Prior to last Saturday's game against Lake Superior State the Ohio State men's hockey team was one of the lowest scoring schools in the nation, averaging just two goals.
Then they erupted for five in the first period en route to a 6-1 victory.
Having allayed some questions about its offense, OSU set about Friday against No. 9 Notre Dame to erase another persistent problem, that being the power play.
There have been times when getting four man-up goals in a month would have been considered good so the second-period explosion vs. the Irish when the Buckeyes scored four times on the power play - and once at even strength - was noteworthy.
It was also instrumental in a 6-3 win, their third straight, before a crowd of 5,779 in Value City Arena.
OSU coach Mark Osiecki credits the recent return of injured players Anthony Greco, Sam Jardine, Devon Krogh and Nick Oddo in providing the cohesion and consistency needed to have a formidable power play.
"A little chemistry, keeping guys together" Osiecki said. "We've done a pretty good job even up to that point on the power play when they weren't falling for us."
Three of the power-play markers came during a 5-minute major to the Irish's Mike Voran for checking Oddo into the boards with 10 seconds left in the period that left the sophomore center bloodied and woozy.
"It happens. It's part of the game," said Oddo, who sported a half dozen stitches in his left cheek for the postgame press conference. "I'm sure he didn't mean to do it."
He got revenge by scoring once and adding two assists in a 2:03 span to give the Buckeyes a 3-1 lead. Not bad for someone who had two assists and no goals in eight previous games in this injury-plagued season.
"He has a very, very high hockey IQ," Osiecki said. "He is not the fastest player on the ice but his hockey sense is off the charts and that leads him to be in the right spot, have a good stick. He does a lot of little things extremely well and gets rewarded for it."
After Notre Dame (16-11-0, 12-7 CCHA) got a power-play goal from Mario Lucia at 12:31 of the first, the second belonged to the Buckeyes (11-11-5, 10-6-3-1).
Oddo scored from the edge of the crease despite being knocked to the ice at 1:09. He then completed a 2-on-1 with a pass to sophomore Ryan Dzingel and the Buckeyes' leading scorer made it 2-1 at 2:45.
Junior forward Alex Szczechura followed with a rebound of an Oddo shot at 3:12 before the Irish rallied with a 4-on-4 goal from Kevin Lind at 7:02 and a power-play equalizer 54 seconds later off the stick of Bryan Rust as he was left unattended in the low slot.
But the Buckeyes got the winner from Greco at 16:05 as he redirected a Curtis Gedig shot.
"The fourth goal was a killer," ND coach Jeff Jackson said. "We needed to have that save."
Dzingel then netted his 12th goal at 17:51 with a one-timer off a crafty feed by Max McCormick for a 5-3 lead.
"Coach always tells us not to be too high or too low," Dzingel said. "We weren't too down (when it was 3-3). We battled through and got the win."
OSU clamped down in the third period and sophomore defenseman Justin DaSilva got his first career goal into an empty net from about 160 feet with 58 seconds to play.
"The third period was tremendous," Osiecki said. "We played very disciplined We were stingy. They understood what a two-goal lead is.
"We talked that championship teams don't beat themselves and take care of fundamentals and I thought we did that very well tonight."
The teams play again at 7:05 p.m. Saturday in Value City Arena.
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