The Ralph Engelstad Arena was filled with pink tape on hockey sticks and socks for UND’s North Daktoa srong campaign last weekend as the UND women’s hockey team faced off against Ohio State and skated away with a weekend split.

After claiming a 5-2 victory Friday night, UND was handed its first loss of the season Saturday as it fell to the Buckeyes, 2-1.

Friday’s game started with a goal by Tanja Eisenschmid nearly a minute into the start of the game — giving UND a quick 1-0 lead. UND scored two more goals in the first period, both on the power play by Halli Krzyzaniak and Andrea Dalen to add to North Dakota’s advantage.

Ohio State came back strong in the second period. The Buckeyes were able to put in two power play goals in the period to narrow the margin to one goal.

The Green and White rallied back in the third period with goals from senior captain Michelle Karvinen and sophomore Becca Kohler to claim the 5-2 victory.

Short of victory

Ohio State claimed the advantage early in Saturday’s contest — scoring four minutes into the game with an unassisted goal. The Buckeyes went on to tally one more goal at 15:58 to close the period.

Near the end of the first period, UND sophomore Sam LaShomb was dealt a five minute major penalty for checking from behind and a game misconduct — meaning she could not return to the game.

With a scoreless second period, UND used the third as a chance for a comeback as Meghan Dufault put the puck in the back of the net at 16:01 to cut Ohio State’s lead in half.

The comeback didn’t gain enough momentum, and UND was handed its first loss of the season.

“They came out really strong, they were flying and I think it took us by surprise a bit at the beginning and we let two goals in pretty early and got us on our heels,” Dufault said, “We tried hard to bounce back but we gotta learn from it and move forward into next weekend and come play the full sixty minutes.”

UND’s split with Ohio State put North Dakota’s record at 4-1-1.

“We got to play 60 minutes. We have to be ready to play,” UND coach Brian Idalski said. “The team will have to have a bounce back weekend against St. Cloud to get back in the win column once again.”

UND will face off at St. Cloud State next weekend.

Mariah Holland is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].