Although Ohio played somewhat better Saturday at home than it did Friday, one thing remained the same. The second period was not good for the Bobcats.
Ohio (6-3) dropped its second straight game to Iowa State 4-1 on Saturday in Bird Arena, and the second period is part of the reason why. Despite getting off to a strong start in the first, Ohio threw all its hard work away when the puck dropped following the first intermission.
One may think the third period would be the most troubling for a team after playing hard for 40 minutes, but that is not the case for Ohio. It typically struggles in the second period, and this was no different on Saturday. Ohio played sloppy, committing unnecessary penalties and then giving up goals on the power plays.
“When you take a stick penalty behind the player or one in the offensive zone, that just kind of sucks the energy out of the room,” Ohio coach Lionel Mauron said. “That really hurt us today.”
After Patrick Roach was called for roughing three minutes into the second period, Ohio’s downfall began. It almost made it out of the power play, but Iowa State’s (10-0) Chad McIlwain scored with seconds until the penalty expired. Later in the second period, the Cyclones scored on another power play after Philippe Angervil was sent to the penalty box.
After Friday’s loss to Iowa State, Mauron mentioned that he wanted to see more physicality from his players, but this was not the kind of physical play he was hoping to see. Instead of seeing assertive, competitive plays in the second period, Mauron saw hits that may have cost Ohio the game.
“I think we have a long way to go,” Mauron said.
In addition, Ohio did not play coherent enough as a team during the second period Saturday. The Bobcats were not on the same page, especially when it came to shifts. Ohio’s shifts took a little longer than normal Saturday, causing tiredness and having to play from behind.
“We need better habits,” Mauron said. “That means playing for 45 seconds hard and intense, and then get off the ice. I think we made a couple of selfish decisions where we took a couple extra laps around the ice instead of coming to the bench and let a fresh player take over.”
Although the Bobcats held Iowa State to only one goal, Friday’s second period was also a sloppy period for them. The Bobcats turned the puck over too many times, giving away many opportunities to score, which, thankfully for them, the Cyclones did not capitalize on.
“Those mistakes just can’t happen at this level,“ Mauron said.
Mauron said the Bobcats need to be quicker about responding to those mistakes, because they may not be so lucky next time. Against better teams, they need more careful play.
With tough opponents and long series on the schedule all season, Ohio must quickly learn how to overcome those mistakes. Much like this weekend against Iowa State, bad penalties and unorganized play are not going to fly against teams like Lindenwood and Adrian later in the season. Luckily for Ohio, it has time to learn from its faults and fix them.
