 "Photo: Jill Bonnough")
Anyone expecting the No. 2 Ohio State hockey team to be satisfied with last weekend's road split against then-No. 6 Colorado College to start the season would be sorely mistaken.
"No," coach John Markell said when asked if he was satisfied with the result. "I think we were in a position to win the game (Saturday)."
That night, the Buckeyes could not solve Colorado College goaltender Matt Zaba. The junior was sterling, notching 34 saves in blanking the Buckeyes 1-0, with the only goal coming from last year's Hober Baker Award winner, Marty Sertich. If that 1-0 score sounds familiar to Buckeye fans, it should: OSU has lost a playoff game in each of the past three years 1-0, with two of those losses coming in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2003 and 2004.
"It really felt like an NCAA game, a tournament game, and the end result - it was a tournament game for us because we lost by 1-0," Markell said.
The loss came a night after OSU defeated the Tigers 4-2 in the season opener. The teams were tied going to the third period, when senior forward Rod Pelley put the Buckeyes up for good at the 4:48 mark. Sophomore forward Kyle Hood finished the Tigers off with a power-play goal later in the period. Junior defenseman Tyson Strachan and sophomore forward Matt McIlvane scored earlier for the Buckeyes.
Pelley said the difference in the two nights might have just boiled down to the traffic in front of Zaba.
"Friday we were getting some traffic in front of the net, generating more chances, and more importantly, we buried our chances," he said. "Saturday we got off a lot of shots again, but we didn't get as much traffic."
With nearly all of the teams ahead of OSU in the polls losing Friday night, the Buckeyes took the ice knowing that with a win, they would probably be the No. 1 in the country. Instead, now Michigan (4-0) occupies the top spot, although the Buckeyes are ranked as high as they have ever been.
"It crossed my mind (that we were playing for No. 1)," senior captain Nate Guenin said. "But you don't want to be playing for No. 1 right now in October. That's not your goal. We're pretty pleased with where we are at."
The Buckeyes start the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tonight and Friday with a home-and-home series with Bowling Green. The puck drops at 7:05 p.m. tonight in BGSU Ice Arena before OSU returns for the home opener at the same time Friday in the Schottenstein Center.
The last four games between the two squads have seen similar results. In each - a two-game playoff series in 2004 and last season's two-game set at the Schott - OSU jumped out to an early lead, only to see the Falcons chip away. In all four games, OSU did not let the Falcons get the equalizer. In last year's two games, the Buckeyes took 3-0 leads before the Falcons made it 3-2. That would be the final score of each game, with the games so eerily similar that Falcon forwards took tripping calls at the exact same time - 15:46 of the third period - in each game.
"They're not going to quit," Guenin said. "It doesn't matter if they're down one goal or five goals, they're going to keep coming."
In all, the Buckeyes have won nine straight against the Falcons.
"I'm sure they hate us a little," Pelley said. "We're like the big dog. They're the small dog ... in Ohio."
It didn't always used to be that way though. Bowling Green was one of the preeminent teams in college hockey in the late 1970s and early 1980s, winning a National Championship in a classic quadruple overtime game against Minnesota-Duluth in 1984.
Markell was part of three BG teams that made the NCAA tournament and was a three-time First-Team All-CCHA honoree from 1976-79. He downplayed the connection, instead focusing on his firsthand knowledge of how tough it is the play in the BGSU Ice Arena.
"I'm always leery going into the building," he said. "For me it's not a pleasant trip. They treat everybody hard, the opposing team and the coaches. It doesn't matter where you went to school."
This season, the teams will play a total of four games because the two teams are in the same scheduling cluster. That should take an already physical rivalry to a whole new level.
"Bowling Green will come at you hard," Markell said. "It's been a notorious, chippy series. They'll be in our face and those kids are going to have to deal with it."
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