Ohio barely failed to finish the sweep of No. 1 ranked Lindenwood, but its players weren’t in bad spirits over it.
After shutting out the Lions 3-0 Friday night, the Bobcats were less than two minutes away from taking Lindenwood into overtime after Kyle Craddick scored a game-tying goal with 11 minutes left. Instead, Ohio was on the wrong side of an unlucky bounce following a face-off with one minute and 40 seconds remaining in the game to lose 2-1 to Lindenwood Saturday night at Bird Arena.
Considering the Bobcats (2-13) were one point away from sweeping the top-ranked American Collegiate Hockey Association team, they can look at the weekend as a success.
“We figured out who we are,” Ohio coach Cole Bell said. “There’s not a single thing I would change. We were one bounce away.”
The two-game series against Lindenwood (13-1) felt like an antithesis to the last few games where Ohio was beaten by Liberty in four-straight games and then lost to Robert Morris-Pennsylvania in one of the team’s lowest moments in the season.
“I think we learned our lesson against Robert-Morris,” Bell said.
This newfound belief, as Bell described it after the previous win against Lindenwood, has been something the Bobcats have been building toward all season. It might be a little too late to completely save the season, but Ohio still has plenty to look forward to for its last three regular season games and the upcoming tournaments.
The team bond is also alive. Mason Koster, who started at goaltender for the first time all season, received plenty of support from his teammates to calm his nerves and help him allow no goals for the 32 minutes he played.
“They always have my back,” Koster said. “It’s an off the ice thing. I’d do anything for those guys, and they’d do anything for me. They all just came together for me.”
While Koster isn’t guaranteed to see the ice again this season, he’ll still give his all for the team going forward by staying positive.
“Just always be a positive influence,“ Koster said. “It carries over to guys tremendously, and it’s going to do nothing but help them in the long run.”
Before the Bobcats travel to Lynchburg for two games against Liberty, which has been a thorn in their side all year, Ohio will have one last home game against Mercyhurst, a game that was scheduled less than a week in advance of its date.
Bell described the Robert Morris game as a blip on the radar in which the Bobcats did barely anything right. They were coming off a tough weekend after two losses to Liberty and played with little intensity. Ohio now has a newfound confidence, and given that the Lakers are the last team the Bobcats’ seniors will play in Bird Arena, that confidence will probably show up on the ice Tuesday.
“Mercyhurst is another opportunity for us to get out, get back on top and continue to grow as a team,” Bell said.
