After a long weekend of hockey at Bird Arena, the fairytale ending Bobcat fans were hoping for vanished in the blink of an eye.
Ohio came up one step short of its second-straight Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament title Sunday afternoon as top-ranked Lindenwood scored a trio of third-period goals to beat the Bobcats 6-4 in the tournament final at Bird Arena.
It was Ohio’s third game in 40 hours after beating Kent State 7-2 Friday and Robert Morris 3-2 Saturday in a thrilling but emotionally draining overtime win, while Lindenwood only had to play one game to get to Sunday thanks to a first-round bye.
The Bobcats had taken a massive 24 penalties in those first two games, killing off 23 of them. But the energy it took to kill those penalties drained all of Ohio’s reserve power as Sunday’s game reached crunch time, and Ohio hit the wall with the game tied at 3-3 in the third period.
Ohio’s John Luciana took a tripping penalty at the 13:12 mark, and the Lions capitalized immediately when a Steve Brancheau shot deflected up and over Ohio goalie Teddy Dushkin.
Two minutes later, the Bobcats were on the power play when disaster struck. Dushkin turned the puck over in the corner, leaving Niklas Bunnstedt with an open net for a backbreaking fifth goal.
When Grant Gorczyca scored his second goal of the contest moments after that, it was all over.
“Our mental focus just kind of collapsed there around the 12-minute mark; we lost focus for a couple minutes, and they got those three in a row,” Jonathan Pietramala, one of Ohio’s key penalty killers, said of Sunday’s game. “We made bad mistakes here and there, and they’d capitalize on everything.”
Ohio coach Dan Morris said it wasn’t the effort the team put in against Lindenwood that was the problem Sunday. Instead, it was the multitude of penalties the Bobcats took Friday and Saturday that came back to bite them.
“It’s frustrating that we lost the game, but you’ve got to look back to why we made mental mistakes,” Morris said. “We made mental mistakes (Sunday) because we were tired, and it’s frustrating because we took so many penalties Friday and Saturday. We overextended ourselves fitness-wise.”
Ohio was more disciplined against the Lions than earlier in the weekend, having to kill only five penalties. But that was of little consolation to Morris.
“I can’t separate the games; I’ve got to lump them together,” Morris said. “Have they adjusted their attitudes? No, because they took penalties Friday and Saturday night and didn’t have anything left for today.
“So maybe the reason why they didn’t take penalties today was because they didn’t have any energy to take penalties.”
For the Lions, the win was a bit of sweet revenge after the Bobcats beat them 4-0 in last season’s championship game. Lindenwood adds the tournament championship to its regular-season title, finishing the season with a perfect 18?0?0 record against CSCHL opponents.
“This was an unbelievable 60-minute contest between two really strong teams,” Lindenwood coach Rick Zombo said. “Even though our record makes it look like it was easy, there were a lot of close games, a lot of come-from-behinds, and we just know we’re confident in what we do.
“I’m very proud of my kids. It was a well-deserved win.”
The loss leaves Ohio 0-10-0 against the four teams ranked at the top of the American Collegiate Hockey Association rankings — not a good sign with the national tournament two short weeks away.
The team showed for two periods Sunday that it could compete physically with other top teams, but the third period showed it takes more than that to win big games.
“Teams out there know they can get under our skin,” Morris said. “They keep getting under our skin, and we take dumb penalties. They’re going to talk about it and know we’re undisciplined.
“That’s another way you can beat our team, and we’ve got to be able to say, ‘You know what, we’ve got to be ready for this and we’ve got to be better than that.’ ”
Though Morris had some choice words for his squad, Pietramala said the coach and the team knew there was still time to turn it around ahead of the season’s biggest prize.
“(Morris) said, ‘Don’t hang your heads at all. We battled well, and besides that mental lapse there in the third, we had it. It could have gone either way, so keep your heads high and we’ll get them back at nationals,’ ” Pietramala said.
Quick Stats
Sunday
Lindenwood 6, OHIO 4
Saturday
OHIO 3, Robert Morris 2 (OT)
Lindenwood 5 Illinois 1
Friday
OHIO 7, Kent State 2
Illinois 5 Iowa State 1
Robert Morris 7 Indiana 1
Tournament MVP: Steve Brancheau (Lindenwood)
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