A tough, confident, ticked off Ohio State championship team is ready to unload and win consecutive national titles: Doug Lesmerises

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The No. 1 group within the nation, the defending nationwide champion, the brand new foe for everybody else to focus on … that group of gamers and coaches was trying to find a reminder final week. Emma Maltais discovered it in a five-year-old video and shared it with everybody, forwarding that reminiscence to this group of the second.

It was the response of the Ohio State ladies’s hockey group to incomes its first NCAA Event bid within the 2018 season, when Maltais was a freshman and coach Nadine Muzerall was in her second season of turning the tumultuous program she inherited into these hard-edged champions in search of extra.

“Simply to see how pure and thrilling and the way a lot of a shock and the way excited we had been, I feel it’s actually vital to not neglect that,” Maltais mentioned, “and to convey that motivation each sport.”

The Ohio State ladies’s hockey gamers are motivated. However they aren’t wide-eyed or naive. They’re not new. They’re not pure. They’re robust and focused, they’re offended at each loss and assured in each win. They’re on high and never afraid to say it, and chasing and never afraid to point out it. They’re the very best group within the nation, and so they’ll be in search of uncommon air in Ohio State sports activities on the Girls’s Frozen 4 in Duluth, Minn., this weekend.

Within the historical past of Ohio State sports activities, the Buckeyes have received 39 nationwide titles. That’s eight claimed by the soccer group within the bowl and playoff programs, after which 31 NCAA championships in baseball, males’s basketball, fencing, males’s golf, males’s gymnastics, males’s outside observe, rowing, males’s swimming, males’s volleyball, wrestling and, because of final season, ladies’s hockey.

Soccer, fencing, males’s golf and males’s gymnastics personal a number of titles however by no means repeated. The one repeat champions in OSU historical past are in males’s volleyball (2016-2017), rowing (2013-2015), and males’s swimming (1945-1947, 1949-1950, 1954-56). Girls’s hockey, a mediocre afterthought for 17 seasons when Muzerall was employed simply earlier than the 2016-17 season after the earlier two coaches had points, is attempting to hitch that checklist.

Really, scratch attempting. Possibly pushing. Combating. Attacking.

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When you’re not into ladies’s school hockey, consider it this fashion — Ohio State ladies’s hockey is Georgia soccer. New to the highest, not planning to go anyplace, and in search of consecutive nationwide titles. Not that it’ll be simple. Muzerall is aware of it’ll be a combat. She additionally is aware of if anybody is thrashing the Buckeyes — No. 5 Northeastern takes the primary shot Friday, with No. 2 Minnesota and Wisconsin within the reverse semi — they’re going to should knock the Buckeyes out chilly.

If that occurs, they’ll cope with it. However they know precisely who they’re and the way they go about issues.

“That relentlessness that we communicate of? That’s the signature to us,” Muzerall mentioned.

She mentioned that earlier than the nationwide quarterfinal Ohio State hosted in opposition to Quinnipiac on Saturday. A yr in the past in that very same quarterfinal, on that very same residence ice, Quinnipiac compelled double additional time earlier than the Buckeyes prevailed. The Bobcats thought all yr about getting revenge on Ohio State, and after one interval Saturday, Ohio State was shedding and getting outshot 12-10.

Within the locker room, Muzerall requested her group why it was timid. She reminded them of the stain a loss now would depart. She challenged them to not let a season that started with its first sport on Sept. 30 (and that may final 171 days if the Buckeyes make it to Sunday) finish this fashion.

Within the second interval, Ohio State outshot Quinnipiac 24-3. The Buckeyes received 5-2.

That they had completed what Muzerall predicted earlier than the sport.

“I’m excited to look at them unload and begin the trail to profitable all of it,” Muzerall mentioned.

A yr in the past, she informed her group earlier than the title sport that the plan was to demoralize the opponent shift by shift. Then she allowed that pregame speech to be performed to the world in a season-ending spotlight video. The primary championship in program historical past introduced the Buckeyes. Muzerall picked up a bullhorn and invited everybody to return get them.

