Dan Morris wanted his hockey club to go back to the fundamentals.
After three difficult practices and countless power play drills, the Bobcats went back to their hard-nosed nature on the road against West Virginia last night, winning 4-0.
Needing a good start after a tough loss to third-ranked Penn State at home last Saturday night, Ohio jumped on the Mountaineers early and established a hard-checking game.
The Bobcats out-shot West Virginia 40-24 and dominated the majority of play.
A handful of Ohio's underclassmen stepped up and played perhaps their strongest games of the year.
Playing with rookies Jay Mazzarella and Anthony Finney, sophomore winger Jordan Yoklic got on the board seven minutes into the first period with a quick shot from between the faceoff circles. It was Mazzarella's first career game at Ohio.
That line was really a big spark for us tonight
Morris said. We had no problems playing (the rookies) together all night.
With a comfortable lead in the third period, Morris jokingly challenged Finney.
Finney hit two posts he said. We wanted him to hit the third.
Following several scoring chances that just missed early in the second period, Ohio finally converted to extend its lead.
Winger Michael Schultz, playing on the top line with Ryan Tessmer and Josh Fodor, pounced on a loose puck in the crease midway through the second period to make it 2-0.
Mountaineers goaltender Chris Wilder made the first save, but Schultz kept jamming away until the puck found its way across the goal line.
The goal, Schultz's eighth of the year, gave the Bobcats and goaltender Paul Marshall a little breathing room.
Perhaps the biggest positive of the night was that Ohio's power play finally converted for a third-period goal off the stick of defenseman Chris Perko.
We had lots of shots on goal (on the power play) Morris said. We found the seams and drove to the net
and got the rebounds with one or two guys standing in front of the net.
We had all week to work on it, and it paid off.
Marshall played well in his first start since keeping Ohio afloat for two periods against Penn State last Friday. He made 24 saves for the shutout
and earned another start tonight.
We challenged Paul to outplay his opposition in the other team's net, Morris said. If you want to play again, you have to win and that's how we do things.
Marshall wants it
he wants to be in this fight with us and win games.
2
Sports
Rob Mixer
