Sometimes smoke and mirrors can be just as effective as shock and awe.
The Bobcats learned that lesson over the weekend as they opened conference play with a resilient performance in Indiana, taking a hard-to-swallow 2-1 loss at the hands of the Hoosiers Friday night before responding with 2-1 victory of their own Saturday.
The split was a frustrating one for the fifth-ranked Bobcats (12-4-0), who dominated their 38th-ranked opponents in every category on the stat sheet across both games, except the only one that matters.
“You’ve got to give Indiana a lot of credit. They played well,” Ohio coach Dan Morris said. “Their goaltender played well and they deserved to win Friday. They had a gameplan and they wanted to keep the score low and they did.”
Friday’s opener was a reminder that every so often in Indiana, as a few celebrated sports movies have taught us, it’s just the underdog’s day.
After Indiana scored an early goal, Ohio leveled terms through a Nick Rostek goal halfway through the first and controlled large portions of the rest of the contest, outshooting Indiana 51-24 in all.
But on their back foot, the Hoosiers kept the game 1-1 deep into the third, with an impotent Bobcat power play wasting five man advantages in the final two periods and Indiana goaltender Mike Reed standing on his head to continually stifle the Ohio attack.
“We had some opportunities to put the puck in back of the net and we either hesitated for a split second and allowed the goalie to recover or just settled for low-percentage shots,” Morris said. “I think it was a combination of those two things that hurt us offensively.”
Ohio came to rue their missed chances when Indiana defenseman Brian Bieschke’s seeing-eye shot got through a crowd and past goaltender Teddy Dushkin to lift the Hoosiers to the 2-1 upset victory.
Saturday was better for Ohio as the Bobcats again dominated proceedings and on this occasion were the ones to score first through a Brett Agnew goal off a rebound.
Rostek then doubled Ohio’s lead on a backhander from point blank range in the second, and the Bobcats survived an Indiana goal and some late pressure in the third for their first CSCHL win of the season.
Despite only hitting the back of the net twice, Ohio again pounded Reed with 52 shots while Dushkin made enough saves for his ninth win of the season and 12th of his career as a Bobcat.
That win total puts the sophomore goaltender exactly 288 victories behind his head coach. Saturday’s win was the 300th of Morris’ tenure behind the Ohio bench, a milestone his players did not let pass unnoticed.
“(Captain) Mike Schultz presented me with the game puck and the guys gave me a nice, warm applause so I guess that feels good,” Morris said. “It means a lot to me to have (assistant coach) Steve Osacky and the staff and the players with me for it.
“So yeah, it was pretty neat.”
QUICK STATS
Friday
Indiana 2, OHIO 1
Bobcat goal scorer: Rostek
Saturday
OHIO 2 Indiana 1
Bobcat goal scorers: Agnew, Rostek
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