Men's Hockey
Buckeyes Advance to Title Game With Dominating Performance Over Spartans
By Paula C. Weston
DETROIT, MI. - The No. 2 seed Buckeyes came to play in tonight's Central Collegiate
Hockey Association semifinal contest in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena, and
play they did, shutting down the No. 5 seed Michigan State Spartans
with a 4-1 win.
The decisive victory sets up a rematch of last year's CCHA
championship game between Ohio State (27-9-4) and No. 1 seed Michigan
(29-7-3).
"I thought we were going to be a little bit rusty," said OSU head
coach John Markell, whose second-seed Buckeyes had a bye last night.
"Dave Caruso was there and he made some big saves, kind of calmed us
down a little bit. I thought our guys did well, played within our
systems, and played well without the puck."
Four different Buckeyes scored on the night, junior goaltender Dave
Caruso made 24 saves, and the OSU power play found its lethal legs
again, going 2-for-5 on the night against the Spartans. The Buckeye
penalty kill kept MSU scoreless in six chances.
Michigan State head coach Rick Comley thought the Spartans had a good
chance in the game through two periods, after which the score was 2-1
in favor of Ohio State.
"If they get a two-goal lead, they're really, really tough. Even at
2-1, I really thought that still good things could happen. [MSU
goaltender] Dom [Vicari] had a bad break on the third goal when it hit
his shoulder and he couldn't find it.
"If it stays 2-1 for long stretches, we've shown an ability to come back. We've got guys that can score big goals and I still liked our
chances very much until the third goal went in."
Sophomores Andrew Schembri and Sean Collins scored the first two
Buckey goals, and freshmen Jason DeSantis and Tom Fritsche had the
second two.
After sitting out Thursday's action with a first-round bye, the
Buckeyes came out ready to go, registering three shots on goal within
the first 1:20 of play.
Schembri scored first for OSU, at 8:25 on the power play, a goal he
called a "gift" from Kenny Bernard. Cycling low, Dan Knapp sent the
puck from the right circle to Kenny Bernard left; Bernard one-touched
it back across the slot to Schembri, who backhanded it in from right
of the crease. Schembri's fourth goal of the season made it 1-0.
Ash Goldie evened it up for MSU at 17:44 in the first on a breakaway
with Colton Fretter. Fretter blew by Collins on the left wing and
Caruso committed himself to Fretter's potential shot far outside the
Buckeye net; Fretter shuffled over to Goldie, who hit the empty right
side of the net to make it 1-1 after the first.
But the Buckeyes went on to dominate puck possession and score three
unanswered goals, Collins' ninth of the season in the second period,
and the goals by the freshmen in the third.
On Collins goal, Dominic Maiani worked to free the puck up along the
boards behind the Spartan net and passed out to Nate Guenin at the top
of the right circle. Guenin passed over to Collins left, and the
defenseman's shot from high above the point near the blue line beat a
screened Vicari to make it 2-1.
At 7:35 in the third, DeSantis got the puck in a scramble in front of
the MSU net, near the left post, and tucked it in between Vicari and
the pipe, and at 15:59, Fritsche scored crashing the net, assisted by
Matt Beaudoin and Matt Waddell.
Collins said that the secret to OSU's success tonight was in keeping
it simple.
"We just tried to stick to our systems, go out there and
play for each other, go out 100 percent."
The Spartans, who beat Nebraska-Omaha 5-0 in a Thursday quarterfinal
match, were clearly running out of fuel in the third, and Collins, who played in last year's Super Six, a tournament that took the
Buckeyes three games to win, said that sitting out yesterday's action
gave Ohio State an edge.
"I didn't really notice a time in the game where they started to wear
down, but we fought all season to make sure that we got into a
position to make sure that we didn't have to play the three games this
year with a bye in the semis. I definitely think that helps us."
Comley said that in addition to having to play Thursday night, the
Spartans faced stiffer competition in this semifinal match.
"They're a much better team than Nebraska-Omaha is. Nebraska-Omaha relies on freshmen and sophomores; these guys can filter in some very,
very good upperclassmen. It makes a Fritsche and a Maiani that much
better. And they're so big and strong that they really wear on you.
Good teams will take things away from you, and they did."
The Buckeyes outshot the Spartans 39-25 overall, and 28-15 through the
first 20 minutes. Caruso was challenged in net more than once, and
his goalkeeping, especially on the Spartan power play, was a key
factor in this win.
When Caruso made a seemingly impossible kick-save on Tommy Goebel's
point-blank power-play shot at 15:12 in the first period, the Spartans
knew they were in for a long night. Comley said the stingy Buckeye PK
was too much to solve.
"They pressure well and they don't give you a lot. It's hard to get
pucks through. You will get some chances, but you'll have a tough
time getting rebounds because they protect the post very well and
don't give up an awful lot."
The OSU power play, which has struggled since the Buckeyes' bye week
before the last regular-season weekend of play, is learning to adjust
to opponent efforts to contain it, said Markell.
"One of the big things is that they're pressuring us where we hadn't
been pressured before, taking away what we've been good at. It takes
time in game conditions to accept the fact that we might not get that
anymore.
"We're starting to make plays down low now. It went into a little
funk, because they were taking away from us and we weren't reacting
down low. Our guys work hard at it. It takes a lot of presence out
there, and communication, and they keep finding pucks."
The Buckeyes will face off against the Wolverines at 7:35 p.m.
Saturday in Joe Louis Arena. In early semifinal action Friday,
Michigan downed No. 6 seed Alaska-Fairbanks 3-1 to advance to the
title game.
"I was pretty impressed with that win that Michigan put on with
Alaska-Fairbanks," said Markell.
"Alaska-Fairbanks is a
good-skating, big, physical hockey club that came to play, and
Michigan just kept it up and kept it up. We're going to have to have
an A-game, plus."
Markell said that he doubts the Wolverines will be out for revenge
Saturday night, and that the Buckeyes will be focusing more on
themselves than on their opponent.
"We're going to prepare ourselves to play a good, good hockey team,
try to do our best out there, try to make adjustments if we have to,
try to play our game, worry about ourselves."
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