Ohio State and Northern Michigan played the first 20 minutes of their Central Collegiate Hockey Association game Friday apropos to the unusual noon start on Veterans Day.
“It was probably a boring period,” OSU coach Mark Osiecki said. “There was not much going on back and forth.”
But it was the Buckeyes – who customarily practice at 8 a.m. – who found their legs and dominated the final two periods, getting three late goals for a 4-1 victory to extend their unbeaten streak to six and winning streak to four with a 4-1 victory in Value City Arena.
“They practice at 3 o’clock probably. We practice in the morning,” Ohio State sophomore forward Chris Crane said. “We had the advantage when it came to the noon game. I think that’s why we had the legs at the end of the game.”
Crane scored the winner on the power play at 11:03 of the third to break the tie and senior Cory Schneider added two more, the final into an empty net. Sophomore Alex Szczechura also scored for the Buckeyes while Stephen Vigier opened the scoring for the Wildcats (4-4-3, 1-3-3-2) at 16:07 of the first period.
His redirect that went under the glove of senior goalie Cal Heeter ended an OSU record scoreless streak of more than 211 minutes and included three straight shutouts for the first time in team history.
“It’s not anything necessarily we’re doing system-wise or our defensemen or even from our goaltenders other than our goalies have been there and made the saves when needed,” Osiecki said. “It’s been a collective group effort. We’ve figured out that if we’re smart with the puck good things will happen.”
Northern Michigan had six of the 11 shots in the first but neither side looked ready to claim ownership of the game.
“The first period was a pretty even period,” Wildcats coach Walt Kyle said. “It was fairly even and we put ourselves in position to win on the road and then it kind of unraveled on us.”
Osiecki fed his team a lunchtime reminder during the first intermission that they were the team that was supposed to have the jump.
“That’s what we said to them, ‘We’re the team used to this (noon start), not Northern,’ ” he said.
Crane said the message was well received, “We came out in the first period and we didn’t play Ohio State hockey. Coach Osiecki let us know that. I think he got us ready for the second and third and we played our game.”
The Buckeyes (7-3-1, 4-2-1-1) were simply too good. They outshot the Wildcats 33-7 in the last two periods, including 21-4 in the third when penalties ruined No. 14 Northern Michigan.
“The key to the game wasn’t penalty killing,” Kyle said. “The key to the game was we got outworked big time. They solidly took the game to us.”
Ohio State played its game and continued to impress under second-year coach Osiecki.
“How hard we work in practice, it pays off in games and the natural instincts kick in,” Szczechura said. “Going into your sophomore year you have more confidence. Hard work goes a long way.”
Despite the Buckeyes’ dominance the score didn’t change until Northern’s Jake Baker received a 5-minute major and game misconduct for contact to the head of senior forward Danny Dries at 10:38 of the third.
Crane was at the edge of the crease to stuff the puck in just 25 second later for his sixth goal of the season.
With 13 seconds left in the kill, the Wildcats’ Andrew Cherniwchan went off for slashing. Although OSU didn’t score on the ensuing power play, being down a man for nearly seven minutes took its toll and Schneider scored three seconds after Northern returned to even strength.
Schneider then took a long pass of the end boards and scored into the vacant net with 1:09 to play to push the Buckeyes to 5-0-1 in the past six games.
The teams play again Saturday at a more normal time of 7:05 p.m. in Value City Arena.
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