Ohio honors 1994-95 National Championship team in first home series since Dec. 5-6
If fans didn’t know already, the Bobcats have a deep admiration for the drama of being part of a tight hockey game in the third period.
Heading into one-goal hockey games in the third period both nights, Ohio took care of business in the final frame to defeat Iowa State by scores of 3-1 on Friday and 4-1 on Saturday. Ohio (22-4-2) won three of its four games against Iowa State (11-11-5) this season.
“To us, winning is always a process. There’s a process to what we do,” said coach Sean Hogan. “We have to execute that process and we weren’t in the first and second periods.”
It’s true that the final scores aren’t quite indicative of how close the games were both nights.
Friday night saw only two shots through the first seven minutes of action. Nathan De La Torre got the scoring started in the closing minutes of the first period, but a stingy second period in which only four shots per side were taken made way for an interesting finish.
Michael Harris cashed in on Ohio’s only power play chance of the game to open up a two-goal lead, then Tom Whetsel scored a minute later to give the Bobcats the cushion they needed. Iowa State would add a late tally of its own, but the game was out of reach by that point.
Saturday, the Bobcats used more late game success to take down the Cyclones. Down 1-0 going into the third, Ohio’s Tyler Pecka scored 55 seconds into the final period to knot things up.
“Just to get that goal right off the bat was huge for our team,” Pecka said. The Bobcats would ultimately overwhelm the Cyclones by outshooting them 14-4 in the period and scoring a total of four times.
Ryan Heltion, the American Collegiate Hockey Association leader in goals against average coming into the weekend (1.04), saw both starts. He played in both games the last time these two teams squared off, giving up just three goals on 54 shots. Despite his previous experience against the Cyclones, Heltion said he didn’t come in with any sort of specific game plan.
“I kind of just go in there with the same mentality night in and night out, you know,” Heltion said. “My job is to go in there and stop the puck and give the team the best opportunity to win.”
The Bobcats got another solid performance out of their goalie this series, as Heltion stopped 29 of 31 shots to earn both wins.
The most unique part of the weekend was the commemoration of Ohio’s 1994-95 National Championship team during the first intermission of Saturday’s game. Coach Hogan talked about how that shows the level of passion and winning tradition that Ohio hockey has.
Craig McCarthy, a current professor at Ohio and also the head coach of the 1994-95 team, spoke very highly of how the Bobcats have continued playing at a very high level.
“We’re thrilled to be back at Bird Arena twenty years later and see the loyalty in the people who are still coming,” McCarthy said. “It’s thrilling to see the quality of hockey that is still played here at Bird Arena.”
If you go to a game, you’ll see what he’s talking about.
@JordanHorrobin
