The answer to an in-game promotion where a fan had to guess the name of a movie was “Miracle” – the flick about the underdog 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.
Miracle was what the Ohio State needed midway through the second spot when that contest was held but none was forthcoming on a frosty but historic evening in Cleveland’s Progressive Field as the Buckeyes trailed by three goals.
The struggling Buckeyes did not allow another score but ran into a snow bank in the form of the Michigan Wolverines and lost 4-1 before a crowd of 25,864 in the Frozen Diamond Faceoff Classic, the first collegiate outdoor game in Ohio.
Chris Brown had a goal and two assists; David Wohlberg Alex Guptill added a goal and helper apiece and Derek DeBlois also scored for the Wolverines.
Chris Crane had the Buckeyes’ lone goal, his 13th of the season.
“It was a good game for Michigan,” Wolverines coach Red Berenson said. “In the CCHA standings we’re behind Ohio State so it was very important win.”
OSU (14-6-3, 10-5-3-1) entered the weekend as the No. 2 team in nation and the leader in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association but combined with Friday’s 3-0 loss to UM on Friday in Value City Arena, exited with a four-game (0-2-2) winless streak.
The only good news is they are still a point ahead of second-place Western Michigan although the Buckeyes have played two more games.
Like Friday, the Wolverines (14-8-4, 8-6-4-1) took a 2-0 lead after the first when Brown scored on a rebound at 7:31 and Alex Guptill followed six minutes later.
Michigan, by the way, is 7-0-2 in the past nine games and dominated against an Ohio State team that may have been mesmerized by the event at the onset because the Buckeyes had one of their worst first periods in a long time.
“We were in a little bit in awe of the whole situation,” OSU senior captain Cory Schneider said. “Michigan has some experience in outdoor games before. I’m not using that as an excuse.”
While the No. 15 Wolverines have played outside the past three seasons, including before more than 110,000 last year in Michigan Stadium, the Buckeyes last venture into the cold was February 2006 when they played Wisconsin at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field.
“Our team knows what it takes to play in a game like this,” Berenson said. “You can easily be distracted but I like the way our team came out.”
That wasn’t the case for the Buckeyes, “To be truthful, I don’t think we were ready to come out and play right away,” Crane said.
Fortunately weather was not issue. No snow fell and the temperature was 25 degrees with the wind not a factor.
More of a problem for OISU was an injury to steady defenseman Curtis Gedig that prevented him from playing Sunday. Ohio State was just too shaky defensively to mount a comeback.
After Crane scored on the power play just 50 seconds into the middle period, the Wolverines pinned the Buckeyes in their end and DeBlois made it a two-goal lead at 9:47.
The killer came only 28 seconds later when Wohlberg drove the net and flipped the puck past Cal Heeter, who was then pulled for Brady Hjelle.
“It deflated us a bit but we’ve got to learn from that and keep coming,” Schneider said. “I thought our compete level went down a little bit after those two goals.”
Hjelle stopped all 18 shots and won the praise of OSU coach Mark Osiecki.
“Brady played outstanding, especially sitting in this cold weather and jumping in and making some saves,” he said.
Osiecki was disappointed with the loss but sees the big picture, that being he wants his program to be in the spotlight in the future, i.e. NCAA Tournament.
“Our kids have never been through the year we’re having and up to this point had no adversity,” he said. “We need to go through this. We need to be on a stage like this for our program to grow.”
The host Cleveland Indians haven’t decided if they will do another game but Crane is all for it, especially if it’s against Michigan.
“Absolutely. It’s a hockey player’s dream to play on a stage like this, definitely against one of our biggest rivals. It was a blast,” the sophomore said. “Hopefully we’ll get another chance to get some redemption. Redemption will be on every one of our teammates’ minds here. If we’re fortunate enough to get the opportunity, we’re going to get redemption.”
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