Women’s Ice Hockey: Trio from Shattuck St. Mary’s ready to make their mark in first season with Buckeyes

Three incoming freshmen from Shattuck St. Mary’s all-girls prep school in Minnesota are bringing their championship pedigree to a Buckeye program built on it.

As Ohio State’s women’s ice hockey team seeks a third National Championship in four years, freshmen forward Jordyn Petrie, goalie Genny Klein and defender Maria Roth are not strangers to a winning culture.

In 2022, Petrie and Roth helped their Shattuck team win the Girl’s Tier 1 19U National Championship. Last season, Klein joined the charge and the trio helped lead its squad to a USA Hockey Tier 1 National Championship.

Roth said winning two national championships serves as a key memory for her and the Shattuck team as a whole.

“Just all the work that went into it, and then achieving our goals together was huge,” Roth said. “And then also bringing that mindset here has been super positive for our friendships.”

Roth — the Dubuque, Iowa native — moved to Faribault, Minnesota to play at Shattuck St. Mary’s halfway through her high school career. Roth said the move was necessary because there’s not many women’s ice hockey opportunities in Iowa.

“I’d been playing in Wisconsin and then I needed a place to play to get me to the next level and achieve my goal of playing D1 hockey, so I went to Shattuck because they have a great program for that,” Roth said.

Both Klein and Petrie were on a men’s hockey team prior to moving to Minnesota. Klein said her parents knew the move would be worth it in the end.

“That was the goal always for me,” Klein said. “Ever since I was little, I was told it was possible, which was nice.”

Like Klein, Petrie said she also had to play on a boys’ team before moving to Minnesota.

Gordie Stafford, the head coach and director of girls’ hockey at Shattuck, is entering his 20th season at the helm and said one of the foundational ideas the program ingrains into its players is that competition is the sincerest form of friendship.

“They’re in the dorms together, they eat together, they’re in class together, they’re on the bus together, they’re in hotels together,” Safford said. “So, I think having a championship team, while that is the result — winning a championship — hopefully, what they learn at Shattuck is that the journey is the reward.”

Stafford said one of the most fulfilling parts of his job is seeing his players go on to play after high school.

“Ohio State is an elite program, obviously, and I have a very good relationship with coach Muzerall and with coach Elander,” Stafford said. “Ohio State is among a handful of schools where the most elite players can go and know that [the] coaching staff is going to be able to develop them in the right competitive atmosphere, with a chance to win every year.”

Roth said having a special bond between her two teammates has provided the three players with the comfort of knowing they will see familiar faces in the locker room despite entering an unfamiliar environment.

“I would say it’s helped a lot, just to have familiar faces in such a big school and, obviously, joining a team that’s super close,” Roth said. “It was nice to already have good friends from high school that I’ve known for three to four years.”

Petrie said she acknowledges they are stepping into a winning locker room and there are tough expectations that come with Ohio State’s competitive culture.

“This is a huge program, and it means so much to a lot of people,” Petrie said. “So, just being able to have a really good season, and come out strong, and prove ourselves and then last year, obviously, [they won] national champions, so we’ve got to continue that legacy,”

Stafford said he knows how talented his former players are and is ready for them to start their new chapter with the Buckeyes.

“I think they’re all elite players,” Stafford said. “Ohio State is an elite program, obviously, and I have a very good relationship with coach Muzerall and with coach Elander.”

Klein, Petrie, Roth and the rest of the Ohio State women’s ice hockey team will open their season at home against the University of Minnesota Duluth in games Saturday and Sunday.