With 2:22 remaining in overtime, the puck found its way from freshman forward Michael Harris’ stick in the faceoff circle to the back of the net to give Ohio a 3-2 win against Iowa State in the quarterfinals of American Collegiate Hockey League’s National Tournament.
Its means of getting there, however, was anything but ordinary.
Harris won the faceoff and attempted to throw the puck on net. He was blocked by an Iowa State defenseman, who then misplayed the puck towards Cyclone junior goalie Matthew Cooper, who had no idea where the puck was until it reached the back of the net.
“We weren’t asking any questions,” junior forward Brett Agnew said. “We just took it and got out of there.”
The Bobcats defeated the Cyclones for the third straight time in a game that was defined by goaltending.
Cooper stood his ground in net for Iowa State, stonewalling Ohio and stopping 48 of the 51 shots he saw.
“He played pretty well, but I think he’d like to have that overtime goal back,” Agnew said. “He made a lot of saves when it mattered. … We knew we had to get traps in front of the net and get enough pucks at him because we knew, eventually, one of them would slip past him.”
Junior goalie Fedor Dushkin shined in net for Ohio, shutting out the Cyclones on 31 after replacing graduate student Matt Michno.
“(Dushkin) was huge for us last night,” Agnew said. “We couldn’t have asked for anything more from him. He shut the door for us.”
The Cyclones came out firing on Ohio, scoring two goals on their first three shots, with freshman forward Austin Parle and sophomore defenseman Antti Helanto recording the scores in the opening 10:36 of the game.
The Bobcats whittled away at the lead with Agnew scoring on an Ohio power play, assisted by fellow first linemates Nick Rostek and Tyler Pilmore.
That same group was responsible for Ohio’s second goal, as Pilmore received credit for the score with assists from Rostek and Agnew.
With the win, Ohio advances to the semifinals of the ACHA National Tournament, where it will face off with Minot State, who split with the Bobcats in a late December meeting at Bird Arena.
But Agnew said that meeting is irrelevant with regards to Tuesday’s matchup.
“We’re going to watch a little video of them, but not too much,” he said. “We’re a lot different team now than we were a few months ago when we played them. We just have to go out there and play our game. If we do that, we’re going to win.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
