In a neutral site, non-conference game in Cleveland, the Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Robert Morris Colonials 7-4 at Quicken Loans Arena. This was the biggest game Ohio State has had in scoring since Nov. 17, 2006 when they posted nine goals against Bowling Green.
Ohio State (9-6-1, 6-5-1-1) has won four in a row and seven of their last eight. Robert Morris (3-9-2, 1-1-1) has now lost two in a row and six of their last seven.
“I thought we missed a lot of opportunities,” Ohio State coach John Markell said. “We were creating (opportunities) and it was a feeling that if we bare down, good things are going to happen, and they did; I think they should have had more (goals).”
“We played last night and Ohio State didn’t, and (Ohio State) have a good offensive team and when you make mental mistakes, you can’t afford to makes those against good hockey teams,” Robert Morris coach Derek Schooley said. “We’re within a goal, we take (a) needless penalty and they capitalize. They knew we were tired, they knew we got here at one in the morning and they jumped on us.”
The Buckeyes fired early and often, though they had to kill off a pair of first period five-on-three Robert Morris power plays which lasted a total of three minutes.
Just 34 seconds into the game, Buckeyes’ forward C.J. Severyn scored with a slap shot from between the faceoff dots after picking up a Robert Morris turnover. Ohio State went into the first intermission with a two goal lead after Peter Boyd’s wrap-around pass to Sergio Somma in the low slot beat the stick of Robert Morris goaltender Wes Russell.
Ohio State gained a 3-0 lead eight minutes into the second period on Severyn’s second goal of the game.
“I just tried to pop one in there and I ended up getting two,” Severyn said. “The feeling in the locker room is good throughout the entire game. Practice by practice, game by game, you can’t tell who you’re playing with but each and every guy is contributing. It is a great feeling.”
The Colonials came back with two goals in the middle of the second period. Chris Margott scored on a pass from Nathan Longpre. Longpre added a power play goal just two minutes later that beat Buckeyes’ goaltender Dustin Carlson from the right mid-wall after receiving a pass from Denny Urban from the high slot.
Ohio State answered those two goals with two of their own just 38 seconds apart. Sims scored on a power play with a straight on slap shot from the blue line followed by a two-on-one goal by freshman forward Zac Dalpe to take a 5-2 lead.
Boyd added a goal with six minutes remaining in the game to give Ohio State a four goal lead. Robert Morris responded less than 30 seconds later when Colonial Jake Obermeyer’s blue line pass to Dave Cowan in the left slot beat Carlson to cut Ohio State’s lead to three. Ohio State notched their seventh goal of the game when Hunter Bishop netted the puck after receiving a pass from Ian Boots.
The Colonials finally scored on a five-on-three power play in the final three minutes of the game. Kyle Burton scored to finish the scoring giving the Colonials their second power play goal.
“We got the puck moving, we got where they need to be, then got some goals and started to click; we just needed to keep moving the puck, head up, and put the puck in the net,” Longpre said about the power play. Longpre leads Robert Morris in scoring with 15 points.
“We had some players playing out of position on the five-on-three’s in the first period, and we worked on our power play a lot this week and it was good to see our power play click a little bit and capitalize,” Schooley said.
“We were hampering ourselves by getting in the box all the time,” Markell said. “I don’t think we have had a game where we have had three five-on-three’s out of the gate, and why did that happened? I don’t know.”
Carlson was named on Friday the National Player-of-the-Week just several days after being named by the CCHA as their player of the week. Though they notched the win, this was the most amount of goals allowed by Carlson in a game since Oct. 31, when he allowed four Michigan goals in a losing effort. Since Nov. 7, Carlson has started every Buckeyes’ game and has been a big reason for their success
“He deserved it,” Markell said. “That was why I was disappointed with the five-on-three, because it ran his numbers up and your best penalty killer is your goaltender and he was when it really mattered there in the first period.”
Ohio State returns home to play a pair against Bentley on Dec. 12 and 13. Robert Morris finishes the first half of the regular season with a game at Niagara on Dec. 13.
