Senior forward Brandon Kearney (25) faces-off in the second period of Ohio State’s game against UMass on Oct. 19. Ohio State lost 6-3. Credit: Nick Hudak | For The Lantern
Following its series tie with UMass, the No. 4 Ohio State men’s hockey team will attempt to bounce back in a home-and-home series against No. 15 Bowling Green.
Ohio State (3-1-0) swept its season opener against Arizona State before splitting its home opener with UMass. Bowling Green (4-1-0) enters the game outscoring its opponents by more than three goals per game, with its only loss coming on the road to Robert Morris.
The Buckeyes fell to No. 4 in the most recent USCHO men’s hockey poll after dropping their first home game against UMass. Ohio State’s previous No. 1 ranking was its first in team history.
“It was a wake-up call. We were ranked No. 1 and that was a good thing, so [the loss] hurt in a lot of ways,” junior defenseman Matt Miller said. “I think we were too comfortable with where we were. We came back, watched some video, learned a lot, and we were ready on Saturday.”
The Falcons are one of the highest-scoring teams in the nation through the first few weeks of the season, scoring 26 goals in only five games. Their 5.2 goals per game is No. 3 in the NCAA.
Sophomore forwards Max Johnson and Brandon Kruse are in the top five in scoring in the NCAA and the Falcons have 22 players with at least one point.
“[Chris Bergeron] does a great job. They play downhill, they’ve got some offensive weapons and the one thing they do is they go to the dirty areas,” head coach Steve Rohlik said. “You know, for us, it’s about doing the little things, and, again, we’ve been working on that this week. You know, we’ve got to match their energy.”
The power play has been a struggle for the Buckeyes this season, converting only 3 of its 18 attempts, but the Falcons will give Ohio State an opportunity to jump-start its special teams. Bowling Green was one of the most penalized teams in the nation last year, with junior forward Lukas Craggs getting 34 penalties last season,having already earned seven this season.
The Falcons give many chances to their opponents to score on the power play, and are just as effective stopping them, killing 25 out of the 29 power plays they’ve faced this season — No. 13 in the nation. On the other end, Bowling Green holds the No. 5 power play with a 30.77 percent success rate.
Though the Buckeyes have struggled on special teams, freshman forward Quinn Preston understands what they need to do to improve.
“I think we’ve just really got to focus on the little things on special teams, winning little battles, making sure we’re getting entries on the power play and clearing pucks on the penalty kill, and just do what we do,” he said. “We have a really good power play and penalty kill so we’ve just got to make sure we execute.”
Game one for the Buckeyes will take place at the Schottenstein Center at 7 p.m. on Friday. The team will visit the Falcons at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.
