Men's Hockey
Buckeyes Blow it at Buzzer
By Jeff Svoboda

In a season that has not gone the way the Ohio State men’s hockey team envisioned it, Saturday night might have been the most shocking and deflating game yet.

The Buckeyes appeared to be on their way to a 2-1 victory when Alabama-Huntsville junior forward Steve Canter buried a rebound with less than one second remaining, surprising the Buckeyes and a crowd of 3,651 at Value City Arena. After the incredible finish to regulation, the teams skated to a 2-2 tie in overtime.

“He’s always been a guy that can score goals,” Huntsville coach Doug Ross said about Canter, who also scored the game-winning goal with 44 seconds left in Friday’s 4-3 win for the Chargers. “He’s a good player for us.”

The Buckeyes (7-6-2 ) looked to have the game sewn up when UAH junior forward Dominik Rozman’s centering pass flew into the corner, but senior Bruce Mulherin found the puck and flung it toward goal with three seconds to play. OSU senior goaltender Dave Caurso made the save on the sharp-angle shot, but the rebound bounced toward the slot. From there, UAH captain Jeremy Schreiber took a shot that a sprawling Caruso stopped, but Canter put the rebound in an instant before the horn.

When asked about the goal, OSU coach John Markell was contrite.

“Apparently it was in. We made mistakes. We made mistakes,” he said.

OSU captain Nate Guenin was on the ice, and tried to describe how the play developed.

“It just seemed like there was guys everywhere,” he said. “Johann (Kroll) and I were just trying to knock anybody we could on the ice. I was just trying to cross check everybody and the puck ended up going in.”

The goal came on UAH’s 21st and last shot of the night. For the second game in a row, the Buckeyes heavily outshot the Chargers 51-21. On the series, the margin was 106-47 in favor of OSU, but the Buckeyes will leave the series outscored 6-5.

“You’d think you can generate more than five goals,” Markell said. “It’s a little bit frustrating.”

The Buckeyes got another solid night from sophomore Domenic Maiani, who led OSU with a goal and an assist and extended his goal-scoring streak to three games. His second-period, power-play goal, coming off the rebound of a Rod Pelley shot, was to be the game winner before Canter’s heroics.

His assist gave the Buckeyes a 1-0 lead just 1:49 into the game. He found defenseman Tyson Strachan breaking into the offensive zone, and the junior’s shot beat UAH goaltender Scott Monroe through a screen to give OSU the early lead.

Maiani said the Buckeyes needed to put more traffic in front of Monroe, who made 101 saves on the weekend.

“He’s a good goalie,” Maiani said. “We just didn’t get in front of him enough. We have to get in front of him if we want to score, bear down and get to the net. If we start doing that, then hopefully the goals will go in.”

The Chargers (5-4-1 ) tied it at one 16:34 into the second period on defenseman Mike Salekin’s second goal of the series. The Chargers had a 4-on-3 power-play, and for the second straight night scored a goal when OSU had only three players on the ice. This time, Salekin blasted a shot that beat Caruso high glove after a pass from linemate Shaun Arvai.

Ross said the Chargers depend on players like Canter, Munroe and Salekin, who are all upperclassmen.

“Those are our players that we have to turn to,” he said. “They’re juniors and seniors. They have to play well for us and they have to play well in the big games, and they’re doing it, so they make us look good.”

On the other end, Markell said the Buckeyes’ effort was better than it was Friday night, but the team still has some work to do on the offensive end.

“I thought it was a good effort,” Markell said. “Our lack of goal-scoring right now is hurting us. I think our puck possession skills, they’re not there. It’s just a simple, you gotta have a little more poise on the puck than what we have right now. We just have to focus on some different things.”

Guenin said the Buckeyes’ had a meeting after Friday’s loss that resulted in better team play.

“We had a pretty good meeting there.” Guenin said. “I think we had some guys who didn’t know what their complete role was on this team. We’re starting to figure it out, slowly. It’s been probably longest process I’ve ever been a part of. I thought we came together as a team better tonight.”

The Buckeyes will have exams this week before returning to face Union Saturday and Sunday at Value City Arena.

Box Score

Game Photos

Return to O-Zone Column and and Features

Return to O-Zone Front Page