Snared By The Glove

Catching up with OSU hockey

While the Buckeye ladies took care of business this past weekend, the men took a couple off the chin against in-state rival Miami.

Let's revisit the events that took place in the world of Buckeye hockey.

As always, ladies go first.

Women vs Bemidji State

Game 1: Ohio State 5

                 Bemidji State 1

The last time these two met up in Columbus, it led to a new NCAA record for penalty minutes. For those of you who don't recall this event or are just hearing about it for the first time, read about it and watch the video here

This time around, there was only a miniscule 36 minutes in the sin bin combined between the Buckeyes and the Beavers compared with that of the 318 minute, 20 disqualifications affair that took place last November.

Oh well, it was good hockey nonetheless.

On Friday night, the Scarlet and Gray emptied out all the goals denied to them by Wisconsin the weekend before in their 5-1 win over Bemidji State.

Summer Thibodeau put the Beavers in front 1-0 just a little over halfway into the first period. After that, it became the Kendall Curtis and Julia McKinnon show.

Curtis tied the game almost three minutes after the Thibodeau goal and McKinnon put the Buckeyes ahead for good 8:27 into the second period. Curtis would tally her second goal of the game a few minutes later, and McKinnon popped home two in the third, putting a cap on OSU's most impressive display of offense this season.

Let us not forget the play of freshman Lauren Spring. The former Pursuit of Excellence star had a playmaker on the day, assisting both of Curtis' goals and one of McKinnon's.

Kassidy Sauve was on her 'A' game once again, as the freshman from Whitby, Ont., made 24 saves.

Game 2: Ohio State 1

                 Bemidji State 0

The following afternoon was a much tighter contest, with the Buckeyes winning 1-0 and completing the sweep of the Beavers.

In the second period, Danielle Gagne took a beautiful stretch pass in the neutral zone from Melani Moylan that sprung her on a breakaway. The electric senior made a move and put the puck top shelf over the glove of Beaver netminder Erin Deters.

That would be the only goal OSU would need as Kassidy Sauve was lights out once again, stopping all 15 shots fired her way.

Ohio State is 4-2 (2-0 WCHA) entering a bye week. Their next game is at Value City Arena against St. Cloud State on Halloween night, Oct. 31.

You can read the box score from Friday's game here and last Saturday's game here

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Men vs Miami

Game 1: Miami 5

                 Ohio State 1

After making a statement in their opening weekend that his team hadn't lost a step after coming ever so close to an NCAA Tournament birth, this was the beginning of a long weekend for Steve Rohlik and co.

Miami would score two goals in the first period curtosy of Riley Barber and Sean Kuraly. The game would take an even worse turn for the Buckeyes as Alex Wideman scored his first goal of the season to make it a 3-0 Redhawk lead heading into the final 20 minutes.

All three of those goals were scored on the power play. The OSU penalty kill was an achilles heel last year and it reappeared once again. This came after a weekend where the Buckeye penalty kill was superb against then No. 3 Providence.

The Scarlet and Gray would energize the fans at Value City Arena for a brief period, as Drew Brevig notched his first goal of the year on a power play, making it a 3-1 game. Tanner Fritz and Matt Weis picked up the assists on the play.

The celebration and momentum would be short-lived, however. Miami would score almost five minutes later with Ben Paulides lighting the lamp for the second time on this young season.

Frustration carried right through until the final buzzer. Blake Coleman scored with 1:29 left to finalize a 5-1 thumping of OSU.

Matt Tomkins made 28 saves on 33 shots while Miami netminder Jay Williams had 26 stops on 27 shots.

Game 2: Miami 2

                 Ohio State 1

What was a 2-1 game on paper could've easily been a 5-1 game like the night before.

As the series made its way back to Oxford at beautiful Goggin Ice Arena, OSU was looking for a much better start and even better discipline in the series finale against their in-state rival.

The start was significantly better, the discipline was there, but they were still dominated throughout the majority of the game.

Anthony Greco visited the red light district for the fourth time this season, as he got the Buckeyes on the board first with a power play goal 5:38 into the opening frame.

The goal was a result of a 5 minute and a game misconduct penalty on Miami's Scott Dornbrock.

After that, to say that Christian Frey was the star of the game was one of the all-time understatements.

Miami would take the lead after 40 minutes of play with goals from Louie Belpedio and Alex Wideman. It was a second period in which OSU was outshot 25-5.

Frey would hold the fort during the third period, but the Buckeyes were unable to sneak another puck past Williams, and the Redhawks would complete the weekend sweep, winning by a 2-1 final.

