UND women’s hockey skaters celebrate last weekend against Ohio State at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

The UND women’s hockey team snapped an eight-game winless streak when it rebounded from a 2-2 tie and defeated Ohio State 4-3 on Saturday night at Ralph Engelstad.

It was another slow start for North Dakota as Ohio State got an early lead, getting on the scoreboard just over six minutes into the contest.

“I thought we were a little sluggish off the hop,” UND coach Brian Idalski said after Saturday’s win. “Obviously, with them scoring the first goal, you’re going to be a little concerned about how the response was going to be. To get out of the period 1-1, we felt pretty good.”

North Dakota was outshot 19-13 and down 2-1 heading into the final period of play. The team found a way to rally going into the third, taking the lead from Ohio State only a little under three minutes into the period.

Idalski was encouraged by the way his team came out and finished the game.

“Obviously, coming out down in the third and being able to quickly respond to tie it up was big, and to get the lead was nice,” he said. “I really liked our energy overall in the third.”

Junior Shannon Kaiser got UND going when she scored her first goal of the season by crashing the net early in the third to tie the game at two.

“Kaiser’s goal really got us going,” sophomore forward Amy Menke said.

Kaiser’s early, gritty goal provided UND with momentum as Menke netted another goal for UND, her fourth of the year just 49 seconds later taking the lead away from Ohio State.  Menke brought the puck down the left side of the ice on a two on one before picking the top right corner sneaking the puck past goaltender Stacy Danczak. Menke was a big contributor in Saturday’s win, tallying a goal and two assists on the night.

Becca Kohler netted her sixth goal of the season 13 minutes into the third, giving UND a 4-2 lead. Ohio State made a strong final push, pulling its goalie with just less than two minutes remaining and found the back of the net with 10 seconds left in regulation. The Buckeyes’ efforts proved to come too late as UND was able to earn its first three-point win since Oct. 17.

“Other games have been pretty close, so we kind of shook off the bad luck that we had,” Menke said. “We remember what it feels like to win, so it’s great feeling.”

The win allowed UND to put the right foot forward as it prepares for another WCHA matchup against St. Cloud next weekend.

“We have to be consistent in all three periods,” Menke said. “I think we’re slowly working that way. We’re getting more bounces our way, so it will be easier to keep going for 60 minutes.”

UND will face a struggling St. Cloud State team that has lost its last four games played, suffering sweeps from Minnesota Duluth and Wisconsin. St. Cloud hasn’t been able to get much going in the scoring category, getting outscored 14-1 in its last four matchups.

North Dakota currently sits in fifth place in the WCHA with an overall record of 5-7-2. The team will look to hang on to the momentum it has built as it takes on St. Cloud next weekend in two afternoon games Saturday and Sunday at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

Ben Novak is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].