One game remains in the Ohio State men's hockey season following Tuesday's 2-1 loss to Central Collegiate Hockey Association rival No. 5 Miami in the final home game of the season.
The Buckeyes (11-22-4, 7-17-3 CCHA) and the RedHawks (28-6-1, 20-6-1 CCHA) each played on short rest in the unusual Tuesday game, and OSU appeared sluggish early in the game as a result.
"We were just a young team that did not recover from the weekend," OSU coach John Markell said. "We got home at three in the morning Sunday and you can't compete against a team like Miami and react to loose pucks at 5 percent recovery.
"We were just a step off. We had the opportunities and were pretty structured. They tried to frustrate us but we stuck with it. I'm proud of our team but Miami is not an easy team to beat."
The Buckeyes jumped out to an early lead just 59 seconds into the game when freshman John Albert scored his fourth goal of the season with an assist from freshman Peter Boyd.
Boyd gathered an errant pass from a Miami player and sent the puck off the boards and ahead for Albert. Albert's shot soared over the left shoulder of Miami goaltender Jeff Zatkoff.
Miami tied the game at 15:53 of the first period when Justin Vaive came from behind the net and passed right in front of the OSU goal where teammate Alexandre Lacombe was waiting to jam the puck past OSU goaltender Joseph Palmer.
Following a scoreless second period, Miami scored the game-winning goal at 5:25 of the third period. Andy Miele forced a turnover by OSU's Jason DeSantis and passed to Jarod Palmer for the deciding goal.
The small crowd of 3,871 made little more than a whisper with the exception of the Miami faithful who made the trip to support the RedHawks in what was an otherwise competitive hockey game.
"It was a playoff type of game with tight checking, and we just got one more play than they did," Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. "I thought the guys had a lot of energy tonight."
OSU finishes a very disappointing regular season on the road Friday at Miamiat 7:35 p.m.
James Crepea can be reached at crepea.1@osu.edu.
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