Ohio helped new head coach Sean Hogan get his Bobcat career off to a positive start as it defeated John Carroll 5-0. Junior Michael Harris scored two goals for the Bobcats, while sophomore Patrick Spellacy, senior Vincent Nicolella and senior team captain Mike Kretz added one goal each.
Ohio shot the puck early and often, establishing an intimidating presence early in the contest and rarely letting up on the offensive end. After a strong start of outshooting the Bluestreaks 12-5 in the first period, the Bobcats dominated every facet of the second period, getting a shot advantage of 19-1. Ohio went on to outshoot John Carroll by a count of 46-8.
Harris got the scoring started for Ohio just 8:36 into the contest, when he took a feed from Kretz on a Bobcats power play and delivered a strike past the John Carroll keeper for the first goal of the game.
Harris took advantage of another scoring opportunity in the second period, this time on a Joe Breslin assist, and gave Ohio a 2-0 lead with 18:45 left in the period.
Spellacy gave the Bobcats more help with 3:45 remaining in the second period when he got the puck in open space and fired a rocket into the net to push his team in front 3-0.
Ohio added two quick goals just as the contest was winding down, as Nicollela and Kretz put together virtually back-to-back goals with around seven minutes remaining in the third period, giving Ohio their eventual final score of 5-0.
"Overall, we did a very good job," Hogan said. "One step that teams make going from good to great is keep from having any hiccups or mental lapses in the third period, and we did that. That game could have easily turned into a 5-2 game late, but we stayed tough defensively the entire time."
On winning coaching debut:
"It's great. That's game that, as a higher ranked opponent, we're expected to win. But, it feels good. We just gotta do it again tomorrow. We've got to do it two nights in a row."