“They’ve matured loads via their expertise final yr, not simply from clearly profitable, however the feeling of an entire state being behind you hoping that you simply win, versus now, a complete state anticipating you to win,” Muzerall mentioned. “I feel that it’s important to be taught what that seems like, however use it as motivation and rise.”

Unflinchingly and unapologetically, they’ve completed that.

Defenseman Sophie Jacques is considered one of three finalists for the game’s participant of the yr award to be introduced on the Frozen 4. She leads the nation in objectives and factors for a defenseman. Maltais is again this yr after lacking final season whereas profitable a gold medal with the Canadian Olympic group. Jennifer Gardiner leads the Buckeyes with 56 factors and joined Jacques on the Western Collegiate Hockey Affiliation first group.

The Buckeyes are 32-5-2 — proficient sufficient to win 32 instances, ornery sufficient to carry tight to the anger of their loss to rival Minnesota within the convention championship two weeks in the past.

Jacques thought they dominated Minnesota once they didn’t have breakdowns. Neither Maltais nor Jacques preferred watching Minnesota soak in a victory over the Buckeyes.

“I feel we all know we’re gonna get each group’s finest, and you’ll even really feel it with how Minnesota celebrated after we misplaced the convention championship,” Maltais mentioned. “It’s just a little little bit of a distinct feeling versus shedding to them in earlier years. I feel that (they suppose), ‘We wish to beat Ohio State,’ and you’ll really feel that and you’ll really feel that rivalry happening there. So I feel that simply truthfully motivates me to wish to win much more.”

“It was undoubtedly not nice to look at,” Jacques mentioned of the celebration. “Nevertheless it’s gas that if we play them once more, we’re not going to allow them to beat us once more.”

We wish to beat Ohio State? Groups by no means used to suppose like that. The Buckeyes had been 255-308-60 of their first 17 years as a program. They’re 162-68-19 in seven season since Muzerall arrived. Oh, and that burgeoning Minnesota rivalry — Muzerall is the main scorer within the historical past of Minnesota ladies’s hockey and was an assistant coach there when the Buckeyes employed her. She’s been on the peak of the game. She received six nationwide titles at Minnesota — two as a participant and 4 as an assistant.

Now she’s in search of a second with the Buckeyes.

She mentioned they constructed this OSU program with a Rocky mentality — “We’re gonna get punched, we’re gonna get hit up, however we’re gonna hold coming after you.”

That was underdog stuff to create that first title from nothing. Now? This isn’t an underdog repeat. Muzerall is aware of precisely what it takes to get to the highest and keep on high. That’s what this season has been.

“I like that we’ve grown with talent,” Muzerall mentioned. “We proceed to have that mindset, and now you’ve obtained talent and that mentality that we’re not ever quitting. I feel that’s highly effective. And that’s on me to proceed to convey that tempo and that vitality, and for them to not neglect the place you got here from, and who you’re, and what obtained us so far.”

At this level, they’re the very best group within the nation … once more. Muzerall informed her group the No. 1 seed is only a quantity. They had been ranked No. 1 all season save for one weekend. That doesn’t inform them something. Seeing what it means when a group does beat them now — that tells them all the pieces.

“Watching (Minnesota’s) pleasure and celebration to beat us … that wasn’t a factor earlier than,” Muzerall mentioned. “So now it’s a factor.”

A yr in the past, Ohio State beat Yale after which Minnesota-Duluth within the Frozen 4. This time it’s Northeastern, and with a win, both Minnesota or Wisconsin. Minnesota and Wisconsin have mixed for 12 of the final 17 nationwide titles.

Then Ohio State arrived. The Buckeyes know what they had been. And so they completely know who they’re.

“You discover your little items to remind them of who we’re, and always remember it,” Muzerall mentioned. “And so they perceive what’s at stake, and so they need it badly. I joked with them, however not joked, that anybody can win one. However are you able to win back-to-back? That’s the brand new objective.”

It’s a objective they’ve carried for six months. This weekend, they get to unload once more. The end result may make them one of many best groups in Ohio State historical past.

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