The Bobcats played Homecoming spoilers in Ames this weekend when they swept No. 8 Iowa State, winning 4-1 Friday and 5-1 the next night.
A veteran Ohio (6-3-1, 2-0 CSCHL) team relied on a tenacious forecheck to take advantage of the inexperienced Cyclone defenders. The No. 6 Bobcats wore down Iowa State (5-9-0, 1-3 CSCHL) with sustained physical pressure, and the Cyclones broke in the final stanza of each contest.
When you wear them down then those opportunities arrive late in the game
and I thought we did a good job capitalizing Ohio head coach Dan Morris said. You can see with three third-period goals Friday and two third-period goals Saturday.
It was a pair of seniors who led the way for the Bobcats Saturday as Billy Hemann and Brett Molnar combined for two power-play goals and five points. The goal was Molnar's first since the season-opener against Goderich Oct. 1.
(The goals) are huge. It's something we have to consistently get more of. We have to be more than one-dimensional Morris said. The most important thing is making sure we get contributions from everybody.
Jeremy Browning opened up the scoring in the first period, the second time he has done so in the past three contests. The defenseman-turned-forward outworked a Cyclone defender on a one-on-one and put the puck past goaltender Erik Hudson.
Ohio leading scorer Michael Schultz tallied his ninth of the season 30 seconds later, but Mike Lebler scored a power-play goal for Iowa State in the final minutes of the period to make it 2-1 heading into the second.
The Bobcats' power play exploded for three goals in the second and third periods for the second straight Saturday. This time it was a lethal combination of Molnar, Hemann and the recently cleared Nick Rostek who got the job done on the man-advantage to improve Ohio's record to 3-1 on the road.
On the road ... you've got to be captive and you've got a captive audience so you can really
you know
kind of block things out. Then at home
there's always a lot of distractions
Morris said. Hopefully we can translate this good play into our home-play as well.
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Sports
Bart Logan
