The Ohio State men’s hockey season officially came to an end last night with the team’s overtime heartbreaker of a loss to national No. 2 Minnesota-Duluth. Although the Buckeyes’ tournament exit is hardly cause for celebration, their tournament presence certainly is. 2017 marked the Bucks’ first trip to the national tourney in eight years and yet another step forward for an Ohio State program continuing to build steam under the leadership of head coach Steve Rohlik.
Great Expectations
The Big Ten preseason poll predicted a second place finish for the Buckeyes this season. I forecasted a winning record in non-conference play, a top two finish in the B1G, and a national ranking at the end of the season. While the Bucks didn’t precisely live up to these expectations, they came darn close.
Ohio State was the B1G’s third place team, just one point shy of second place Wisconsin. This was the best ever Big Ten result for the Bucks. They cruised to a 9-3-5 record in non-conference games and will end the year with a national ranking (final number to be determined).
That there were actual preseason expectations for OSU in the first place is a sign of the program’s progress. It has been some time since anyone expected the Buckeyes to be relevant at the end of the year. The fact that the team nearly bulls-eyed those expectations further proves it is on an upward path.
Onward and Upward
This season Ohio State surpassed 20 wins for the first time since 2008-09. While the team did not face a particularly brutal schedule, the Bucks did earn some impressive victories over the NCAA’s top squads. They topped No. 1 Denver, No. 5 Minnesota (twice), and No. 11 Penn State (twice).
The Buckeyes began the year with that upset of the Pioneers and ended it with an impressive loss to UMD. There were plenty of high points between these red-letter bookends but the Bucks also struggled to put forth a consistent effort, particularly after the holiday break. They settled for ties on six occasions and dropped several other winnable contests, often against “bad” teams.
By failing to lock down those decisions Ohio State missed some opportunities to improve its standing in both the Big Ten and the PairWise ranks. As successful as the season was, it is still difficult not to wonder what might have been had the Bucks come out on top in even just a few of those close contests. Both game-to-game consistency and the development of a killer instinct are areas in which OSU can improve next year.
On the whole, though it had its ups and downs, this season was a rousing success and a large step forward for the program. Now the Buckeyes must find a way to maintain their hard won stature through a critical roster turnover and prove that 2016-17 wasn’t just a senior-driven flash in the pan.
The Best Defense
One aspect of Ohio State's game will be difficult to top next season and that is the team’s electrifying offense. The Scarlet and Gray powered through 2016-17 with one of the nation’s top scoring squads. The offense hovered near 4.00 goals per game all year.
The ridiculously productive crew was paced by career years from Mason Jobst (55 points), Nick Schilkey (27 goals), Dave Gust (41 points), and Dakota Joshua (35 points). All four Buckeyes averaged better than a point per game this season and another two, Matt Weis (0.97) and Tanner Laczynski (0.94), were only a tick off that mark. Josh Healey (25 points) led all Buckeye defensemen in scoring.
Jobst finished the season among the nation’s leaders in points (No.7) and assists (tied for No. 2). Schilkey was No. 3 in the country in overall goals (27). He also drove the practically unstoppable Buckeye power play and led the NCAA in man-advantage tallies (16).
Speaking of OSU’s power play, it ends the season at an impressive 31.6% conversion rate. The Buckeyes were even more fearsome on the advantage in conference games. They scored on a mindblowing 39.5% of power plays which occurred during B1G tilts.
While most of the team's career marks were made in the offensive zone, goaltender Matt Tomkins quietly set personal bests in both wins (12) and single season GAA (2.48).
Freshman Review
Tanner Laczynski was the clear standout of this year’s freshman class. (Though Ronnie Hein’s 11 points in 16 games - before suffering a season-ending injury - were notable.) The Philadelphia Flyers draftee posted 32 points this season (10g, 22a). Most came in the first half of the year, prior to the rookie phenom’s World Junior stint when he brought home a gold medal and a tenacious virus which lingered for weeks and hampered his second half performance.
Laczynski was just beginning to look like his old self when the season ended. He is definitely a player to watch next season. Depending on the kind of offseason he has, the Shorewood, Illinois native could be poised for a Jobst-like sophomore breakout.
Looking Ahead
Ohio State will have some big shoes to fill next year. The Buckeyes face the loss of key contributors on both offense (Schilkey and Gust) and defense (Healey and Drew Brevig) as well as the departure of almost every last goaltender with NCAA experience (Tomkins, Logan Davis, and Christian Frey).
The team will return seven of its top ten scorers in 2017-18 along with its young but battle tested defense corps. They will be joined by a freshman class which features no obvious stars, though that view may change as the season rolls along. Guys like Gust and Jobst arrived in Columbus with little fanfare and under the guidance of Rohlik and company they developed into team-leading point machines.
One of the most interesting stats for me this season was fact that Jobst, a very under-the-radar type of recruit, shared the Big Ten regular season scoring title with Minnesota’s Tyler Sheehy, a skilled guy with the resume to prove it and a one time Ohio State commit who jumped ship after Rohlik replaced Mark Osiecki behind the Buckeye bench.
So I’m not sweating next year’s blue-collar crew of freshmen. This coaching staff has demonstrated an ability to both identify diamonds in the rough and bring out the latent brilliance in its roster. But if you get really itchy about recruiting hype allow me to direct your attention to the U.S. National Team Development Program’s Under-17 evaluation camp. The USNTDP keeps a watchful eye on the top American talent and two of the Buckeyes’ long range verbal commits, defenseman Marcus Gretz and forward Cole Caufield, garnered invites to this week’s eval camp.
Congratulations, Smartypants!
16 Buckeyes were named to the Academic All-Big Ten team, letterwinners in at least their second year who carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. They are Drew Brevig (communication), Logan Davis (marketing), Freddy Gerard (communication), Dave Gust (family resource management), Josh Healey (finance), Mason Jobst (real estate), Dakota Joshua (sport industry), Brendon Kearney (finance), Christian Lampasso (industrial systems engineering), Sasha Larocque (earth sciences), Kevin Miller (finance), Tommy Parran (English), Nick Schilkey (finance), Matt Tomkins (finance), Matt Weis (sport industry), and John Wiitala (finance).
