With their bus broken down Friday night, it seems offense was not the only thing the No. 20 Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens could not get started in their weekend series against the No. 3 Ohio hockey team.
In a break from Central States Collegiate Hockey League play, Ohio (17-7-5 overall, 13-3-2 CSCHL) took full advantage of its non-conference weekend to build momentum, dominating Delaware (16-15) both nights in Bird Arena, 8-0 and 7-1.
Delaware came in ranked No. 20
and they wanted to get up into the tournament coach Dan Morris said. They had to have a good showing against us and we kind of said here's a chance to end a team's season.
Delaware came out fast on Friday night, pressuring the Bobcats and forcing goalkeeper Ryan Baksh to be on his toes early. The Bobcats had their chances as well and took advantage of an endless parade of Delaware players to the penalty box.
All said and done, 69 penalty minutes were racked up between the two teams. And while Baksh stopped all 27 Delaware shots, giving Ohio its first shutout of the season, eight different players netted shots.
That's how you want it to be
said Morris. You want a balanced attack
and it was nice to see our scoring spread out like that.
The Fightin' Blue Hens came out with intensity on Saturday night again and gained some momentum with an early goal on net minder Derek DeFelice, who was caught out of position by a quick Delaware shot.
After some back-and-forth hockey for most of the period, the Bobcats scored a heartbreaker with less than 30 seconds left in the first period when Paul Warriner stretched the twine moments after an Ohio penalty expired.
In similar fashion to Friday night, the rest of the game was all Bobcats, who earned two more goals from Casey Fitzpatrick and Joe Branco in the second period, then managed four more goals in the third to bury the Blue Hens.
Earlier in the year I don't think we had our competitive
killer instinct
Morris said. The difference between this weekend and last is that when we got the puck we were ready to shoot it.
DeFelice, who earned his first win of the season, was almost perfect for Ohio in net, stopping 15 of 16 shots.
He played well
assistant coach Steve Manning said. This game was about winning but also about helping Derek get out of a losing pattern. With a little confidence he's a strong goaltender.
Ohio will conclude a four-week home stand against conference foe Kent State this weekend in Bird Arena. With the regular season winding to a close, both 7:30 p.m. contests on Friday and Saturday are for crucial league points.
We're taking the approach that it's a playoff weekend
Morris said. We need to win both games to defend the regular season title. Kent wants to play the role of spoiler against us.
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