In just a quick 24-second span Matt Rudin scored two goals that woke up the otherwise slumbered Ohio offense.
The senior forward tallied four points in Saturday night's 11-4 win over John Carroll at Bird Arena.
Rudin’s first goal featured a textbook Ohio setup: work the puck high to low, a net-front screen and win the loose puck battles on deflections.
He executed that perfectly and scored a backhanded goal after Cody Black’s shot was stopped by the goalie pad.
“We’re a highly skilled team,” Rudin said. “We can score, we have a lot of people that can score so just being able to get the puck on net and create chaos in front is how we’re going to score.”
Rudin's second goal — while he’s one of the Bobcats’ more physical forwards —featured a little more finesse. As he deked his way around John Carroll skaters, Rudin put the puck in the back of the net with a simple wrist shot.
Rudin’s performance didn’t go unnoticed.
“Matt Rudin is a guy that works hard every single day,” coach Sean Hogan said. “Whether it’s practice or a game he keeps his mouth shut and just works as hard as he can – he’s a guy you want on your team.”
With a quick two goals from Rudin, he ignited the Bobcats offense and it didn’t stop until the sound of the final horn.
Bird Arena PA announcer Jake Jakuszeit wasn’t even able to announce Rudin’s second goal of the night because just twelve seconds later Bryan Lubin scored to give Ohio a quick three goal lead.
While it took nearly a period and some change to do it, the Ohio offense operated well and scored its first seven goals in a little over 17 minutes.
“We were just putting the pucks in the net,” Black said. “We’re building confidence for those big games in just being able to shoot the puck and build chemistry.”
A minor cog in the machine, the Bobcats fifth, sixth and seventh goals weren’t scored until five minutes were left in the second period.
Ohio’s offense didn’t stop in just the second period, however, Rudin completed his four-point night with a hat trick early in the third. Black and Timmy Thurnau concluded Ohio’s offensive surge at the mid-way point.
Despite such a rampant and lop-sided score, the Bobcats had chances to do even more – something Hogan was quick to point out after the game.
“Parts of the game were really good and parts of the game were really bad,” he said. “We have a lot to work on in terms of special teams, we’ll get that sorted out this week though.”
Ohio’s "true" power play unit in back-to-back nights scored a goal the one time it took the ice. But it only took the ice once during 27 minutes’ worth of John Carroll penalties. While it’s only the first weekend, Hogan expected more production from other units, but not everything is set in stone.
“Everybody played everything tonight,” he said. “We’re going to start putting together more units.”
There are changes to be made and systems to be coached — Hogan realizes his team scored 21 goals over the course of two nights and got its first sweep of the year.
“It’s good to start the year off with a sweep and big numbers, it’s hard to complain," he said.
