Courtesy Vermont Sports Information
BURLINGTON – Katie Matheny scored two goals Saturday afternoon to lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to a 5-2 win over Vermont on day one of the inaugural Windjammer Classic from Gutterson Fieldhouse.
The Catamounts opened the scoring on the power play 7:32 into the opening frame. Victoria Andreakos won a puck battle in the corner and tapped the puck to Dayna Colang who fed a cross-ice pass to Taylor Willard at the point. Willard gathered the pass and stepped into the slot to fire a wrist shot that deflected off an Ohio State defenseman’s stick and past the Buckeyes goaltender Alex LaMere. Willard’s power play tally was Vermont’s fourth in its last four games.
The Buckeyes struck back with their own power play goal 5:11 into the second period. From the point Dani Sadek one-timed a slap shot that Julianna Iafallo tipped past Vermont’s Madison Litchfield for her second goal of the season.
Matheny gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the game with 7:06 left in the second period. She gathered the puck in the neutral zone and used her speed to blow past a Vermont defender before cutting to the net and beating Litchfield with a backhand between the legs.
With 3:42 remaining in the second the Buckeyes extended their lead to two. On a two-on-one rush Kendall Curtis faked a pass and then roofed a backhand shot for her team-leading eighth goal of the season.
A little over a minute into the third period Colang cut the Ohio State lead in half with her sixth goal of the season. Daria O’Neill hit Colang in stride with a breakout pass and she was able to enter the Ohio State zone with speed. She beat a Buckeyes defender one-on-one before sliding the puck past LaMere. Katherine Pate picked up the secondary assist on the even strength tally.
Matheny reestablished the Buckeyes two-goal lead with another great individual rush 1:46 after the Colang goal. Erin Langermeier tipped the puck up to Matheny in the neutral zone and she blew past two Vermont defenders before beating Litchfield with a quick wrist shot.
With 4:38 left in the third period Lauren Spring scored her third goal of the season to close out the scoring in the Buckeyes 5-2 win. LaMere made 30 saves for Ohio State as she collected her fourth win of the season. Litchfield made 26 saves for Vermont.
“I feel a bit like a broken record,” said head coach Jim Plumer. “Today was representative of many of our games recently. We played well for long stretches but when we make mistakes they hurt us badly.”