No. 6/5 Buckeyes Clinch B1G Championship after Tie/3×3 OT Win at Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The No. 6/5-ranked Ohio State men’s hockey team clinched its first Big Ten regular season title Saturday. The Buckeyes skated to a 3-3 overtime tie against Michigan and Mason Jobst scored in 3×3 overtime for the extra point in the Big Ten standings. Ohio State is now 19-8-5 overall and 12-6-4-3 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines are 13-12-7 and 9-8-5-2 in the league.
B1G Tourney No. 1 Seed
Ohio State will be the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and earns a first round bye. The Buckeyes will host a semifinal game at 3:30 p.m. March 17 in Value City Arena. If Ohio State advances to the championship, it will be held at noon March 24 in Value City Arena.
Tickets will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Tuesday online and over the phone through Ticketmaster and at the Ohio State Ticket Office in Value City Arena.
Up Next
The Buckeyes close the regular season with two games against Michigan State next weekend. The teams will meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday in Value City Arena. Senior Night ceremonies are set for pregame Saturday.
Quoting Buckeye head coach Steve Rohlik
“It’s an exciting night for our program. I’m really happy for our players, our staff and our fans. We achieved one of our goals. It is exciting to get this first step out of the way. There’s still lot of hockey left to be played.”
Quoting Buckeye senior Sasha Larocque
“This was a very hard-fought weekend. TTUN played us hard and we were resilient and battled through a lot of adversity to come out on top tonight. We have worked so hard all season to accomplish this goal and I couldn’t imagine doing it with another group of guys. This is just the first step for our group this season but it feels great now.”
Ohio State 3, Michigan 3 OT/OSU 3×3 OT Win
In the first … The teams were tied after the first period. Carson Meyer opened the scoring for the Buckeyes with a power play goal at 11:44, scoring from the slot and assisted by Freddy Gerard and Wyatt Ege. The Wolverines tied the game at 15:47 on a tally from Nick Blankenburg.
In the second … Ohio State stretched its lead to 3-1 eight minutes into the period. Brendon Kearney took a pass from Ryan O’Connell and put a shot high glove side from outside the faceoff circle. John Wiitala also assisted on the goal, which came at 2:53. At 7:57 Wiitala scored a goal of his own, redirecting a Matt Miller pass on the power play. Carson Meyer also assisted on the tally. At 11:08 Michigan scored a power play goal of its one for a one-goal game.
In the third … Michigan scored the only goal of the period, with Nolan Moyle tallying at 9:35 to deadlock the score at three.
In 5×5 overtime … Neither team was able to score during the five minutes. Ohio State had three shots in the extra session, with the Wolverines putting one on net.
In 3×3 overtime … Michigan started on a 4×3 power play but a Wolverine penalty six seconds in made it 3×3 for 1:54. Mason Jobst came out of the box and Sasha Larocque found him with a long pass for a breakaway, and the Buckeye captain converted at 2:07. Ronnie Hein also assisted on the goal.
Shots … The Buckeyes were outshot, 30-26, in the game. Tommy Nappier had 27 saves in 65 minutes for the Buckeyes. Ohio State blocked 15 shots, led by Matt Miller with four and Sasha Larocque, Gordi Myer and Tanner Laczynski with two each.
Special Teams … The Buckeyes were 2-for-4 on the power play. On the penalty kill, Ohio State was 3-for-4, including stopping two major penalties for three minutes each.