Men's Hockey
Michigan comeback downs Buckeyes
By Jeff SvobodaAfter Friday night’s 7-5 victory against No. 6 Michigan, Ohio State defenseman Matt Waddell said the Buckeyes saw this weekend’s two-game set as a do-or-die weekend for the team.
Saturday night, the Buckeyes spent 58 minutes doing and two minutes dying, and those two minutes were enough to send OSU (14-12-4, 10-10-2 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) back to Columbus without the sweep that was so close.
Michigan (16-10-3, 11-7-3 CCHA) scored two goals in the first 2:20 of the third period to flip a one-goal deficit into a one-goal advantage and then held on for a 3-2 win in Yost Ice Arena.
“We worked 58 minutes, obviously a very good effort but we lost the hockey game,” OSU coach John Markell said. “We came here to win. You put that much time and effort into it – I complement them on their effort, but it’s that time where you have to figure out how to win.”
After an excellent first two periods, Ohio State just could not weather the Wolverine storm coming out of the locker room for the third. Just 12 seconds in, Andrew Ebbett knocked down an OSU clearing attempt and found senior Brandon Kaleniecki alone in front. With no Buckeye within five feet of him, Kaleniecki had plenty of time to tip the puck past Buckeye goaltender Dave Caruso to tie the score at two.
Then, unlike they had all weekend, the Buckeyes were not able to answer the Michigan goal. Instead, it was Wolverine freshman forward Travis Turnbull that beat OSU captain Nate Guenin to a loose puck and beat Caruso between the legs with a backhanded shot from the right circle.
“I don’t know that we had a mental lapse, it’s just that they came out hard,” Buckeye defenseman Sean Collins said. “We were expecting it and we still let it happen.”
“You knew Michigan was coming with a push, but I didn’t expect it to happen like that,” Markell said.
OSU worked feverishly to tie but it was to no avail. Center Dave Barton hit the post a minute after Turnbull’s goal, and senior Dan Knapp nearly knotted the score with seconds left but hit the side of the net from close range after Michigan missed a couple open-net chances.
“I'm thinking to myself when we miss the net with 30 seconds left that they are going to come back down the ice and get a chance because that's just life,” said Wolverine goaltender Noah Ruden, who made a career-high 39 saves. “It was a mad scramble and I was just trying to cover the puck anywhere I could.”
The third period negated what had been one of OSU’s best games of the season. The Buckeyes, as crisp and fired up as they were in Friday night’s barnburner, clearly had Michigan on its heels and dominated as much as the 29-13 shot count after two periods would indicate.
Tom Fritsche scored his second goal of the series at the 6:22 mark of the first period on his second impressive individual effort of the weekend. Fritsche collected a loose puck in the neutral zone, skated at Ruden with Jack Johnson draped all over his back, and fired a beauty just under the crossbar.
It stood until the second period when Tim Miller tied the score with his fourth of the year, putting home a rebound of a Chad Kolarik shot. Thirty-one seconds later, after Johnson’s poor clearing attempt never left the zone, Collins beat Ruden over the right shoulder with a slapper from the blue line.
OSU controlled the second period from there, outshooting Michigan 16-6, but could not beat Ruden again. Not putting the Wolverines away when they had the chance would prove to be the Buckeyes’ undoing.
“Anytime you feel like you let one slip away, it hurts a little bit,” Collins said.
The Buckeyes would have tied Lake Superior State in fourth place in the CCHA with a win, but instead now sit in a tie for sixth with Nebraska-Omaha and Northern Michigan. OSU will have a chance to sneak away with midweek points when No. 14 Michigan State, which sits in second place in the CCHA, comes to Value City Arena Thursday.
“We have a lot of really good stuff to take home with us,” Markell said. “We're playing a different way and we have to continue with that. Consistency is what you want to see. We saw that consistency tonight, two games in a row, and we have to bring that back to our own building.”
(c) 2005 The O-Zone, O-Zone
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