Ohio's ultimate goal is to be holding a trophy in March, but picking up a couple pieces of hardware along the way is not bad, either.
Ohio got the first of what it hopes will be many tournament victories this season over the Thanksgiving weekend, beating West Chester and West Virginia Universities to take the annual Wheeling Mountaineer Invite in Wheeling, W.V.
The short Thanksgiving break, and the fact the team no longer has to worry about school, was a boon for his team, coach Dan Morris said.
“Sometimes rest is a good thing and the stress of school is done with for our guys, and all they concentrate now on is hockey,” he said. “You can really see that their minds are free of all the other stuff they worry about on a day-to-day basis and just focus on hockey.”
The Bobcats opened up Saturday’s game with a three-goal first period to blitz 19th-ranked West Chester early.
Jonathan Gulch, coming back from a knee injury and playing in his first game all season, scored the opener just six minutes in. The senior defenseman then added two assists on goals from Michael Schultz and Tyler Pilmore later in the period.
Gulch’s play in his first period back set the tone for the game, and getting him back in general will be a major bonus for the Bobcats moving forward.
“It was just a quick little play and he got a good shot that found it’s way through the net, he was an impact right away,” Morris said. “He’s one of the top defenseman in the ACHA so anytime you can add a guy like that it’s exciting.”
Nick Rostek scored another for Ohioin the second, and Schultz, Pilmore, Josh Fodor and Tom Whetsel added four more for the Bobcat’s in the final frame.
On the other end, goaltender Teddy Dushkin stopped all but two of the 27 shots the Golden Rams fired on net for an easy 8-2 Ohio win.
West Virginia then beat Drexel University in the night’s other semifinal, setting up a fourth meeting between the Mountaineers and Ohio already this season.
The Bobcats had taken the first three matchups between the two by a combined score of 17-8, and it wasn’t much different Sunday as they again scored three first period goals through Brett Agnew, Josh Fodor and Rostek to put the game out of reach after 20 minutes.
Jon Pietramala got the Bobcats' fourth goal in the second before Schultz notched another in the third to give Ohio a convincing 5-0 win. Freshman Brendan Madden was in net for the Sunday shutout — his first ever as a collegian.
Sunday was a complete 180-degree turn for Madden from his first start against West Virginia on Oct 1, when he was pulled after allowing two weak goals early. But since then, the freshman has won all four games he’s started for the Bobcats, lowering his goals against average to 1.30 and stepping up as the vital backup to Dushkin that the Bobcats will need heading forward.
“His first start there was some mechanical issues with his game and then there were some emotional issues with his head, and that was just a bad recipe,” Morris said. “We talked about it before, that this was kind of a redemption game for him, and he’s a better goalie and it was great to see.”
With the two wins, the Bobcats move their record to 16-4-0 after the first two months of the season. That includes 4-1 on neutral ice, something that bodes well for the American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament to take place in Cleveland in March.
“If you break the national tournament down it’s two miny tournaments, so you want to break it down and this weekend we wanted to treat like it was the first two games of the national tournament,” Morris said. “So you try to run a scenario like that so they can focus and concentrate like that.”
Ohio will continue its longest road trip of the season this weekend as it heads to the Mountain time zone to take on Arizona and Arizona State, both top-20 teams in the latest ACHA rankings.
The three-game set will start with a matchup against the Wildcats on Thursday, followed by games against Arizona State on Friday and Saturday.
cd211209@ohiou.edu
Quick Stats
Saturday
OHIO 8 West Chester 2
Bobcat goal scorers: Schultz (2), Pilmore (2), Gulch, Rostek, Fodor, Whetsel
Sunday
OHIO 5 West Virginia 0
Bobcat goal scorers: Agnew, Fodor, Rostek, Pietramala, Schultz
