MHKY: No. 7 Buckeyes Blank Colgate, 1-0
Nappier stops all 24 shots for Buckeyes’ second shutout of the weekend; Joshua scores gamewinner
HAMILTON, N.Y. – Dakota Joshua scored the gamewinning goal in the third period and Tommy Nappier stopped all 24 shots as the No. 7 Ohio State men’s hockey team shut out Colgate, 1-0, Saturday in Class of 1965 Arena. Ohio State blanked the Raiders in both games this weekend, with a 3-0 victory Friday, the first time the team had two shutouts in a series since Nov. 4-5, 2011 at Alabama Huntsville.
Ohio State, now 6-3-1 on the year (1-1-0-0 B1G), wraps up a stretch of five consecutive road games with a 3-1-1 record, allowing four goals in the five games combined, with three shutouts.
Up next, the Buckeyes will host back-to-back Big Ten series. Wisconsin comes to Value City Arena Friday and Saturday, with puck drop at 7 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday. The Buckeyes and Penn State will meet at 5 p.m. Nov. 23 and 8 p.m. Nov. 24.
Ohio State 1, Colgate 0
The Buckeyes and Colgate were scoreless until Dakota Joshua one-timed a pass from John Wiitala at 10:08 of the third period. Brendon Kearney had the second assist on the goal, Joshua’s third of the season.
Ohio State outshot Colgate, 36-24, in the game. Each team had eight shots in the first, the Buckeyes had the edge 15-10 in the second and in the third the Buckeyes put 13 on net, limiting Colgate to six. Ohio State had 16 blocked shots, led by Sasha Larocque and Gordi Myer with four each.
Tommy Nappier played all 60 minutes and posted his second shutout of the season and the third of his career. He is among the nation’s leaders with a 1.32 goals-against average and .957 save percentage this season. As a team, the Buckeyes are allowing 2.10 goals per game and have allowed two or fewer in eight of 10 games.
Each team was 0-for-4 on the power play in the game.
Quoting Buckeye head coach Steve Rohlik
“Anytime you can get a sweep in college hockey on the road it’s a good weekend. Defensively we played pretty well and I thought our goalies were the difference in the series.”
Quoting Buckeye senior forward Dakota Joshua
“It was a great job by the boys to hold on and win a tight game. College hockey gives you a new challenge every weekend and it was nice to see the team come together and pull out a sweep on the road.”
