Coach Sean Hogan wasn’t pleased with Ohio’s performance after Friday’s 6-3 win over Syracuse.
He thought the Bobcats relied too much on talent and didn’t play within the system he set.
The talent that they have is immense. From top to bottom, the fifth-ranked Ohio has the talent to match its ranking in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
But, after a second period of struggles Friday where Ohio gave up two goals, barely hanging on to a one-goal lead heading into intermission, Hogan knew something needed to change.
“We got away from what we do,” Hogan said.
The Bobcats came out for the third period and held the Orange scoreless, while tacking on two insurance goals, and played a lot better overall for the final 20 minutes.
“We found a way to win, but we almost didn’t,” Hogan said.
Ohio couldn’t play Saturday’s game how they played on Friday if it wanted its fifth sweep of the season. It didn’t.
On Saturday, the Bobcats shutout the Orange, 4-0. They came out and played aggressively. They closed out on puck handlers, and gave Syracuse fits whenever it was in its offensive zone. The Orange only had 18 shots on goal in the game.
When the Bobcats play like that, preventing shots from getting to goalie Jimmy Thomas — who will likely stop most of the shots coming his way — it could be hard to beat them.
“I thought there was times there where we really controlled the play, and we had good changes,” Hogan said. “We kept a lot of pressure in the (offensive zone).”
Saturday’s game was an improvement. The team is still not all the way there. The top two lines didn’t score in the game, with lower line skaters like Gabe Lampron, who had five points in the sweep.
Every line isn’t going to score every game. It just won’t work out that way. If the whole team can produce, however, Ohio will have sustained success.
“Everyone has an off night, and those are the important nights where guys like me step up and start producing,” Lampron said.
The change of play from Friday to Saturday is a start. Continuing to skate aggressively, poke away pucks in the defensive zone, and keeping possession of the puck will be the keys to Ohio’s success moving forward.
Those are all part of a structure that Hogan wants Ohio playing in. With the talent on the roster, along with keeping within that structure, Hogan will be a lot happier with his team’s play, and it will show in its record.
“We have to get back to the foundation of Ohio hockey,” Hogan said. “A lot of this is the structure we play. We didn’t really play structured the past two weeks, so it was good to see us get back to it — a little bit.”
