The BG hockey team’s struggles continued this past weekend as the Falcons dropped two conference games to Ohio State by scores of 9-3 and 4-1, respectively.
After the two losses to the Buckeyes, BG (3-8-1, 1-7-0) has now lost eight of its last nine games and remains at the bottom of the CCHA standings.
Friday in the series opener, OSU (4-6-2, 4-4-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and continued to put pressure on the Falcon net throughout the game, en route to the six-goal victory. All three BG goalies (Jimmy Spratt, Eddie Neville and Phil Greer) saw action in the game in which the Buckeyes scored on nine of their 25 total shots.
“Us falling behind kind of took us a little bit out of what we wanted to do,” said coach Scott Paluch. “We never really got our mojo down in terms of finishing checks and creating loose pucks. We just didn’t have that ability to get much going.”
The closest BG came to drawing even with OSU was at 3-1 toward the end of the first period after defenseman Mike Nesdill scored his first goal of the season.
The Buckeyes were able to pull ahead 6-1 before back-to-back goals by Derek Whitmore in the second and third period closed the gap to three. OSU added three goals late in the final period to finish off any Falcon hopes of a comeback.
Leading the scoring for the Falcons was Whitmore, who added an assist (4) to go along with his two goals (8, 9). Defenseman Tim Maxwell (4) and forward Jonathon Matsumoto (9) both had an assist on the night as well.
“We made steps to get back in the game, but then we’d get knocked back on our heels again,” Maxwell said. “We’d score again and get some life. It was a battle all game to try and stop them from scoring and get some more goals on our side.”
BG put forth a much better effort on Saturday in the series finale, as the Buckeyes took a slim 1-0 lead into the third period. However, OSU was again able to add some insurance late with two goals to go ahead 3-0 before adding an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining for a 4-1 final score.
“I liked our chances for the first two periods, but I think the difference was our inability to get pucks deep in the third period,” Paluch said. “Give credit to Ohio State, they stacked up pretty good and took advantage of their chances in the third.”
Captain Michael Hodgson (1) scored the Falcons’ only goal on the night to cut the lead to two at the 16:04 mark of the third. Todd McIlrath (4) and John Mazzei (2) had assists on the goal.
Jimmy Spratt (2-4-0) saved 25 of the 28 OSU shots he faced.
“When we aren’t putting up numbers offensively there is a lot more you can do – getting pucks deep, blocking shots, finishing checks and all the little things,” Whitmore said. “There are a lot of frustrated guys in the dressing room and we thought we played pretty hard [Saturday]. Unfortunately, we did not come out on top, but that’s hockey.”
The Falcons travel to New York this weekend as they go outside of the CCHA to face Clarkson on Friday and St. Lawrence on Saturday.
