It was once again a tale of two completely different games for the BG hockey team this past weekend against Ohio State.
The team came out flat Friday in a 1-0 loss to the Buckeyes, only to respond Saturday night with a dramatic, come-from-behind 4-3 shootout victory.
The home crowd was given its first glimpse of what life without Andrew Hammond in net would be like. The senior goaltender missed both games as he continues rehab for his injured elbow.
Freshman Tommy Burke started both games at goalie and performed admirably, particularly in Friday’s loss.
However, things nearly got out to a catastrophic start. Ohio State won the opening faceoff, with Ryan Dzingel immediately taking the puck forward, splitting an evidently stunned defensive pairing of Bobby Shea and Connor Kucera.
He skated in on Burke and shot the puck between Burke’s blocker arm and body. The referee lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle, just as the puck was trickling into the net. As the Buckeyes celebrated, he emphatically waved the goal off.
“It’s pretty simple: that was a goal,” said Ohio State Coach Mark Osiecki. “[The referee] apologized about it. We were asking about it after the first period, but I know the rule. He lost sight of the puck. We all make mistakes; it is what it is.”
BG Coach Chris Bergeron agreed that the Falcons caught a break on the call, but more-so focused on the sequence that led up to it, saying that Shea and Kucera were “not paying attention.”
“To be honest … I was in shock of what was going on,” Burke said. “It was a smart play by them.”
Faceoffs were once again the kryptonite for BG in this game. While BG held a 29-28 edge in the circle, the Falcons allow their only goal of the game immediately off a faceoff.
Just over eight minutes into the first period, the teams lined up for a draw in the BG zone to Burke’s right. There was a scrum for the puck right after it was dropped, when it squirted out to Dzingle, who buried the shot off the right post and in.
The best scoring chance the Falcons had came late in the third, when Dajon Mingo took a pass from behind the net and pumped the shot off the post. BG had 25 shots in the game, but were unable to beat Ohio State goalie Brady Hjelle.
Burke stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced. Despite looking shaky early, he settled in and kept BG in the game.
“I thought I played maybe not as good as it looked,” he said. “There are some areas I want to touch up on. That goal, I don’t want to ever give up that [kind of] goal; you don’t want pucks to go through you. All in all, their goalie played better than I did tonight.”
Saturday’s game was much more dramatic, with BG going to its first shootout of the season. Dan DeSalvo played the role of hero, with a quick wrist shot in the fourth round. It was the only goal scored in the shootout.
In an almost carbon copy of the previous night, BG scored a goal in the first minute, only to have it waved off, as it was ruled the puck was kicked in.
BG got on the board three minutes later. Adam Berkle came down the right wing boards on a three-on-two and dished a beautiful pass to Rusty Hafner. He threw a backhand shot and beat Ohio State goalie Collin Olson.
Bergeron said the increased intensity in the first period was a result of the team self-motivating.
“I talked to some guys individually, but this isn’t a coaching thing, it’s about those 20 guys deciding,” he said. “I challenged our leadership a bit and told them to take this thing over and make it yours, and don’t accept where we are.”
BG increased the lead to 2-0 early in the second period, with Mark Cooper scoring his third goal of the season.
Ohio State scored three goals in a span of 3:13 in the second period to take the lead.
BG was able to stop the bleeding, in large part to Burke making a few big saves, to keep the deficit at one.
“We didn’t want to get down [on ourselves],” DeSalvo said. “There are times this season that we’ve gotten down. We were fighting that urge, everyone was staying positive.”
BG kept throwing shots at Olson, putting a season-high 39 shots on the freshman goalie.
BG finally broke through midway through the third. Brett Mohler took the puck off a defensive zone faceoff and skated up the right wing boards. Upon entry into the Ohio State zone, he threw a wrist shot high blocker side that zipped past Olson and found the top corner of the net.
“One of the things we’ve been able to show in the past little bit is some resiliency,” Bergeron said. “We didn’t show finish or that killer instinct to go from 2-0 to 3-0, but we were resilient in the third. I want the guys to feel good about the result, but we have a lot of work to do.”
Burke stopped 21 of 24 shots, but he once again kept BG in the game.
“Really proud of Tommy,” Bergeron said. “I thought he was solid. The one two-on-one goal, I think he’d like to have that one back. But the other two he had no chance on and then he shut them down in the shootout. Not only did he create some confidence for himself, but I think the team is confident in him.”
BG will face Michigan State in a series this weekend. Friday’s game will be in East Lansing, with Saturday’s being played in BG.
