Ohio State, the nation’s top-ranked team, steamrolled its way to the WCHA Tournament championship game with a 5-0 win over No. 4 seed Minnesota Duluth on Friday afternoon at Ridder Arena.

The Buckeyes outshot UMD 44-17 on the heels of a pair of lopsided victories over Bemidji State in the opening round of the WCHA playoffs.

“Getting five goals on any team in this league, especially when it’s playoffs, is really impressive,” said Ohio State coach Nadine Muzerall, “but the zero on the board is just as impressive.”

The Buckeyes (32-3-0) have won all five meetings with No. 8 UMD (20-13-4) this season by a combined score of 16-2.

Ohio State scored twice within a span of 44 seconds midway through the first period to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

“Getting shots on their goalie early is something that we talked about,” said OSU captain Jenn Gardiner. “Getting those shots on goal and getting in on the forecheck was what led to our success early.”

OSU took a 3-0 lead at 5:31 of the second period on Edina’s Emma Peschel’s seventh goal of the season. The Buckeyes added to their lead at 13:54 to take a 4-0 lead into the third period.

St. Louis Park’s Olivia Mobley scored her seventh goal of the season early in the third.

Ohio State, widely considered the deepest team in women’s college hockey, got goals from each of its top three lines.

“We have so much secondary scoring that it’s hard to shut us down,” Muzerall said. “It’s not one or two players you can focus on. We are very fortunate that we have four lines that we can roll, because there isn’t much of a dropoff.”

Getting the message

Wisconsin handed the Buckeyes their third loss of the season on the last day of the regular season, 4-2 in Madison. OSU’s other two losses came in its season opener, 3-2 at Colgate, and 2-1 on December 1 at home against St. Cloud State.

“Obviously, you never want to lose, but you learn a lot more when you lose than when you win,” Muzerall said of the loss to the Badgers. “I think it just showed us that we’re not invincible and we can be beaten when we don’t play 60 minutes of hockey.

“That was a wakeup call for us, and to hold ourselves accountable as we push forward.’”

Bulldogs still alive?

UMD was one of six teams to get an at-large bid to the 11-team NCAA Tournament field last season, and the Bulldogs appear to be in a similar situation this season.

“The numbers looks right, but I don’t trust it until we hear our name on Sunday,” Bulldogs coach Maura Crowell said. “If it does go our way we’ll be happy to be in because it will have been a dogfight.”

UMD’s likely opponent in the first round? Ohio State.