The #1-ranked Ohio State women’s hockey team went to Minneapolis for Friday and Saturday games against the #3 Minnesota Gophers and came away with a 6-2 loss in the opener, followed by a one-goal thriller of a win, 6-5, before heading home.

On Friday, Minnesota scored the first four goals of the contest, the last two on power plays. Before the second period ended, the Buckeyes were able to halve the lead with scores from Joy Dunne and Jenna Raunio. The Gophers added two in the third to pad their lead and serve up OSU’s first loss of the season, 6-2.

In Saturday’s game, Ohio State scored the first three goals of the evening, but Minnesota responded with three to knot things with 4:44 left in the second frame. The back-and-forth action after that saw the Buckeyes take a one-goal lead before the second ended. In the third period, the Gophers scored twice to take the lead. OSU then recorded two goals mid-way through the third, 42 seconds apart, to win 6-5.

On top of Dunne’s goal in the first game, the senior added a hat trick on Saturday to lead the way for the Buckeyes. The leading goal-scorer the past three years, Dunne paces Ohio State so far this season with eight tallies. The Buckeyes’ leader in assists, Mira Jungåker, added three helpers during the weekend and now has 14.

Ohio State (7-1-0, 5-1-0 WCHA) returns home for a two-game non-conference series with #9-ranked Colgate (6-0-0, 0-0-0 ECAC). Friday’s game at the OSU Ice Rink begins at 6:00 p.m., Saturday’s at 3:00 p.m.