The No. 8 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team fell 9-0 to top-seed Ohio State University Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Regional Final at the OSU Ice Rink in Columbus, Ohio.

"Obviously not the game we wanted to play today, credit OSU for coming at us and putting us on our heels right away," said UMD head coach Maura Crowell. "They did a great job executing their game plan and we wish them the best of luck next weekend. For our group, not the game we wanted to have, but it wasn't for a lack of effort, and I am really proud of the season we put together getting to this point. We have a lot of people coming back and they are going to learn from this experience and make sure we use this to fuel our fire for next season."

The Bulldogs, who battled the equivalent of two games in their legs before they even stepped on the ice against the Buckeyes, fell behind just 22 seconds into the game and trailed 3-0 after the first period.

OSU scored four goals in the second and one in the third period to advance to next weekend's NCAA Frozen Four. 

Freshman goaltender Ève Gascon started and played 47:12 minutes for the Bulldogs. The freshman made 27 saves, running her NCAA Tournament total to 60 in her first season. Sophomore Hailey MacLeod opened the second period in goal but played just 12:48, making three stops in that span. OSU outshot UMD 39-16 in the contest, and improved to 33-4-0 on the season.

The Bulldogs, who advanced to their fourth-straight NCAA Regional Final/Quarterfinal, will end their season with a record of 21-14-4. 

"We wanted to play with pride until the last buzzer and every shift we went out there and we kept swinging," said Bulldog redshirt sophomore forward Mary Kate O'Brien. "We have to learn from the senior group we had too, all their contributions they had to this team, we're going to keep moving forward with that as well."