The hallway outside of the Bobcats locker room in Bird Arena was eerily quiet. On Friday night, the only sounds that could be heard were skaters ripping tape of their sticks and the water leaving shower nozzles.
Coach Sean Hogan stood outside with a blank face. With soft-spoken demeanor, he let out a sigh as No. 4 Ohio lost, 4-3, to No. 1 Lindenwood in overtime.
“We’re right there with everybody in the country,” Hogan said. “I’m proud of our guys, we worked extremely hard and we have another level we’re going to get to tomorrow to come away with a win.”
The Bobcats (9-1-3) opened up the game how they wanted to. It was in the game plan to have a strong forecheck, to be more physical, to win the puck battles. For the most part, they did those things against the top-ranked team in the country.
A Lindenwood skater was called for a game misconduct early in the first period that sent Ohio onto the 5-minute major power play. Ohio worked on its power play relentlessly during Thursday’s practice, and the fruits of its labor showed as Tyler Harkins and Shawn Baird each netted goals with the man-advantage.
“In the beginning we were great,” Hogan said. “It’s just getting pucks to the net. It’s not going to be pretty especially against that team.”
After what could’ve set the tone for the rest of the game, the Bobcats quickly sputtered as Lindenwood’s Zach Mitchell scored with 2:01 left in the first period.
Momentum was still on the Bobcats’ side, however, as they headed into the locker room with a lead over their league rival.
“As soon as we got that first goal we were thinking ‘hey there’s not a doubt in our mind that we can beat the No. 1 team’,” Cody Black said. “Getting that second goal helped a lot, I think that’s when we really started to get our feet moving.”
With hopes of riding that wave into the second period, it quickly crashed ashore as the Lions scored back-to-back goals in 29 seconds.
The want to make a play started to become more apparent. Ohio had lost its lead, but it didn’t lose its strategy. A turnover in the neutral zone sent Gabe Lampron deep into Lindenwood’s zone and the senior forward fired a shot from the point.
With the puck’s deflection, it seemed as if the game would continue its back-and-forth manner, until Kyle Craddick drove into the slot and sent the puck into the back of the net to tie the game.
“Our third and fourth lines were awesome,” Hogan said. “They were doing all of the little stuff it takes to be successful and we’re going to have to find a way to be better tomorrow.”
In games where league and national ranking implications were in place, the bottom lines had to perform at the level it did Friday.
The Bobcats were right on-par with the Lions in all facets of the game except for the 2:15 it wasn’t. And because of that, Ohio will have to find another opportunity to get back into the win column.
“I’ll take my team into OT 100 percent of the time,” Black said. “Even though the last three outcomes (haven’t been good).”
