-1 lead in the 14th minute.
Again it was Zumwinkle who responded. She scored her team-high seventh goal of the season on a power play with 1:08 left in the middle period to bring the Gophers within one goal into the third.
Schepers' winning goal was her sixth goal of the season.
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