COLUMBUS, Ohio --- Minnesota State (4-9-1, 4-9-1 WCHA) dropped a 7-2 decision at third-ranked Ohio State (7-4-0, 7-4-0 WCHA) in Western Collegiate Hockey Association action Saturday afternoon.

The Buckeyes were off to the races early again on Saturday. After scoring just 31 seconds into Friday's game, OSU got in the score column 26 seconds into Saturday's affair and didn't look back.

Senior forward Liz Schepers wasted no time scoring the Buckeyes' first goal. At the 26-second mark of the first, Schepers pounced to make it a 1-0 game. OSU then scored a pair of goals just over a minute apart, with 5:17 and 6:30 on the clock. Ramsey Parent scored OSU's second goal with assists to Paetyn Levis and Teghan Inglis. Levis followed the helper up with an unassisted goal one minute and 13 seconds later to make it 3-0 Buckeyes. The first-period OSU scoring surge rounded out at 4-0 when sophomore forward Jennifer Gardiner scored her second goal of the weekend with 1:25 left in the first period. OSU outshot MSU 20-5 in the first period.

In the middle period, both sides played even with each other. At the 11:14 mark, OSU sophomore forward Jenna Buglioni made it a 5-0 game with a shot that snuck past freshman netminder Lauren Barbro, who came in to relieve sophomore Calla Frank at the start of the second period. MSU eventually made its way into the score column with its first goal of the weekend at the 18:53 mark of the middle period. It came from the Mavericks leading point scorer, freshman forward Jamie Nelson, who scored her fifth goal of the season to make it 5-1. 

Sophomore forward Kelsey King helped the Mavericks pick up where they left off at the end of the second by scoring her fifth goal of the season (tied with Nelson for team-high) unassisted to make it 5-2 6:04 into the third period. From that point on, OSU locked up and netted another pair of insurance markers late in the third to complete the weekend sweep over MSU, 7-2.

For MSU in net, Frank was MSU's goalie of record. Now at a 3-7-1 mark this season, Frank stopped 16 shots while surrendering four goals in the first period. The last two periods saw Barbro jump in to make 18 saves on 21 shots. For OSU, Andrea Braendli, now 6-4-0, stopped 13 of 15 shots and worked into the final period before Amanda Thiele came in to play the final 13:39, she stopped all 11 shots she faced.

In the game, the Buckeyes claimed the shots battle, 41-26. Neither was able to capitalize with the man advantage. MSU went 0-for-3 while OSU was 0-for-2.

Minnesota State is back at home next weekend to play to Bemidji State, Friday and Saturday, at Mayo Clinic Health system Event Center.

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