Ohio State men’s hockey began 2016-17 with a trip to the Icebreaker Tournament and a season opening tilt against its host, No. 3/4 Denver. The Buckeyes wasted no time in adding the Pioneers to their top 10 trophy case.
| scoring by period | 1 | 2 | 3 | final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| No. 3/4 Denver | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
OSU stormed out of the gate. Matt Weis put the Scarlet and Gray on the board less than a minute into the game. Unfortunately back-to-back penalties slowed this early momentum and eventually turned the tide in Denver’s favor. The Pioneers outshot the Buckeyes 11-2 over the remainder of the first period and Tyson McLellan evened the score at the 14:06 mark.
Ohio State surged ahead again in the middle frame. Defenseman Matt Joyaux took advantage of an extra attacker situation to put the Bucks up 2-1. This time the team kept the pedal to the floor. Exhibition game heroes John Wiitala, Dakota Joshua, and Tanner Laczynski hooked up for a power play score and gave the Buckeyes a two-goal edge.
| pd | time | buckeye goal scorers (assists) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0:29 | Matt Weis (Luke Stork, Nick Schilkey) |
| 2 | 7:26 | Matt Joyaux (Janik Moser, Matt Weis) |
| 2 | 16:14 | PP - John Wiitala (Dakota Joshua, Tanner Laczynski) |
In the third period the Bucks once again paid for their penalty trouble. A man-advantage goal by the Pioneers’ Jarid Lukosevicius (I’ve checked that three times and I’m still not sure it’s spelled correctly) cut OSU’s lead in half. But the Buckeye defense stood tall and Christian Frey turned in 16 huge saves (out of a game total 33) to secure the victory.
“It was a nice start for our team playing a very good team on the road. We did enough to get the win. It was a great team effort,” head coach Steve Rohlik said following the win.
Ohio State now faces Air Force, an upset winner itself (over No. 5/9 Boston College), in the tournament title game. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 6pm ET on Saturday.
More Hockey Results
- The Ohio State women put up a fight against No. 1 Wisconsin, but the Badgers prevailed 3-0 in a penalty filled affair. Jessica Dunne and Rebecca Freiburger led the Buckeyes with three shots each. Goaltender Kassidy Sauve made 44 saves in the loss. The teams conclude their series on Saturday afternoon at 2pm ET.
- Friday was not a good night to be a Big Ten team. No. 16 St. Lawrence defeated Penn State, 6-3. Union upset No. 11/12 Michigan, 4-3. Northern Michigan edged Wisconsin, 3-2.
