With time winding down in overtime, Ohio’s Sam Turner left the puck at the blue line for Gianni Evangelisti.
Evangelisi gathered the puck and took off towards the net. As he did so, two of the Fighting Illini skaters closed in on him, leaving Tyler Harkins wide open. Evangelisti passed the puck, and Harkins tipped it in the back of the net, giving him a hat trick and Ohio a 5-4 comeback victory.
“I read that they were stepping up on Gianni,” Harkins said. “Gianni made a great pass to me, and it was just an easy turn my stick and get it in the net.”
Harkins also scored the game-tying goal with 1:07 remaining in regulation after receiving a pass that came from across the crease. Evangelisti was also credited with an assist on the play as well.
Ohio had a substantial amount of work to do to get to that point; however, as a common issue popped back up. The second period was close to being a costly one for the Bobcats.
Where the game started turning back in favor of the Bobcats was when Evangelisti scored his only goal of the night. The Bobcats were down three goals and on the power play. Evangelisti got the puck in the slot and scored with seven seconds left in the period.
The goal switched momentum at the end of the period back towards the Bobcats. Ohio had not played great hockey but was still within striking distance going into the intermission.
“If we didn’t score, I still had confidence that we could still come back,” coach Cole Bell said. “We were definitely looking for a shot in the arm there, and a goal is a good way to do that.”
Once the team was in the locker room, they knew what they had to do to score goals and put themselves in a position to win the game.
“We were pretty silent in there,” Harkins said. “We knew what had to be done. We did a lot of soul searching in the locker room. We Talked somethings out and were ready to play right at the third.
Coach Bell called this a huge character win for the team. While that is true, the second period is not something that can be overlooked. Second periods like the one Friday night have cost Ohio games early in the season and almost did again.
The Bobcats let up in the period, and it showed in the consistency of their shifts. One shift would be a quality shift for Ohio. Then the next shift would result in a good scoring chance for Illinois.
The Fighting Illini didn’t miss on many of those scoring chances either. They scored four unanswered goals in the period.
“We took our foot off the gas,” Bell said. “ We had a lot of good shifts in there, but that doesn’t mean anything if you take a few off.”
