After getting off to a less than ideal start to the season, the Ohio State men's hockey team has seemingly found the confidence it had been lacking. This has especially been true for two of the leaders to the team's turnaround, Matt McIlvane and Jason DeSantis.
"Confidence is 100 percent of the game, basically. If you're confident in yourself and your abilities, you're going to go out there and have a great performance," McIlvane said. "That's an area I've really improved on this year."
His confidence was definitely not hurt when he scored two goals in a game for the first time in his career in the 4-2 win over Northern Michigan (4-3-1, 1-1-0 CCHA) Saturday night.
Likely to further boost that confidence was praise from coach John Markell, who called the junior forward the "most consistent" player on the ice last weekend.
McIlvane has worked hard to build that confidence, working with a skating coach all summer as well as honing his skills in hopes to eventually take the step to the professional level.
"That's obviously my biggest goal," said the 2004 draftee of the Ottawa Senators. "Obviously while I'm here I'm trying to win a national championship, but there's hockey beyond that."
While McIlvane has been preparing himself for the next level, DeSantis, has just been trying to get back to playing hockey without being injured. The junior defenseman, who tallied a goal and an assist Saturday, had offseason surgery to repair a severe sports hernia he struggled with in the latter stages of last season. Now he is leading the Buckeyes (2-4-0, 2-2-0 CCHA) in points with seven (1 goal, 6 assists). Not unlike McIlvane, DeSantis credits regaining his confidence as key to his success.
"Last year I didn't have too much confidence with my injury," he said. "But I think that's something I have going for me right now."
The rest of the Buckeyes have also become more comfortable playing in a system implemented from last year in a response to the struggles in the Minnesota series two weeks ago.
"We seem to be prospering under the simpler system," Markell said. "It allows (the players) to expand on their individual skills throughout the game."
"I think we're starting to become more of a transition team," McIlvane said. "Which is playing into my skating style ... I just think that the whole team is more confident with (the system). That's a start towards success."
OSU will be looking to keep the offensive and defensive aspects of the system in balance during both games this weekend.
"I think the difference between game one (on Friday) and game two (on Saturday) was we played really sound on our systems on game one and then maybe we forgot a little bit about offense," McIlvane said.
The Buckeyes dropped the series opener to the Wildcats Friday 2-0 despite only yielding 16 shots on the night.
McIlvane, DeSantis and their OSU teammates will look to use their confidence when trying to snap Notre Dame's four-game winning streak when they begin a two-game series with the No. 10 Fighting Irish (5-1-0, 0-0-0) tomorrow night at the Schottenstein Center.
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