The Bobcats are finally establishing themselves on the road.
Sophomore winger Billy Hemann notched his first hat trick of the year in Ohio's 5-2 Friday night win over Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Mich. Ryan Tessmer added two goals on Saturday night in a 5-4 overtime loss.
Center J.J. Plutt assisted on all three Hemann goals, giving the Bobcats' top line 10 points (five goals, five assists) in the weekend split.
The Bobcats (16-11-2) scored the only goal of the opening period Friday, and led 5-1 until the Stallion's Chris Meegan scored a power-play goal with less than two minutes remaining.
Saturday night was far different.
The game was tied 3-3 after two periods, but a late goal by the Stallions seemed to put the Bobcats away with five minutes remaining. With goaltender Chris Carlson on the bench and less than a minute left in the game, Tessmer's second goal of the night sent the game to overtime.
Western's Ricky Simmons tallied the winner on the power play in the extra session, sending Ohio home with a split.
The Bobcats employed a youthful lineup on Saturday, with two seniors being healthy scratches, including captain Corey Bise.
The problem is the other two lines
Morris said. We need them to do their job too which is to kill penalties. We gave up five power-play goals this weekend
and that's unacceptable.
What the guys are realizing is, it's not about who you are, it's who's playing well.
Ohio's power play
which struggled mightily early in the year
continued its resurgence with a 2-for-6 effort.
The Bobcats' shots are getting through from the point
and with traffic in front of the goaltender
they have been able to bury the rebounds.
We had some real good looks on the power play, Morris said. Guys know what we want on the power play, and we've gone to pretty much two units.
An encouraging point for Morris and his team has been the play of goaltender Chris Carlson. The backup
who has seen increased playing time because of Paul Marshall's selection to the World University Games
is growing more comfortable with each start.
Beginning last weekend against the Buckeyes
his defensemen had much better communication in front of him and supplied a strong defensive effort.
The same was true in the first game against Western Michigan - he received offensive support from the forwards and the defensive unit was strong in preventing odd-man rushes and second chance opportunities.
He was called upon regularly on Saturday
