The puck hit the back of Matt Rudin’s head. He had just seen Gianni Evangelisti rip a shot on goal, which bounced off the goalie’s pads.
As Rudin turned to try and find the puck, he saw it flip over the Jake Barnhart, the Illinois goalie.
The puck landed in the net. Ohio had an overtime win.
The Bobcats were taken to the brink but pulled through in a 4-3 win over the Fighting Illini on Saturday night in Bird Arena.
The win was just what Ohio needed. After taking a tough 4-0 loss Friday, the Bobcats needed to grab some momentum heading into a month-long break. It also felt good for them after a string of overtime losses earlier in the season.
“It feels good to get a win,” Rudin said. “Go out for Christmas break on top, which is always nice.”
The wild goal is a perfect response for what Ohio’s gone through in overtime this year. A shootout loss, a goal with four seconds left in overtime and an overtime loss to the No. 1 team in the country have hampered the Bobcats.
A good shot ricocheting off the helmet of someone who was in the right place at the right time got the overtime monkey off Ohio’s back.
“We needed it, man” coach Sean Hogan said.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the Bobcats knew they needed to do the simple things well. Captain Cody Black had said that the process started with him. He needed to bring the spark as the team leader.
Rudin, a senior, also knew it was about responding strong. Two of the veteran leaders on the team knew that bouncing back was going to start with them.
And it did.
Less than two minutes into the game, Black scored a power play goal. Ohio’s power play unit struggled on Friday, going 0-3 and not getting as many chances as it should have.
After Illinois tied the game up later in the first, Rudin scored his first goal of the night.
And even though Ohio gave up that lead, and the one it got off a Jake Houston goal, it kept the game simple and played within itself. It started with the senior leaders like Black and Rudin, and carried through to the rest of the team.
“We came in with a lot better attitude,” Black said. “After that 4-0 loss, that’s completely unacceptable. Our guys it knew it from the get-go. They came in with a lot of energy and it showed during the game.”
The energy showed early and often. Ohio was getting to pucks, and making sure there wasn’t a ton of empty ice ahead of the puck handler, something it wasn’t doing Friday. The back-and-forth nature of the game is expected in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League.
Taking three points from the series after playing so poorly in the first game is big. Finally getting an overtime win is big. Grabbing some confidence before a break with a road trip to No. 1 Lindenwood — who swept Ohio in Athens — looming on the other side of the break, is also big.
“Oh my God, we needed it bad,” Hogan said.
