Fifth-year seniors Liam Geither and Aaron Alkema were the only Bobcats there for it — the last time Ohio won the Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament championship.
In 2013, Geither and Alkema were redshirts on a team that won on home ice at Bird Arena. There’s a banner to prove it.
Since that win, the results have been three-straight second-place finishes, and the current senior class is looking at its last chance to win a CSCHL championship this weekend in Bensenville, Illinois.
The Bobcats open the single elimination tournament against Lindenwood, last year’s national champion, on Saturday at either 4:30 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., depending on the results of the previous game.
Leading scorer returns
Freshman center Gianni Evangelisti is coming back just at the right time.
Evangelisti, who hasn’t played the past five games because of a bone bruise from a knee-on-knee collision, will return for Saturday’s game. He was the team’s leading scorer, with 32 points in 27 games, when he was sidelined Feb. 4.
Ohio coach Sean Hogan is expected to plug Evangelisti back into the highly successful third line. His presence in the lineup should help the Bobcats, who’ve struggled to score the past two games and have recently ended up on the wrong end of close games.
“We lost three one-goal games (without Evangelisti),” Hogan said. “It’s not the reason why we lost, but he makes a difference.”
Sophomore forward Cody Black played an increased role in Evangelisti’s absence and spent time as the third-line center.
Black had four points in the past five games, and Hogan said he will move to the wing for the CSCHL tournament. The move will presumably open up ice time on the fourth line.
Aside from defenseman Tom Evans, who is out for the remainder of the year with a knee injury, Hogan said the team looks as healthy as it has in weeks.
Chase for a banner
Senior captain Matt Hartman thinks the back-to-back-to-back runner-up finishes in the CSCHL tournament can be summed up with one word: hunger.
Hartman and the other seniors are hungry to erase three years of misses. Three years of close calls. Three years of being on the cusp of winning another banner to hang in the rafters at Bird Arena.
Hogan, who has coached the past two seasons, still agonizes over the losses.
Two years ago, it was Lindenwood, which scored with two minutes left to win 3-2. Last year, it was Robert Morris (Illinois), which scored on a penalty shot in the final five minutes to tie the game and win in overtime.
This year could be different, but it’s difficult to say. In a single-elimination format, a small mistake might be enough to falter.
And though the CSCHL tournament has no impact on seeding for the national tournament two weeks from now, one thing is for certain — to Ohio, the banner matters.
“I think we’ve worked so hard the past four years, the seniors, and we deserve to win, and we don’t have one yet,” Hartman said. “It’s just a banner, but it’s more than that to the whole team.”
