Men's Hockey
Overtime Loss Sends Buckeyes to Game Three with Ferris State
By Paula C. Weston
With one turnover just over a minute into overtime, the No. 2 seed Ohio State Buckeyes found themselves exactly where they didn't want to
be, facing a third, deciding game in this first-round, best-of-three,
Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoff series.
Ohio State lost, 1-0, in overtime to No. 11 seed Ferris State in front
of 5,845 fans at Value City Arena, forcing a Game Three Sunday night
and seriously compromising OSU's chances of an NCAA Tournament bid.
"I didn't think we played that bad of a game," said OSU head coach
John Markell. "Obviously, it came down to a bounce. The kid made a
good play and beat our defenseman one-on-one and then he beat our
goalie."
The kid in question was Bulldog Zac Pearson, whose breakaway goal at
1:09 in OT gave FSU the victory, their second overtime win in the
Schott this season.
The game-winning play began when Bulldog Mark Bomersback checked
Buckeye Matt Waddell into the boards in the FSU zone, sending the puck
to nearby Joe Van Culin, who touched it to Pearson.
Pearson skated in alone with Buckeyes Tyson Strachan and JB Bittner
back, deked Strachan in the right circle, moved to the slot, took the
puck from backhand to forehand, and beat Ohio State goaltender Dave
Caruso high on the glove side, clean.
That capped a Bulldog performance that bottled the Buckeyes up in the
neutral zone, kept OSU from getting pucks in deep, and generally
prevented Ohio State from playing the kind of hockey that won Game One
Friday night by a score of 4-2.
Add to that Ferris State senior goaltender Mike Brown's spectacular
performance in net, and there was little OSU could do to break the
Bulldog spell. Brown made 36 saves in his second shutout of the
season, the 10th of his career.
"That was a superb performance by Mike," said Bulldog head coach Bob
Daniels.
"Not only did he make good saves, but he looked extremely
solid in net. He looked right under control, looked very comfortable
in the situation."
In the two games against this weekend, Brown has a total of 76 saves
as the Buckeyes have outshot the Bulldogs 80-40.
"On a team like that, you have to score and you have to score early,"
said Markell.
"We had opportunities, but we couldn't get it by Brown.
We have to create a few more opportunities for ourselves and our guys
are going to have to respond the right way."
Brown set the tone early, stopping Bittner on a solo breakaway one
minute into the contest, and continued with great saves throughout the
game, especially on a series with plenty of traffic late in the
second.
In the third, Brown made a fantastic, dramatic glove save on Sean
Collins' one-timer to preserve the tie.
But even though OSU doubled Ferris State's shots on net, what
opportunities the Bulldogs had in the game were quality. Caruso
looked particularly impressive stopping Jeff Legue twice alone, once
in the first and then again on Legue's shorthanded breakaway in the
second.
Daniels said that the main difference between last night's FSU loss
and tonight's win was puck presence.
"I did think today that we did
do a better job of taking care of the puck. Yesterday, I thought we
turned it over a lot where we tried to do too much with it. Tonight
I thought we did a better job of dummying down our game a little bit
and just making conservative, strong plays with the puck and not
trying to over-gamble.
"There's no question that last night they generated a lot through the
neutral zone. A lot of that was by their discipline in their systems
and getting us to turn the puck over, and bang! their
transition's very good.
"If nothing else, we needed to take better care of the puck. If they
were going to come down at us, we wanted them to have to travel a
little further in the rink, instead of maybe blueline in on us."
The Buckeyes, conversely, thought that the difference between last
night's contest and tonight's was not Ferris State's play, but that of
Ohio State.
"I don't think they did much differently," said junior Rod Pelley, who
had a goal and an assist Friday. "All year, the six games we've
played them, they've done the same things."
Bittner agreed.
"I don't think they did anything different. Their
goalie came up with some saves. We had a couple scrambles there and
he was making those saves. I'm sure the coaches will see something on
tape…but I think we were still getting chance.
"We didn't score. That's about it. I think some guys started to get
frustrated a little bit. As the game went on, they started taking the
play to us a little bit toward the end of the game. That's a credit
to them; they put it in the net."
Markell was disappointed with the Buckeye power play, which went
0-for-8 in the contest.
"I thought our power play that's been making
the difference wasn't there tonight not that they weren't trying
and we'll have to take a look at that."
The Bulldogs were 0-for-6 on the power play, as both teams spent
significant time in the box tonight, something that concerns Daniels
for Sunday's rubber game.
"I thought as a team, we still had some lazy penalties, if you will.
I don't how many hooks we had. That was one thing coming into
tonight; we really wanted to reduce the number of lazy and unnecessary
penalties. Maybe to an extent we were better, but I tell you, we know
we're playing with fire with Ohio State's power play as good as it is.
"It's also a very taxing situation, because we only use three sets of
forwards and maybe five defensemen to kill, so those guys get awfully
worn out. We've got to do a better job of that tomorrow."
Ferris State (13-12-4) and Ohio State (25-9-4) will meet again Sunday
night at 7:05 to decide the series. It will be the seventh this
season between the clustermates. OSU holds a 4-2-0 edge in the
contests, but both FSU wins were in overtime, both in Value City
Arena. The Bulldogs are the only team to have beaten OSU twice in
Columbus this season.
The winner of Sunday's game will advance to the CCHA Super Six
Tournament in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena next weekend.
"We can't live in the past," said Markell. It happened, and we have
to move forward. Now we've got a one-game shot here to keep moving
on."
For Ohio State, "moving on" refers games beyond the CCHA Super Six;
with the loss, the Buckeyes dropped from ninth to 15th in the PairWise
Rankings, virtually out of the NCAA tournament.
Notes:
* The game marks the first postseason loss for Ohio State in the Schott.
The Buckeyes are now 5-1 all-time postseason in VCA.
* This was just the second time this season that the Buckeyes were shut
out. The first came Nov. 19 in Omaha, a 4-0 loss to Nebraska-Omaha.
The last time OSU was shut out at home was Jan. 24, 2004, against
Michigan State.
* The loss snaps OSU's four-game (3-0-1) undefeated streak.
* The shutout also ends Pelley's five-game point streak and three-game
goal-scoring streak.
* The Buckeyes are now 2-2-4 in overtime this season.
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