It was a turbulent weekend for Ohio University DII Hockey during its trip to Happy Valley, where the visitors suffered from lackluster defensive stretches and an inability to take advantage of penalty advantages.
The Bobcats (4-2) were hosted by the Nittany Lions (6-4) for a two-game series, winning the first game dominantly with a final score of 6-2. They followed this up Saturday with a gut punch in the form of a 4-3 shootout loss which required extra innings to complete.
Here’s how it all went down in Happy Valley.
Game One
Unlike its last road performance, Ohio started this game quickly and was ready to play. Not even a full three minutes into the first period, forward Brennen Walker would get the scoring started. With just under 11 minutes remaining in the first period, center Jack Mueller would put the Bobcats up 2-0.
Ohio seemed right at home in Happy Valley because only two-and-a-half minutes later they would score again. Center Xander Danner pushed the puck past Penn State goalie, Josh Ferry, to take an early 3-0 lead that the Bobcats would take into the first intermission.
The second period would look much different from the first. Penn State would pull Ferry and replace him with sophomore John Seifarth. The game would continue to be physical throughout. Both teams would spend their fair share of time in the penalty box. Ohio defenseman Trent Johnson would be the only player to score in the period with 7:48 remaining. The rest of the time would be spent trading blows.
To open the third period, the Nittany Lions would finally start to show some signs of life. Penn State forward Luke Raymundo scored just three minutes into the final period, cutting the Ohio lead to three. Winger Nikalas Jozefiak expanded the Ohio lead again when he scored with just under 14 minutes left in the game. Only 20 seconds later the Nittany Lions’ forward, Sebastian Kiely, would strike back.
Penalties would continue to plague Penn State when Ohio would score on the power play with only 10 seconds remaining in the game. The Nittany Lions would spend a total of 22 minutes in the box. Ohio’s strong offensive performance got the team a 6-2 win to open their road trip to Pegula Ice Arena.
Game Two
Despite executing utter dominance over the Nittany Lions in game one, game two did not feature the same performance from the Bobcats. Physicality has been a constant throughout Ohio’s season thus far. They’re not afraid to go to the box if it means getting into the opponent’s head, and while they executed on that in game one, it felt as though Penn State came into game two with revenge on their mind, looking to flip the tables on Ohio.
Despite conceding two power plays in the first period, Penn State seemed to shrug off this disadvantage as if it was nothing, getting a kill on both penalties and building a 2-0 lead by the time the first buzzer rang, signaling the end of the period.
The Bobcats were able to gather two more penalties in the first two minutes and 10 seconds of the second period, finally starting to chip away at the wall with a goal by Peyton Botich with over 16-and-a-half minutes left in the second.
This chip would turn into an avalanche from Ohio’s offense. The Bobcats would draw three more penalties en route to taking the lead with over nine minutes left in the period with goals from Jack Mueller and Nik Jozefiak building momentum for the visiting team, despite the Nittany Lions firing back with a goal in the back half of the second. This would be the last goal to be scored for the next 33 minutes and 38 seconds of ice time, for either team.
The third period would only feature one more power play for Ohio, with another coming in overtime, but with no goal from either side, we entered the first shootout of the season for Ohio. Each team scored a goal early, and after a couple of beautiful saves from Matthew Zazon and just missed shots from the Bobcats, extra innings were needed to conclude. Penn State finally shoveled in a shot past Zazon, and despite all the penalties, Ohio fell.
