While the excitement of Friday’s game at Bird Arena kept fans at the edge of their cold, metal bleachers, the action on Saturday night had some of Ohio’s younger fans telling Minot State to “Stop beating up our Bobcats.”
The weekend series between No. 4 Ohio and No. 5 Minot State was an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs. But for the fifth straight weekend, Ohio was saddled with a split.
Friday night’s contest was a back-and-forth affair, as the Bobcats and Beavers traded scores for the first two periods, trailing 4-3 entering the third period. Sophomore Tom Whetsel, freshman Michael Harris and senior Nick Rostek all contributed goals in that stretch, but the Bobcats couldn’t break through for a lead.
In the third, after junior forward Josh Rutherford gave the Beavers a two-goal edge, Ohio roared back, scoring three unanswered goals in the remaining 13 minutes. A score from senior forward Nick Rostek with less than a minute remaining gave the Bobcats a 6-5 victory.
Ohio coach Dan Morris thought the third period outburst was a result of the Bobcats finally adjusting to an unfamiliar opponent.
“(The first two periods) had a feel of two teams that don’t play each other very often,” he said. “The first two periods you’re kind of feeling each other out. …And I think in the third period, you saw a lot of adjustments. We were able to shut their top line down.”
And Rostek, who was the first star for the evening because of his first hat-trick of the season, was appreciative of fellow senior forward Brett Agnew, who assisted each of his three goals.
“All three were set up by Brett, so it was a great job by him on all of them,” said Rostek, who has rebounded from a foot injury that held him out for a month to score four goals in his past four games.
Saturday’s game took a different tone entirely, as Minot State dominated it from the opening faceoff. The Beavers defense clamped down on an Ohio offensive attack that had scored at least two goals in six straight games to defeat the Bobcats 7-1.
Minot transformed its suffocating defense into offense, as the Beavers scored six of their seven goals on the rush after Ohio turnovers.
“We got caught watching the plays and didn’t react to their transition,” Morris said. “It was something we adjusted to well (Friday). It seemed like we went north when we should have been going south.”
But Morris couldn’t help but give credit to a Minot State team that not only did a good job blending its size and skill, but also recovering emotionally after a close loss the night before.
“They’re a really good hockey team, but more what I’m impressed with was that (Friday) was an emotional loss for them,” Morris said. “For them to be able to bounce back and play as well as they did tonight … They shut the door on us.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
