No. 4/3 Buckeyes Fall to Wolverines, 2-1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 4/3-ranked Ohio State men’s hockey team lost to Michigan, 2-1, Friday in front of 10,084 fans in Value City Arena. The Buckeyes, who had a seven-game unbeaten streak end with the loss, are now 12-5-4 on the year (5-3-3-2 B1G), with the Wolverines 8-8-6 (4-4-4-2). The Buckeyes scored in the first period but two Wolverine tallied in the second pushed Michigan ahead and the lead held.
The Buckeyes and Wolverines will end the weekend series at 7 p.m. Saturday in Value City Arena. A large crowd is expected again; fans who were planning to walk up are encouraged to pre-purchase tickets online. All fans are encouraged to arrive early because of the expected large crowd and the possible impact of winter weather.
Michigan 2, Ohio State 1
In the first … Ohio State scored the only goal at 5:50. Dakota Joshua carried the puck up the ice and passed to Carson Meyer on the wing. He found Freddy Gerard who scored far side. Shots were 13-6 in favor of Michigan in the period.
In the second … The Wolverines scored twice to take the lead. Jake Slaker forced a turnover at the Wolverine blueline to create a 2-on-1 and tallied at 6:40. Will Lockwood scored from in close at 17:32. The teams combined for 24 shots in the period, with the Buckeyes ahead, 13-11. The Buckeyes had a 5×3 power play for two minutes early in the period and hit the post twice but were unable to convert the opportunity.
In the third … Neither team scored in the final period, with Michigan putting seven shots on net and limiting the Buckeyes to four. Ohio State skated with the net empty for the final 1:16 but could not get a shot through. The Wolverines had the only power play in the stanza.
Shots … The Buckeyes were outshot, 31-23, in the game. Senior goalie Sean Romeo made 29 saves in 58:44 for the Buckeyes. Michigan’s Hayden Lavigne had 22 stops in all 60 minutes. Ohio State blocked 14 shots, led by Gordi Myer with three and Grant Gabriele and Meyer with two each.
Special Teams … Neither team scored on the power play, with Ohio State 0-for-3 and Michigan 0-for-2.
Noting the Buckeyes
- The loss ended a five-game winning streak for the Buckeyes vs. the Wolverines.
- Joshua extended his point streak to five, with a 2-6-8 line in the stretch. He is third on the team with 11 assists and 17 points this year. He now has 96 points in his Buckeye career.
- Meyer is on a four-game point streak and has a 2-3-5 line during the stretch. He has 15 points, with six goals and nine assists, this year.
- Ohio State allowed two or fewer goals for the 16th time this year. The squad is allowing 2.19 goals per game this season.
- The Buckeyes’ 23 shots matched their season low and ended a six-game streak with 39 or more in each game.
Ohio State Postgame Quotes
Head coach Steve Rohlik
On tonight’s attendance
“I’ve got to say the crowd was incredible; you walk out here and see 10,000 people and close to 3,000 students. That tells you where Ohio State hockey is and it’s just disappointing we didn’t keep them on their feet enough, but if they keep coming back we’ll put them on their feet again.”
On what Michigan did well
“Number one, they played hard start to finish. They used their speed and took away time and space. Again, [we] scored the first one; [we’ve] got to continue to dig in and work hard. Tip your cap, to me they were the better team tonight.”
On if Michigan’s 5-on-3 penalty kill was a game-changer
“Certainly, I mean we had a couple of great looks, and a couple of posts. Sometimes you get those and sometimes you don’t. If we go up 2-zip maybe it’s a different game, but it didn’t happen. So you have to go from there.”
Senior forward Freddy Gerard
On the crowd at the game
“This is one of the better crowds I’ve ever seen since being here. It’s unfortunate we weren’t really able to get the job done for them. The support was awesome. It was great to see our building packed like it was tonight and hopefully next time we can get the win for them and get it done.”
On not generating offense
“I think we played into what they liked to do. We would get pucks deep, but then we wouldn’t establish a forecheck. They had a lot of heat coming up the ice on us and for whatever reason we just didn’t really have the jump tonight and we weren’t really playing connected. It’s definitely something we want to try and fix for tomorrow because that is not how we wanted to play.”
On his goal
“It was a good play coming up the ice by Dakota (Joshua) and Carson (Meyer). It was a good pass by Carson to find me on the backside. It was just right place right time. I had the easy job just to tap it in.”
