No. 7 Ohio traveled to Saint Charles, Missouri, last weekend and split its second series of the season against No. 4 Lindenwood.
The series featured the first two starts for junior goalie Mason Koster this season.
Here’s a closer look at Ohio’s (14-7-3) weekend series:
Friday disaster
After a goal four minutes after puck drop by Lindenwood forward Alex Kalau, the Lions kept the rest of the game under their control. Over two periods, the Lions (16-6-0) pushed hard to bury the Bobcats under a 7-0 lead by the second intermission.
Ohio couldn’t find a way past Lindenwood goalie Cooper Seedott, who had 29 saves off of 30 shots on goal. Seedott is currently ranked third in the American Collegiate Hockey Association with 1.27 goals against average and a .943 save percentage.
The Bobcat’s lone goal came thanks to J.T. Schimizzi with five minutes left in the game. Ohio exited Lindenwood Ice Arena with a 8-1 loss.
Saturday Saved
Whether or not Ohio won on Saturday depended on the strength of both Koster and Seedott’s goaltending. Koster proved himself the better goalie for that night, and he finished with a .959 save percentage for Saturday and led Ohio to a 3-2 win to split the series.
The Lions took an early 1-0 lead four minutes and 44 seconds into the first, but that’s as far as they got for over half of the game. Koster held the Lions back and prevented them from following up for over 35 straight minutes. Koster’s goaltending gave Timmy Thurnau the opportunity to even the score.
A goal by Brandon Shea of Lindenwood and Zach Frank kept the score even deep into the third period. As the clock ticked down, Gianni Evangelisti scored from the slot and put Ohio on top with two minutes to play.
Quick numbers
47- Koster managed 47 saves on 49 shots on goal during his start on Saturday, boosting his total save percentage to .865 over his 142 minutes of play this season.
60- Ohio totaled 60 penalty minutes over the weekend series. 30 of those came from ten-minute major penalties from Jake Houston, Shawn Baird and Timmy Thurnau.
