If the Penn State Icers did not exist, the Ohio Hockey team would have been the ACHA national champions last year and the Bobcats would have two less losses this year.
Unfortunately for the Bobcats (4-5), the Icers do exist, and they live to capitalize on other team's mistakes. Taking Friday's game, 7-3, and Saturday's game, 5-3, Penn State thrived off power plays in its first home game of the season.
Penn State's raising of the banner from last years national title only added to an already emotional weekend for the Ohio team, coach Dan Morris said. He said that emotion was a big part of the mental breakdowns the team suffered all weekend.
We talked with the players individually
and tried to make them understand what needed to be done Morris said. But we made so many mental mistakes and (Penn State) is great at capitalizing on those.
Goalie Ryan Baksh said the Bobcats were shorthanded too often to give themselves a chance.
Their power play is great Baksh said. And we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot by letting them get in that position.
Penn State was able to dominate all weekend on a consistently shorthanded Ohio squad, as they scored only three even-strength goals in Friday's win. But the biggest penalty on Friday came in the third period when Zac Hernandez was given a five minute major for spearing.
Hernandez, who is third on the team with eight points, was disqualified for Saturday night's game.
That's a penalty that crushes you right there
Morris said. You not only have to go to short
but even if they score in that time you can't get back to even strength.
Without Hernandez on Saturday night the team again started off slow, going down 3-0. Goals by Nick Bassarab and Sean Gallagher brought the Bobcats back 3-2, and for the first time in the weekend it seemed as though Ohio was ready to overcome the Icers.
We played better 5-on-5 hockey than they did
forward Paul Warriner said. We know we have the talent and we know we could beat them if we played our game.
Penn State tacked on insurance goals in both the second and third period however, to come out on top 5-3.
Despite the slow start, forward Robbie Farmer said there is no reason to worry.
Playing Penn State was a good way to gauge where we are
Farmer said. We know that we should have taken one of those games
and it's disappointing that we didn't. But we saw flashes of what we're capable of on Saturday
and I think we showed that we will be a dangerous team.
Early starts have meant little for Ohio in the past, as the team struggled last year, achieving only a 7-7-2 record through their first 16 games.
Ohio plays Western Michigan next at Bird Arena at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
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