Friday’s battle between Ohio State and No. 6 Western Michigan was a contest between two of the CCHA’s top three defensive squads. <\/p>\n
The game went as advertised. <\/p>\n
The Buckeyes and Broncos battled to a 1-1 draw in front of a crowd of 3,885 in Value City Arena. Ohio State is 4-1-2 in its last seven; Western Michigan is 5-1-2 in its last eight. <\/p>\n
Western Michigan sophomore defender Matt Stewart scored his first collegiate goal to force the tie. <\/p>\n
“We knew it would be tight [and] space would be tough to come by,” Western Michigan coach Andy Murray said. “In our case, we tried to play defense by having the puck a lot. I thought out puck possession was great tonight, but they had some great shifts in our zone, too. It was that kind of game where you needed the all-in mentality.” <\/p>\n
The Broncos were awarded an extra conference point by winning a four-round shootout 2-1. The single conference point put Ohio State in a tie for fourth place with Ferris State. <\/p>\n
“They play smart,” Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki said about the Broncos. “Andy has been around the block [and] he is obviously a quality hockey coach. Their team plays extremely smart, they are going to be patient, they play sound defensively, sound positional. They look to capitalize or a missed opportunity for us and they really jump the other way.” <\/p>\n
Both squads had to battle for their goal. <\/p>\n
Ohio State’s Tyler Lundey scored his fourth of the season capitalizing off a perfect bounce off the end boards. Lundey was on the doorstep after Max McCormick’s shot fired just wide of the net of Frank Slubowski. The goal gave the Buckeyes a 1-0 advantage 5:57 into the second. <\/p>\n
“You have an awareness of what kind of bounces you get the wall,” Osiecki said. <\/p>\n
“I kind of knew that the puck was going to be going towards the net at that point and thankfully, the boards made a good play,” Lundey said. <\/p>\n
Stewart scored the game-tying goal 14:06 into the second as his simple wrister beat the blocker of Ohio State goalie Brady Hjelle. <\/p>\n
Shots were 17-15 in favor of the Broncos through two periods.<\/p>\n
“I was creeping in down the middle and [Mike] Leone was creeping around the net,” Stewart said. “He got it into the slot to me and I put it home.” <\/p>\n
Ohio State had a bit of jump coming out of the second intermission. <\/p>\n
Lundey nearly scored his second of the game before Slubowski batted his shot away from the net. <\/p>\n
Murray’s squad was hemmed into Ohio State’s offensive zone to start the period and he called a timeout 4:29 into the third allowing him to make a line change off of an icing. <\/p>\n
The timeout paid off. <\/p>\n
The Broncos held the Buckeyes to just a pair of shots in the final 20 minutes of the game. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ohio State was on a furious penalty kill after Chad Niddey was whistled for tripping with 8:05 left in regulation. The Buckeyes were battling broken sticks before finally clearing the puck after being stuck in their own zone for the first 1:45 of the penalty kill. <\/p>\n
“We had a couple of power-play opportunities by working and keeping our feet moving,” Murray said. “We are a team that likes to have the puck and play puck possession. When you have the puck, it makes it difficult for the other team to have offense and generate shots.” <\/p>\n
Western Michigan had five power-play chances whereas Ohio State had four. Neither team capitalized off the man-advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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