Hockey: Illini still winless at Bird Arena after weekend sweep

Bird Arena has always been Illinois' bugaboo.

Since joining the Central States Collegiate Hockey League with the Bobcats in 1993, the Illini have never won a game in Athens.

Coach Dan Morris' team extended that string of futility, handing 6-5 and 4-3 losses to the No. 3 ranked Illini.

During a span of 15 regular-season games, Illinois has only mustered a tie.

This year was no different for Illinois, which was outworked and outsmarted by the Bobcats.

Illinois struggled to make simple plays and looked out of focus.

Ohio's smaller-sized rink gave way to physical play by Morris' group, and an intensity level they maintained for the majority of the series.

Right winger Ryan Tessmer was the pace setter for the Bobcats, tallying four goals during the two games. He was undoubtedly Ohio's most effective player.

Senior center J.J. Plutt forced overtime on Friday and Zach Tisdale eventually scored the winner.

We wanted to shoot the puck with every chance we got

Tessmer said. We were lucky enough to get a couple past him.

Friday night marked the second time in consecutive weeks that the Bobcats have rallied to tie a game with less than 30 seconds remaining.

Teams don't usually get a lot of practice in extra-attacker situations early in the season, Morris said, but eventually it becomes a matter of competing to score goals.

On Saturday night, the Bobcats jumped out to a 4-1 lead and scored twice on a two-man advantage before settling in defensively.

Zack Barbis and Tessmer notched power-play goals 21 seconds apart.

It was essential for us to come out quickly and get the home crowd going with us Morris said. After we got up (4-1) we were able to just lock it down and stay with it.