First it was the Ohio State men’s hockey team (13-10-2, 8-8-2-2) who played well, scoring five unanswered goals Friday night to secure a 6-1 win. Then it was Notre Dame (16-9-3, 13-6-1-1) who won with a dominant three-goal second period to beat OSU, 4-1, on Saturday.
OSU coach Mark Osiecki said his team might have taken Friday night’s win for granted.
“I think they felt, ‘Hey, 6-1 against Notre Dame. Same thing’s going to happen (Saturday),'” he said.
Senior forward John Albert agreed, and said he thought the team didn’t come out and put forth its best effort Saturday.
“As a team, I don’t think we played for the full 60 minutes, and (Notre Dame) defiantly outworked us,” Albert said.
Senior defenseman Shane Sims said he felt the team didn’t take advantage of its opportunity Saturday.
“I thought we set ourselves up pretty good after (Friday’s) win, and we kind of let each other down tonight,” Sims said following Saturday’s game.
Osiecki said he believes team chemistry is still an issue and tried to adjust some of his line changes to solve the problem.
“You’re halfway through the year, and you’re still searching for chemistry,” Osiecki said. “It’s kind of who we are.”
One thing both teams didn’t lack was penalty minutes. For the two games, the teams combined for a total of 54 penalty minutes. The team that had the most minutes in the penalty box each night lost.
Sims said it’s tough to win games with a lot of penalty minutes.
Osiecki said he felt that having all those penalty minutes affected the game.
“It was a big factor in the game,” he said. “And, Notre Dame is one hell of a team.”
The Buckeyes will be back in action this weekend, as they travel to Fairbanks, Alaska, to face the University of Alaska at 7:05 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
