One night after being embarrassed in their league-opener at home, the Falcons used solid goaltending and better defensive play to earn themselves a 2-2 tie against third-ranked Ohio State in Columbus on Friday night.
The tie earned BG (0-3-1, 0-1-1) a big early season point in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings and ended a 10 game losing-streak to the Buckeyes (2-1-1, 1-0-1) which had dated back to the 2001-02 season. A streak which has plagued fourth-year coach Scott Paluch as the point is the first he has taken from the Buckeyes in his first nine attempts.
“I thought it was a terrific college hockey game and real important game for our club after last (Thursday) night,” Paluch said. “This has been an extremely tough place for us to play the last couple of years and I think our guys really rallied this morning. I’m really proud of how our team responded tonight.”
Jon Horrell made the start for the Falcons in net and earned first star honors on the night after stopping 41-of-43 shots he faced. This included making 19 saves on 20 shots as the Buckeyes came out and out-shot BG 20-4 in the opening stanza.
Kyle Hood capitalized on OSU’s first power-play of the night beating Horrell on a hard shot from the right point to give the Buckeyes an early 1-0 lead just 2:26 in, but Horrell would not be flustered.
“I basically just told myself to stay sharp,” he said. “Just to keep the puck out of the net and take it one shot at a time.”
After giving up the goal to Hood, Horrell’s sharpness in net was big for the Falcons as they took advantage of two Buckeye mistakes to take a 2-1 lead to the first intermission.
Alex Foster tied the game up just 1:01 after Hood’s goal when he stole the puck in the right OSU circle and fed it to Jonathan Matsumoto, who fed it back to Foster behind the net who then stuffed it in between the right post and the right leg of OSU goaltender Dave Caruso.
Matsumoto picked up two assists on the night as he would also assist on Mike Falk’s goal at 17:37 to give BG the lead.
A lead which would last throughout the second period as both teams failed to score despite four power-play opportunities a piece.
Horrell stayed strong in net and continued to make big saves on good Buckeye scoring chances.
“First off, to rebound right from the first power-play goal they get shows quite a bit,” said Paluch of Horrell’s play. “To withstand the early pressures of playing on the road – but I thought he did a great job with his rebound control tonight. There were a lot of shots from within tight that he kept in safer areas, didn’t allow too much back.”
Much of the success in net on the night also came from a defensive adjustment BG made where the defensemen played back in the neutral zone more instead of coming up into the offensive zone on rushes like they had been in their three previous games.
It was an adjustment aimed at preventing the odd-man rushes and breakaways that had plagued them in Thursday’s 7-2 loss.
“That was one of the biggest downfalls last night giving up the odd-man rush,” Matsumoto said. “Tonight (Friday) being able to cut down on that helped out tremendously.”
BG’s defensemen were also very active on the penalty-kill as they held the OSU power-play to 1-8 on the night by lying down in front of shots and giving Horrell the site lines he needed.
“I got a lot of help from our defensemen, the penalty-kill stepped it up big time,” he said. “We didn’t give them a lot of second chances, they let me see the puck and they made it easy to make saves.”
Unfortunately for the Falcons, the OSU penalty-kill also continued to dominate like it had the night before holding BG scoreless on seven power-play opportunities which prevented them from cushioning their lead.
The Buckeyes would make BG pay for the lack of scoring as John Dingle tied the game up at 2-2 with a one-timer from the high slot at 4:03 of the third period.
Both teams would fail to score the rest of the way and would play a scoreless five-minute extra frame though Matsumoto had a chance to win the game go off the right post with less than a minute left in the overtime.
OSU would out-shoot BG 43-19 on the night.
“I think their goaltender did a good job,” OSU coach John Markell said. “Obviously you put 43 shots on net, you only get two goals – they may have found their goalie. The pucks just didn’t go in the net tonight as easily as they did Thursday.”
BG will next hit the ice when they host Ferris State Thursday night in the first game of another home-and-home league series.
