Men's Hockey
Buckeye Season Ends with Frustrating Loss to Cornell
By John Porentas
OSU's season came to a bitterly disappointing end in Minneapolis as the Buckeyes dropped a 3-2 decision to Cornell in the first round of the NCAA tournament,
The Buckeye entered the game having lost 1-0 games two consecutive years in NCAA tournament play. Last year, the Buckeyes bowed out with a 1-0 loss to Wisconsin, the year before, 1-0 to Boston College. This year, the Buckeye faced one of the stingiest defenses in the nation and one of the toughest goalies in the nation in The Big Red of Cornell and their netminder, David McKee. Cornell entered the game with the lowest goals-against average in the nation (1.24 goals per game), McKee came in averaging 1.20 goals against per game, a number that not only leads the nation, but that is the second-best in all of NCAA history. The NCAA record was set in the 2002-2004 season by Jim Howard of Maine at 1.19 goals against.
Given the stats, and given the history, the Buckeyes had to be happy campers when they scored the first goal of the game to end a three-year NCAA scoring drought and take a 1-0 lead on the Big Red.
The goal came in the first period when freshman forward Tom Fritsche skated in on McKee's left, drawing McKee to that corner of the goal, then flipped a nifty pass to fellow freshman Domenic Maiani who was streaking straight in toward the goal,. Maiani took the pass right in front of the goal and put the puck into the the right side of the net vacated by McKee.
The first period ended 1-0 and with the Buckeyes holding a 12-6 advantage in shots on goal. Things looked even brighter for OSU in the early stages of the second period when Tom Fritsche scored an even-handed unassisted goal at 12:58 to give OSU a 2-0 lead. That would turn out to be the high-water mark of the night for the Buckeyes.
Cornell answered Fritsche's goal just 18 second later when Doug Krantz beat OSU goaltender Dave Caruso with a drive from near the blue line that cut the OSU lead to 2-1 and seemed to wake up the Big Red.
Cornell was able to dominate the remainder of the period, keeping the puck in the OSU end and the pressure on Caruso. Chris Abbot knotted the game at 16:22 with a goal that was set up by Cam Abbot, who drew Caruso. to the corner of the net, then got the puck over to his brother who slapped the puck past Caruso to tie the game.
"We got to scrambling and we couldn't get the puck out of the zone," said senior forward JB Bitner.
The Buckeyes outshot the Big Red 21-14 through two periods and carried the play for most of the third period, outshooting Cornell 15-6 in the final frame. What they didn't do, however, was put the puck in the net, and though Cornell got just six shots on goal in the period, one of them found back of the net when Mike Iggulden got possession of the puck at the top of crease in front of Caruso, then beat the OSU goaltender's poke check and lifted the puck over the diving Caruso.
"They outworked us in the second period, They were getting to the loose pucks, but in the third period I thought we took it to them," said Bitner.
The Buckeyes did everything but score in the third period, The got 32 shots off (compared to nine for Cornell), fifteen of those on goal (as compared to five by Cornell). That, however, doesn't count in the score column, and the Buckeyes just couldn't score despite hitting at least one and possibly two pipes in the last period.
Markell was obviously disappointed by the outcome of the game.
"Hockey can be a cruel game, and sometimes you don't deserve your fate," said Markell.
"I thought our guys played their hearts out, they played with discipline, and they left everything they had out there on the ice. That's all you can ask of them.
"I thought we had the ability to beat that hockey club. Sometimes the end results don't allow you to reach your goals, but I'm awfully proud of the process these guys went through to get here."
The Buckeyes are a young team. Only two seniors dressed against Cornell, but for those seniors, it was a difficult game in which to see their careers come to an end.
"We generated some chances. We played extremely hard, all 20 players played hard," said an emotional and obviously disappointed senior captain JB Bitner.
"A two-goal lead is the toughest lead to protect in hockey. A team makes it 2-1 and they get some momentum. We knew their second period was their best period all year," Bitner said of the outcome of the game.
"This is more difficult than the last two years," admitted Markell.
"We scored goals, We couldn't have had a better all-around effort in this game. This is more frustrating, because we didn't really play badly. We just couldn't get a break."
Cornell will play Minnesota for the regional championship on Sunday and the right to advance to the Frozen Four in Columbus. Minnesota advanced to the regional final with a 1-0 overtime win over Maine.
Return to O-Zone
Columns and Features
Return to
O-Zone Front Page