The mood of the Ohio players as they trudged into and then out of the home locker room at Bird Arena on Saturday was one of disappointment.
“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Cody Black said. “We wanted to give our fans a win tonight.”
The Bobcats had lost in a penalty shootout to Davenport, 3-2. Coach Sean Hogan thought his team shouldn’t be down on themselves. They played well, and earned a tie against the No. 4 team in the country, a day after beating the same team, 4-2.
After Friday’s game — and before too — Ohio had confidence it was the better team. Davenport came back Saturday and showed why it came in so highly ranked. The Panthers were 10-0-1 and its leading scorer, Alex Hulford, had 18 goals and 33 points coming into the weekend.
Hogan’s message for the team was a simple one: It’s not a loss, but a tie.
“It was a good college hockey game,” he said. “What are you going to do?”
Ohio and Davenport battled all weekend.
The Bobcats went up 3-0 in Friday’s game before the Panther’s made it a game with two goals. Gianni Evangelisti scored an insurance goal with a minute left to put the game away.
Ohio took another early lead Saturday, but Davenport scored back-to-back goals to take the lead. The Bobcats had chances throughout the game, but couldn’t get the puck in the net. Hogan moved Evangelisti up to Ohio’s typical starting line, with Tyler Harkins and Matt Rudin as his wingers. This was the line on the ice when Jake Houston netted a slapshot to tie the game halfway through the third period.
Even though Ohio went on to lose the game, it was good for Hogan to see his team battle.
“I liked the way we battled back in the third,” he said. “We were down a goal, we worked extremely hard.”
Even though Hogan was proud of his team’s effort, he knew his team had some things to work on. That’s a constant for a coach. A lot of times, it’s on the little things.
With a free-flowing game like hockey, a coach wants to develop habits in his team. At times, that’s the most Hogan can do.
After the weekend, Hogan noted that he would like his team to have a better time in the defensive zone. He wanted his team to be better at closing out on the puck handler. The problem arose more as the team got tired. It showed on the Davenport goals, as there was a lot of ice around the shooters. Hogan wants his team to not wait for mistakes, but force them.
“We got to clean it up when we’re tired,” Hogan said. “We have got to play better when we’re tired.”
But all in all, Ohio had a successful weekend. A win and a tie against a top-five team looks successful on paper.
“We should move up,” Hogan said. “There’s going to be battles.”
