Men’s hockey coach John Markell had been urging John Albert to shoot the puck. It turns out he had good reason.
Albert’s two third period goals, his first in six weeks, capped Ohio State’s comeback victory Saturday and gave OSU (8-6-1) a weekend sweep of No. 16 Nebraska-Omaha (9-4-1).
Hampered for much of the season by tough competition and his deference to teammates, Albert broke loose in the waning minutes of Saturday’s 3-2 win.
Stopped on the doorstep just seconds earlier, Albert converted with 6:27 remaining, deflecting home Shane Sims’ shot from the blue line to knot the score at 2-2.
With 1:27 left, the Albert that knifed through defenders with ease earlier in the season appeared again.
Despite attacking two defenders alone, Albert found a seam in the defense and exploited it. He muscled his way to the front of the net and depositing the puck over the goalie’s right shoulder.
“He had outside speed and he took the puck to the net with his body,” Markell said. “A lot of guys would bail out.”
Not Albert. After passing up a similar opportunity in the second period, in which he split the Mavericks’ defense, Albert shed the facilitator role and took the limelight.
“Coach has been harping on us to take it wide, so I just took it wide and the defenseman gave me a lot of room to go to the front of the net,” Albert said.
Hunter Bishop, who twice missed point-blank opportunities in the second period, drew the Buckeyes within a goal, 2-1, four minutes into the third period.
The third-period heroics coincided with yet another solid performance from goaltender Dustin Carlson. Carlson, who stopped a career-high 44 shots in the game, was at his best when anchoring an OSU unit besieged by penalties.
The Buckeyes, who endured questionable calls and a 10-minute misconduct penalty from Corey Toy, allowed the Mavericks to convert on just one of seven power plays.
“You can’t lean on the referees to win you hockey games; we had to win it ourselves,” Markell said. “Our penalty kill came through and we found a way.”
Though memorable, Albert’s last-minute heroics on Saturday were surpassed by those of teammate C.J. Severyn a day earlier.
Severyn’s scored his first goal as a Buckeye with 1.1 seconds left to play, giving OSU a 4-3 victory in the Friday series opener.
“It’s a great feeling to get that first one as a Buckeye,” Severyn said. “I just saw that there were 1.4 seconds left on the clock so I just threw it at the net and luckily it went in.”
The goal concluded a furious exchange of opportunities between the teams in the final seconds. Carlson stopped two chances from close range, the second sparking a breakout that caught the Mavericks’ defense out of position. Streaking in on a 4-on-2, Peter Boyd’s shot went wide, though the havoc in front was enough to knock the Mavericks’ goaltender out of position.
With an opening, Severyn corralled the puck in the corner and threw it at the net.
“There was a guy that slid into me and knocked me onto my knees,” Mavericks goaltender Jeremie Dupont said. “To be honest, I could have battled back to get up on my feet and see the puck.”
Jubilation was briefly suspended on the Buckeyes’ bench as officials reviewed the play before finding no evidence of goaltender interference.
Ian Boots tied the score at 3-3 with 4:14 remaining after the Mavericks had battled back from a 2-0 deficit to claim the lead.
The Buckeyes have won six of the last seven games, including four wins against ranked teams.
“For now, we’re happy with being a sleeper team,” Carlson said. “[We can] maybe surprise teams when they come play us.”
James Pallitto can be reached at [email protected].
