Ohio State Buckeyes forward Danny Dries had a memorable afternoon Friday in the Buckeyes’ 3-3 tie and 1-0 shootout victory over the No. 14 Alaska Nanooks.
Dries scored two goals, one assist, and notched the only shootout goal on the ice of Nationwide Arena, home of the cross-town NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets.
“It has taken him some time, he knows it,” Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki said. “We’re working with him. He is starting to come. The best part is, he is playing hard. He did a pretty good job on faceoffs. He competed, went to hard areas, and got rewarded.”
With Ohio State trailing by a goal and Buckeyes goalie Cal Heeter pulled for an extra-attacker, Dries scored the game-tying goal with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation. He made a spin-move and beat the stick of diving Nanooks’ goalie Scott Greenham.
“I think when you get there with 10 seconds left, you’re right there,” Alaska coach Dallas Ferguson. “Give Ohio State credit, they stuck with it and they competed hard until the end and got rewarded with a good effort.”
Ohio State outshot Alaska 18-4 in the third period. For the first two periods of the game, the Nanooks outshot the Buckeyes 22-14 and Alaska held a 3-2 lead at the second intermission.
Alaska took a 1-0 lead 9:12 into the first 34 seconds into a power play after Ohio State’s Kyle Reed was whistled for tripping. Jarret Granberg got his third goal of the season, capitalizing off a rebound after Nanooks forward Colton Beck’s shot went off the stick side post of Heeter.
“First period, we were killing penalties and dug ourselves a hole,” Dries said. “Third period, we had a lot of chances. They were sitting back, and we have to play like that for three periods. We talked about we were short-handed that five-minute penalty. We controlled the play, we just have to play that five-on-five.”
Buckeyes forward Patrick Schafer was called for a contact to the head that sent Granberg into the boards with 5:25 remaining in the first. Schafer received a major penalty and game misconduct. The Nanooks were unsuccessful capitalizing on their five-minute power play.
The Nanooks and Buckeyes alternated goals in the second. Alaska took a 2-0 lead short-handed 4:39 into the period when Nik Yaremchuk made a nifty backhander to beat the glove of Carlson. Ohio State responded 31 seconds later while still on the power play as Dries sent one top shelf over Greenham’s glove.
Alaska regained the two-goal lead when Joe Sova’s cross-crease pass was one-timed by Danny Klassen past a largely open net left by Heeter’s stick side 9:39 into the second. Ohio State answered 2:55 later when Peter Boyd’s shot from the near right point slipped under the far shoulder of Greenham.
“I think we were doing some things right,” Klassen said about the first two periods. “We can definitely play better than we did throughout the entire game, not just first two periods.
“We obviously needed to be better in the third. Just getting pucks deep and behind their defensemen and forechecking seemed to be working for us, so we did a little more of that in the first and second than we did in the third.”
Ohio State was bailed out in the closing seconds of the second as Alaska was called for offsides on a two-on-one with the Buckeyes’ lone defender skating back without a stick.
“We kind of got what we deserved,” Ferguson said. “I think we didn’t lay it as much on the line as we needed to to get the full three points. I was thinking we might sneak out of here with one where we didn’t deserve to win. We definitely will takes points when we can get them, but a little disappointed in our performance overall.”
Ohio State is coming off a bye week last week, whereas Alaska split at home with Northern Michigan.
“They looked like they were a team that played last weekend and we didn’t,” Osiecki said. “And clearly, that little bit of rust and hesitation on our starts. And in the third period, we were playing desperate hockey.”
Alaska (7-5-3, 4-4-3-2) and Ohio State (5-6-1, 2-4-1-1) will finish their two-game series Saturday evening in Nationwide Arena.
