The sophomore goaltender made 39 saves and the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team did the rest, defeating No. ½ Ohio State University 2-1 in both sides season and Western Collegiate Hockey Association's openers.
"I am so proud of our team," said Bulldog head coach Laura Schuler following the game. "Ève was absolutely outstanding between the pipes for us. I really liked our second period, thought we had a tremendous push there and got a goal at the end that gave us a ton of confidence going into the third. Overall, there are definitely parts of our game that we have to continue to work at to get better, but I really did like how we played in our defensive zone, our layers were good and again, Ève was absolutely amazing."
After the Buckeyes scored off a fluke deflection 1:39 into the frame on a puck that popped up and over Gascon, the Bulldogs blueline kept OSU's advantage a single goal in the first period despite being outshot 18-2.
But UMD flipped the script in the second stanza, and secured by the play of Gascon, outshot the Buckeyes 7-4 and finally broke through a 17 period scoreless stranglehold OSU had on the Bulldogs dating back to their first game last season. Graduate forward Olivia Wallin threw the puck towards the front of the net from behind the goal line, and its deflection beat Amanda Thiele at 18:46 to pull UMD even with OSU at 1-1.
That set the stage for an epic UMD upset, and despite a shots on goal advantage for the Buckeyes of 18-5, it was the Bulldogs that struck last in the period for the game-winning goal.
It all came from fifth-year and former OSU forward Olivia Mobley's effort behind the back boards, and backhanded pass to a wide open Ida Karlsson right below the face-off dot. The sophomore defenseman one-timed the puck over Thiele's left shoulder and between the post for her first goal of the season, and the first game-winning goal of her collegiate career with just 23.3 seconds left in the game.
"Mobs (Olivia Mobley) made a great pass, I have no idea how she saw me, she set me up really well, and honestly I just tried to hit the puck," said Karlsson. "It's my first win against OSU, which is super fun and exciting, and for the team, it was a great start to the season."
UMD withstood the final 23 seconds like it did the entire 60 minutes, and behind the goaltending of Gascon, defeated OSU for the first time in Columbus since Jan. 21, 2022, and the first No. 1 opponent since Dec. 3, 2022 (a 5-4 overtime win against the University of Wisconsin at AMSOIL Arena).
Gascon made 39 saves, 17 in the first period and 18 in the third for her first win of the season and 11th of her UMD career. UMD's defense held the Buckeyes scoreless on three power play attempts, and as a unit, had 16 blocks. Junior defenseman Tova Henderson had a team-high five blocks on the afternoon.
The Buckeyes (0-1-0, 0-1-0), had 12 saves from Thiele and a goal from Jordyn Petrie. OSU outshot UMD 40-14 in the contest.
The Bulldogs (1-0-0, 1-0-0) will face the Buckeyes again tomorrow in game two of the series, set to get underway at 12:00 p.m. CT.
BULLDOG NOTES: Laura Schuler's first win of her career continues the trend of new UMD head coaches winning in their debuts … Gascon's 39 saves is tied for the third-most stops in her collegiate career … Gascon's career-high is 48 … Ida Karlsson also had an assist on the Bulldogs first goal, the fourth multiple-point game of her career …Graduate forward Clara Van Wieren had the first assist on Olivia Wallin's goal, while redshirt junior Mary Kate O'Brien had the second helper on the game-winner … the Bulldogs had never opened the season against a No. 1 team until Saturday … UMD's seven goals was the most it had put on a Buckeye team in six games.