Trailing 2-1 with just over one minute left in the championship game, Ohio coach Dan Morris called a time-out to talk strategy with his squad.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats, the extra time to plan was not enough to overcome Illinois in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament final.
With a little less than 19 minutes remaining in the game, Illinois forward Johnny Liang put the puck past Ohio goaltender Ryan Baksh to secure the Fightin' Illini a 2-1 victory.
Alex Park scored the first Illinois goal in the first period while Ohio forward Kurt Miller scored Ohio's lone goal in the second period.
The CSCHL tournament championship game has been familiar with an Ohio versus Illinois match-up. Ohio got the better of Illinois in 2004 and 2005 with Illinois winning in 2003.
I think last year we kind of peaked a little early
said Miller, who has been with Ohio for the past four seasons. We haven't lost a lot of games. This kind of takes us down a notch so we can regroup and build ourselves back up.
The tournament's Most Valuable Player award went to Illinois goalie Mike DeGeorge. DeGeorge allowed five goals against Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinals. DeGeorge went on to give up only a combined two goals during the semi-final and the final contests.
The CSCHL regular season awards were handed out after the game. Bobcats forward Jim Fuhs was named the league's Most Valuable Player. Fuhs was unable to play in the tournament because he is out with a knee injury. The status for Fuhs next weekend is uncertain, but the team's leading scorer will be back for the national tournament in two weeks.
Baksh, John Yasak and Brandon Hanley were all awarded second-team all CSCHL. Fuhs was named to the first team, and Morris was awarded CSCHL Coach of the Year.
To make it to the final game, Ohio defeated in-state rival Kent on Friday afternoon 5-4 in overtime. Kent, the eighth seed in the tournament, was winning 2-0 heading into the second period.
The Bobcats rallied late in the second period to tie it up at two goals apiece. Both teams found the back of the net twice in the third period, and the game went into an extra, 20-minute period.
Ohio forward Ryan Tessmer ended the Flashes tournament run with the game winning goal just minutes into the overtime period.
We weren't focused Morris said. It wasn't just (Sunday) it was all weekend. We should have gotten beat on Friday
but we came back to find a way to win. We got beat at our own game today.
The tournament setup had Ohio playing the five-seed Robert Morris in the semi-final on Saturday. Ohio ended the Eagles tournament dreams with a 4-2 victory.
Freshman Paul Marshall got the start between the pipes for Ohio against Robert Morris.
We had very solid goaltending all weekend
said Ohio forward Robbie Farmer. Both Ryan and Paul played this weekend. Everyone got on the ice and got their opportunity to step up.
Ohio plays West Virginia on Friday night in Bird Arena. Saturday night features a contest between Ohio and the CSCHL All-Star team. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. both nights.
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Corey Ryan
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Senior winger Kurt Miller and the Bobcats won this Jan. 6 game against Illinois 4-3, but the Bobcats failed to beat the Fightin' Illini Sunday in the CSCHL Tournament championship game at Western Michigan University, losing 2-1. The Bobcats escaped with a