The outstanding sophomore would end up with a remarkable 60 saves on the evening, most for a Buckeye since 2000 and just six saves shy of an Ohio State record.

Williams didn't have as an eventful night, as he made 19 saves on 20 shots.

Like the OSU women's team, the Scarlet and Gray have a bye weekend. They will travel to Buffalo next weekend to take on the Golden Griffins of Canisus College.

Here are the box scores from Friday's contest (box score) and Saturday's meeting (box score) 

Dump and Chase

Take a peek at some feature articles displaying Kassidy Sauve, Christian Frey, and Sam Jardine.

After her impressive performances last weekend, Sauve garnered WCHA rookie of the week honors. View the press release right here

A tribute to his performance last Saturday, Frey was awarded Big Ten Hockey's second star of the week. Read about it here

 Sam Jardine overcame a gruesome injury to his arm and is now a distinguished leader on this hockey team. Check it out here

Greco, Fritz Lead Buckeyes to Upset Victory Over No. 3 Providence

Article taken from my recap on uscho.com. You can also view the article on the uscho site here

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Anybody can beat anybody in college hockey.

Heading into the season opening contest for both Ohio State and Providence, the big question of the night for the home team was how they were going to put pucks in the net after losing both Ryan Dzingel and Max McCormick to pro hockey, especially against one of the nation’s best netminders in Jon Gilles.

Question asked, question answered.

Ohio State and Providence played a tennis match the entire night at Value City Arena, with Anthony Greco netting his third goal of the game in overtime to help his team pull off the upset in front of a crowd of 2,830.

Providence got on the board first 13:44 into the game on a pretty goal by junior Nick Saracino. Taking a loose puck behind the net of sophomore Christian Frey, Saracino made a spin-o-rama move in order to get himself in front of the crease, where he fired a shot past the blocker of Frey.

Just 19 seconds later, Greco tied the game with the help of a nifty Tanner Fritz pass on a two-on-one play. Fritz and Greco showed a chemistry throughout the night that developed at the tail end of last season.

“Last year, we got together with Max (McCormick) at the end of the year and I think that built some chemistry going into this year,” Fritz said. “He’s fun to play with; he’s probably one of the fastest guys in college hockey, so it’s a lot of fun”

Freshman Brian Pinho gave the Friars a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission after taking a between-the-legs pass from Ross Mauermann on the low, left hand circle and ripping a shot top shelf past the blocker of Frey.

Within a minute of coming out of the penalty box in the second period, Greco tallied his second mark by firing an absolute laser over the glove of Gillies 6:48 into the middle frame.

“It was just one of those things where our (defense) got the puck and brought it into the neutral zone and I was just trying to spread it out,” said Greco “(Johnson) gave it to me and I was just trying to put the puck in the net.”

Providence responded again with another late-period goal. Trevor Mingoia was the benefactor of a three-on-one pass that found him open on the right side of the net. Anthony Florentino found the junior, who buried the puck under the left pad of Frey.

Tanner Fritz tied the game at three on a power play just 3:15 into the final period. A rebound off the shot of Sam Jardine found its way to Fritz, who had an easy tap-in goal.

Gillies made 20 saves on the night and Ohio State finished three of seven on the power play.

Following the theme of the night, the Friars again stepped out in front thanks to an odd goal from junior Brian Parisi. Trying to center a pass out front while behind the net, the puck went off the skate of Frey and found its way behind the goal line.

Frey finished the night with 26 saves.

Having a never-say-die attitude that one would need in order to pull off an upset, Fritz scored his second of the night on another power play with 7:50 remaining in the game.

“We should’ve put that game away,” Providence coach Nate Leaman said. “We made it easy for them to come back.”

“At the end of the day, you’re not going to be successful having to kill 14 minutes a game,” Leaman said. “Their power play led the Big Ten last year. We made some bonehead plays, and it cost us. I don’t know if we respected the game enough.”

The exciting season opening match-up found its way to overtime, where Greco finished off his hat trick.

Taking advantage of a power play that started with 45 seconds left in regulation, the Buckeyes set up shop in the Friars zone, worked the puck up top at the point, and freshman Matt Weis, picking up his second assist of the evening, found Greco on top of the left circle, who fired a bullet past Gillies, completing the upset victory.

Greco, who had 10 goals in his career to this point, knew that he’d be lighting the lamp sooner or later.

“I think I always had it in me; I just needed to let it come out.”