For three quarters, it was actually a contest in every facet. There were many lead changes, multiple ties, and drama all over the place. Then, as is the story of the entire Myers tenure, the Buckeyes ran out of options and gas, getting embarrassed by a 7-1 Maryland run to put the game wildly out of reach.
The most unfortunate part of today's game was the fact that Skylar Wahlund's best game was completely undone by a faceoff and defensive meltdown. Wahlund gets a lot of criticism from me. I don't think he is a bad person, or a bad teammate. In all honesty, the fact that Wahlund has prepared and performed the way he has this season speaks volumes about how great of a young man he is in just about every respect.
My words have all been directed at the poor results he put on the field time and again. No longer. This game would be a 25-8 laugher if not for Wahlund putting up a monstrous 19 saves. Nineteen!! That's three games worth of saves from him, against easily the best team in the country. Maybe the decade. Wahlund put the team on his back, and was very close to pulling out the biggest win the Buckeyes would have had in a long, long time.
But it was not to be. Logan Wisnauskas tallied five goals on nine shots, assisted twice, and led all scorers with seven points. Wisnauskas is a crazy good player, and has to be the frontrunner for the Tewaraaton trophy. Jonathan Donville had four points, as did Eric Malever. Anthony DeMaio and Kheegan Khan had two goals each. Heck, even defensive middie Roman Puglise scored twice.
It was always going to be a tough ask to slow down this Maryland team, but the dam burst at the opening whistle of the fourth quarter, and the Buckeyes couldn't stop the tide. The tsunami, really, as the Buckeyes were overwhelmed in the final fifteen minutes to the point that a great moral victory became a pretty standard Terrapin blowout.
Defensively, it was going to be a hard day containing the Maryland offense. But the Buckeyes got outshot every quarter except the second, which Maryland won anyway. The Sled Dogs got eaten alive, and so did the poles down low. This despite the fact that Ohio State played its cleanest game in a long, long time, only committing 13 turnovers on the day.
Maryland seemed to come away with every groundball that mattered in the Buckeyes' zone, and punished them for it. A long, long day.
Offensively, until the fourth, it was actually pretty good. Jack Myers, unlike the previous three losses, scored today. A lot. He tallied two goals, assisted four times, amd ended up just one point behind Logan Wisnauskas. If you had told me that would happen prior to faceoff, I would have thought this game would be close to a Buckeye W.
Not only that, but Colby Smith scored a hat-trick, Scott White had two points, and the Canadian duo scored two goals each. That's a really good day, and is tied for the second-highest output against Maryland this season. Unfortunately, Maryland rattled off five goals before Jackson Reid scored with five minutes left in the game. Just too little, way too late.
Which is really the crux of the issue. Today, the Buckeyes wrung every bit of success, and then some, they could want out of a roster that is just too haphazard to be a serious threat. Two options at most are working for Ohio State on offense any given week. Maryland is rolling out nine offensive players (attack and two full middie lines) that are threats to score every second.
Defensively, there are maybe 2 really impact players of the 10-12 that will see the field. Then there's a bunch of JAG players that cost the Buckeyes games against teams with a pulse. Recruiting, even now, just isn't at a level to help the Buckeyes compete for league titles. Rutgers is running circles around Ohio State for Pete's sake.
While today hurts worse than it should have, thanks to the hope provided by quarters one through three, in the end it still doesn't matter. The best team in the country rolled Ohio State, which everyone knew would happen, and the Buckeyes are in the same place they have been for the third year in a row. Beat the Wolverines, twice in consecutive games, and you're probably in. Lose even one game, and the season is done.
This is it. For all the marbles, likely including the staff's retention. It's Hate Week. Screw TTUN.
Go BUCKEYES!
