Coach Sean Hogan paced in the LaHaye Ice Center on Saturday night. His team had lost an overtime game with four seconds left until a shootout. He entered the locker room with his jacket and tie on.
Moments later he exited still fuming, frustrated and confused.
“We should have won that game,” Hogan said.
Yet, despite losing to Liberty, a game that it should have won, Ohio (9-1-2) is still on track towards success this season.
In the last two weeks, the Bobcats have won two games and tied two. They’ve all come against teams ranked in the top 10 of the computer rankings. For that reason, while understandable, the post-game frustrations that were visible after the overtime loss aren’t necessarily warranted.
Junior Tyler Harkins was one of the players who felt that the Bobcats could have done more in their overtime loss — a tie in ACHA rankings.
“We want to win every game,” he said. “We believe in ourselves enough that we should go out there and have the ability to win every game. It’s hard when you don’t get the games you need.”
In a game where the opponent and its schemes change consistently, Hogan echoed that the priority has to be themselves.
“Hockey is a game where you focus on yourself more than the opponent,” said Hogan following Tuesday’s practice. “And you have to make sure you play the right way.”
Ohio has played the right way. It has gone into the “dirty areas,” net-front screens, and it has retrieved pucks off of rebounds. The Bobcats, however, have made simple and fixable mistakes, which has been their flaw in losses against nationally-ranked teams.
“You want to have great habits, and you want to play the right way,” Hogan said. “At the end of the day, we’ve still got to play physical hockey and block shots and win our puck battles and win puck races or we’re not going to win.”
Ohio is a habitual team. It’s preached in the locker room to outwork, out-will and out play anyone it comes across. Ohio’s habits are what got the Bobcats to a 9-1-2 record. But if they begin to stray away from those habits, they may have a tough time moving forward.
One of those habits that needs fixed is the power play. After it went 0-5 in Saturday’s game, Hogan expressed his on-going concerns about the man-advantage unit.
“In practice we’re doing it right,” he said. “(In games) we’re trying to get these one timers off the wing, and I don’t know if we’ve ever scored a one timer off the wing.”
Overall, the Bobcats are playing at the level they should be playing at. The fixable mistakes will need to get worked out this week, however, as No. 1 Lindenwood (14-0-0) comes to Athens in a series with national and league implications.
“Our guys are excited, I’m excited,” Hogan said. “This week is set up for us to have success: we’re at home against a team that’s undefeated. How can you not want the undefeated, No. 1 team in the country come play in your place?”
