Gianni Evangelisti knew the defender was tired. He saw the opportunity to beat him wide.
So he did. He sent the puck flying toward the short side of the goal, where it rested home for his second goal of the night.
Evangelisti’s goal capped off a five-point performance, leading to a 12-1 Ohio win over West Virginia on Friday at Bird Arena. That’s not out of the ordinary for him — he was the leading point-scorer for Ohio last season with 48 points.
"The defender looked tired, so I took the opportunity," he said.
Evangelisti, a junior forward, started this season on what he called “IR.” He was dealing with an upper body injury, missing the first few weeks of team activities and just started skating last week.
Friday was Evangelisti’s first action of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Coach Sean Hogan was forced to have three healthy scratches due to various circumstances — Jake Houston and Gabe Lampron had out-of-town job interviews, and Nick Grose missed Friday’s game due to a violation of team rules. Ohio’s depth was thinning, but the return of Evangelisti bolstered that.
Just before the halfway mark of the first period, he scored his first point. Travis Studzinski found Evangelisti, who then got the puck to Timmy Thurnau, who found the back of the net.
Four minutes later on the power play, Evangelisti got the puck to Cody Black, who scored.
At the end of the first 20 minutes, Ohio was up 4-0 and Evangelisti had his hand in two of the goals.
“The first period took a little bit of an adjustment,” Evangelisti said. “Once I got my legs under me and acclimated to my linemates, the second and third went well.”
Less than a minute into the second period, freshman defenseman Scott Bagby pushed the puck up to Thurnau, who hit Evangelisti in stride, where he would score his first goal of the season. Bagby was the only one credited with an assist on that goal.
“I kind of just saw an opening,” Evangelisti said. “It worked out well, I guess.”
Leading the team in points is not about just the goals scored. Evangelisti always seems to be heavily involved whenever he’s on the ice. He's constantly creating chances as the Bobcats continue to possess the puck and tally shot after shot, sending 54 on target Friday.
He saw a chance in the third period to get Garrett Jenkins the puck. Evangelisti had a placed his pass to Jenkins in just the right spot to allow Jenkins to find himself all alone on the ice. Jenkins’ wrist shot found the back of the net for Ohio’s eighth goal.
With Evangelisti getting back on the ice in a game situation, it took a little bit for him to get acclimated to playing again, and to build some chemistry with his linemates. Luckily for him, he found it quickly.
“Timmy Thurnau and Garrett Jenkins are real high-skill players, they think the game well,” Evangelisti said. “I think the three of us click very well together.”
The return of Evangelisti to the ice for the Bobcats only strengthens what the No. 5 team in the country has. Hogan knows he has a good team, and Friday was a great example of that.
“Everyone was great,” he said. “This is one of the best games we’ve played in a long time.”
