The Ohio State men’s ice hockey teams sings Carmen Ohio with the student section after the Ohio State-Michigan game Dec. 11, 2021. Ohio State won 6-1. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Members of the Knucklebucks, Block O’s hockey student section, and the No. 8 Ohio State men’s hockey team took to the Oval Wednesday to promote this weekend’s series against No. 7 Minnesota.
The foursome of two defensemen, graduate Will Riedell and junior Dominic Vidoli, and two forwards, graduate Eric Cooley and sophomore Travis Treloar, helped pass out flyers advertising the team’s final home series of the regular season.
In addition to the flyers, passersby were challenged to throw a soft rubber puck above the head of Riedell into a small hockey goal placed on the back of whom the net was strapped.
Knucklebucks director Jen Kaufman, a third-year in exercise science, said the idea for this promotion has been in the works for a while, but this series was as good a time as any to finally get it done.
“We tried to do it last semester and it just wasn’t working out,” Kaufman said. “We want to promote them; you’ve got one last weekend, one final push. They’re first in the Big Ten, so they deserve the support.”
Ohio State ranks sixth in the Big Ten in attendance with an average of 4,375 fans per game at the Schottenstein Center.
The current attendance record for the 2021-22 season is 8,350 fans, set during the first game of Ohio State’s home series against then-No. 13 Notre Dame Jan. 14. The highest mark for student presence was also recorded at that game, with 4,205 Buckeyes populating the Knucklebucks section. Kaufman said she would like to break both records this weekend, particularly the student tally.
“If we can get 4,500 students, that’d be awesome,” Kaufman said.“That would be awesome to break the record again.”
As for her desired overall attendance number, Kaufman is hoping for 10,000 students and fans at one or both weekend games.
Brandon Paquin, a graduate student in public policy and management, and Carter Bulington, a graduate student in sports management, both tested their aim against Riedell. The duo each tossed multiple pucks toward the goal and netted several.
“First it was a little difficult,” Paquin said. “But once we figured out the whole scheme of the little event that was going on, we got the hang of it.”
Bulington echoed Paquin’s analysis of the event, going as far as to say the game was a “piece of cake.”
The Buckeyes host the Golden Gophers Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m.
