As the No. 1 overall seed, Ohio State women’s hockey enters the NCAA Tournament with confidence it can win its first-ever national championship.
What’s made the Buckeyes the No. 1 team in the country, though, is the depth and well-roundedness of their roster. Ohio State has seven players who have scored at least 35 points this season; no other team has more than three. The Buckeyes lead the nation in goals per game and rank fourth in goals allowed per game; they also lead the country in power play percentage and rank third in penalty-killing percentage .
The Buckeyes have emerged as a perennial championship contender since Muzerall became their head coach in 2016, and they’ve already come close to winning a national title a few times. They made it to the semifinals of the Frozen Four in both 2018 and 2021, and looked poised to vie for a championship in 2020 before the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have more depth, and we don't have a weakness anywhere. We've taken pride in all the areas of the game, and we are tired of being a bridesmaid, getting to the show and coming short. And I think we have more leadership and experience,” Muzerall said. “Last year, that team, there wasn't very many that had been to the postseason. And now more than half have. So I think that's really important.
“We definitely have confidence in ourselves,” Jaques said. “I think it's really grown over this year. And I think these past couple of weeks, we've really proven it to ourselves with being able to play two good games every weekend to sweep a team and especially last weekend, I think that gave us the confidence we need going into this tournament that we know we can win it if we play our game.
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