It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.
That was the story as Ohio hung on to a 5-4 victory against Illinois in their round-of-16 matchup in the American Collegiate Hockey Association national tournament Saturday afternoon in Strongsville, Ohio, a game that featured four massive momentum changes and some great and terrible play from the Bobcats.
It was great early as Ohio came out of the gates firing, putting to rest any doubts it would take the Bobcats time to adjust to Hoover Arena’s larger ice surface. Tyler Pilmore got the opener just four minutes in, using his speed to beat the Fighting Illini defense and putting a shot over Dan Rooney’s left shoulder into the top corner.
The Bobcats top-line was at it again six minutes later. This time Nick Rostek took a feed from Pilmore on a rush and sniped one low and past Rooney’s glove to make it 2-0. And the Bobcat blitz continued less than a minute after that when Jonathan Pietramala scored from nearly the exact spot Pilmore had to make it 3-0.
Ohio looked in total control, but Illinois replaced Rooney with Nick Clarke after the Pietramala goal and the Illini started to slowly work their way into the contest.
It remained 3-0 into the second, and as they have all season penalties bit Ohio when Derek Schultz converted Illinois’ fourth power play chance of the game 4:30 into the period. Seconds later it was 3-2 when Matt Welch beat Ohio goaltender Teddy Dushkin after some sloppy defensive play from the Bobcats.
But Ohio worked hard to win back the momentum, and it paid off when defenseman Zack Barbis joined a rush and received the puck just out in the front of Clarke halfway into the period. The senior converted to make it 4-2, and John Luciana scored on a rebound a few minutes later to push the lead back to three.
With the 5-2 margin the Bobcats knew that all they had to do was not blow it in the third, and they played like it, handing an inspired Illinois squad opportunity after opportunity. And Illinois finally took advantage midway through the period after Ohio took another penalty, with Schultz bagging his second PP tally to make it 5-3.
By this point Ohio was in full prevent-defense mode, and it was working until Zach Tisdale took yet another penalty with 4:30 to play. The Bobcats were nearly out from under the man-disadvantage thanks to some great play from Dushkin, but the Illini got the breakthrough at the 2:40 mark for its third PP goal of the contest.
From there it was all hands on deck for the Bobcats, and just as Illinois pulled Clarke in a last-ditch effort with less than a minute remaining it was the Illini’s turn to take a stupid penalty. The call negated any chance to put something substantial on Dushkin, and Ohio escaped with a 5-4 win.
With the victory the Bobcats move on to Sunday’s quarterfinal round in which they will play the winner of third-seed Delaware vs. 14-seed Davenport, which is currently tied at 1-1 heading into the third period. Sunday’s game is set for another 1 p.m. start.
cd211209@ohio.edu
