Here Lies: Ohio State's 2014-15 Season

It wasn't as quick and painless as many had thought. The Gophers were a tough draw, but Ohio State had been here before. Last season they upended the mighty Minnesotans. This year was a different story. This year the Buckeyes lost and finished their season. 

Watching senior captain Tanner Fritz head back to the dressing room in full uniform, almost in tears knowing his collegiate career had come to a close, it doesn't take much more than that to realize that it's about more than a game.

For Fritz, he will soon become the first member of his family to graduate from college.

The Buckeye captain's journey has come full circle.

Ohio State, who had won six of their last seven games coming into Friday afternoon's Big Ten semifinal contest against Minnesota, saw their 2014-15 journey come to a close on Friday afternoon at Joe Louis arena by a 3-0 final score.

Gophers goaltender Adam Wilcox, who was under a decent amount of criticism this season, was the first star of the game, posting up a brick wall in front of his net and stopping all 39 shots that came his way.

I would like to believe that the win for the Golden Gophers brings some relief to them, as they were stunned last year at the Excel Energy Center in Saint Paul by underdog OSU.

The group of Buckeyes that put together a very impressive run heading into the tournament and continued that run yesterday in their win over Penn State, was the group that head coach Steve Rohlik had envisioned coming into the season.

They just couldn't stay healthy.

Throughout the course of the year, I don't know of another team that dealt with more injury issues than Ohio State. The lack of chemistry and the constant throwing together of random lines from week to week was an incredible stressor on Rohlik and his staff.

This comes after Rohlik's first season in which he dealt with six different goaltenders at one point. It makes me wonder what will happen next season, hopefully nothing unusual (knock on wood).

Will what they have coming back and coming into the program look like a national title team on paper?

No.

What I can guarantee is that it will be an Ohio State team that works for everything that it achieves, as it is a program that looks to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.

RIP