You win some, you lose some, and some you wish got rained out.
That’s the way Ohio’s weekend went as it split a series with Adrian, taking a hard-fought 5-3 win Friday before dropping Saturday’s senior night contest 5-1. Saturday’s game matched the largest margin of defeat at Bird Arena since a loss to Lindenwood by the same score in January 2011.
A week away from the American Collegiate Hockey Association national tournament, a four-goal loss isn’t optimal, but coach Dan Morris said the weekend had to be taken in context.
“You’ve got to take this night for what it is,” he said. “(Adrian) responded the way they should have; they didn’t play well last night and they played well tonight.”
It was a weekend that didn’t mean a great deal in the bigger picture, and for a good deal of it, the Bobcats played that way.
After a lackluster first period Friday, the game exploded to life in the second.
As he has been for the most of the season, captain Michael Schultz was the catalyst. The senior assisted on Mike Kretz's tip-in goal 49 seconds into the period and got his own on a breakaway 37 seconds later.
The teams blitzed each other for six goals in the first 12 minutes of the second period. But goaltender Teddy Dushkin made a number of big saves in the third for Ohio and stoned Adrian for the remainder, as Tyler Pilmore added an empty-netter in a 5-3 Ohio win.
That would be the last win at Bird Arena this season.
Saturday was supposed to be all about Ohio’s eight seniors, but Adrian took advantage of a slight hangover from the pregame on-ice celebrations to go up 2-0 just five minutes into the game as the Bobcats lacked concentration early on.
“Going down to 2-0 kind of told us, ‘Hey we’re in a hockey game,’ ” forward Josh Fodor said.
Ohio never climbed back into the game and struggled mightily on the power play. Bulldog goalie Matt Anderson made 38 saves in the win, which Morris called the difference.
“Their goaltender played exceptionally well and we didn’t get the same performance at the end from our goalie,” he said. “When we came he stopped the puck, and we weren’t getting the same support at our end.”
As he had been after most of the season after Ohio’s 13 losses, Morris was frustrated by Ohio’s lack of discipline down the stretch. The Bobcats took seven penalties in the final 25 minutes of the game, killing any momentum they tried to muster.
“If that isn’t undisciplined, I don’t know what is,” Morris said after listing off Ohio’s penalties in the third. “Hockey’s a game of frustration. There’s one referee that’s got to manage 12 guys on the ice with weapons. They’re not going to catch everything, you’ve just got to get over yourself. It makes no sense. Be a man, just take it.”
For now, the Bobcats will have to look to next Saturday, when they take on Illinois in the first round of the ACHA tournament. A short memory will be key.
“These weekends right before nationals, they’re always tough games,” Fodor said. “We beat them, they beat us, we’ve got to take away the positives and work on the stuff we need to work on and just get ready for nationals.”
cd211209@ohiou.edu
QUICK STATS
Friday
OHIO 5, Adrian 3
Bobcat goal scorers: Kretz, Schultz, Veitch, Agnew, T. Pilmore
Saturday
Adrian 5, OHIO 1
Bobcat goal scorer: Rostek
