Sports
Ohio Gears Up for Final Series Before Thanksgiving
By: Robbie Dipaola
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In the final weekend series before the team breaks for the Thanksgiving holiday, the No. 2 ranked Ohio Bobcats will look to pick up two more crucial conference victories when they welcome in No. 17 Illinois to Bird Arena this weekend.
On Friday night, the Bobcats will have a chance to redeem themselves as the game against Illinois will be broadcast live on ESPN3. In their first ESPN3 game this season, Ohio came out flat against Jamestown and it cost the Bobcats as they lost 3-2.
“I just reminded (the team) that they earned another opportunity to be on ESPN3, so it’s a chance redeem ourselves,” head coach Sean Hogan said.
A key for the Bobcats not only for tonight but also for the entire weekend will be how they start the game. In their last four games, Ohio has allowed their opponent to score first, which is something Hogan does not want to see, especially after preaching fast starts in practice on a consistent basis.
“We’ve been trying to have high energy practices and hopefully that will carry over into the games,” Hogan said. “We have opportunities at the beginning of the game but we aren’t capitalizing on them and the other team tends to capitalize early on so we just have to make sure to capitalize.”
Senior captain Matt Hartman echoed the words of Hogan in terms of the importance of getting off to a quick start.
“We have to bear down because it’s not like we don’t have chances at the beginning of the game,” Hartman said after practice. “It’s just the other team usually capitalizes on their chances before we do so it’s important that we try to score first this weekend and get out of that habit of trying to come from behind.”
Something that Hogan stressed in practice all week was that in order for Ohio to have success they have to have a strong forecheck and be aggressive and beat the other team to the puck because if they are not assertive in terms of getting to loose pucks, Illinois will certainly take advantage of those extra opportunities.
“When we struggle is when we aren’t getting to the puck first and we aren’t being aggressive on the forecheck and we back out and watch a team play,” Hogan said. “So we are showing the guys video and emphasizing that you have to keep moving in order for us to be successful.”
Hogan does not like seeing his team start a game and just feel out the opponent, particularly with Ohio being ranked near the top of the ACHA poll every week, he would rather see his guys come out and be aggressors, especially this weekend against Illinois.
“We are the No. 2 team in the country, why are we feeling out anybody?” Hogan said. “We should be dictating the flow of the game and the speed of the game and it’s a mindset we are just trying to work on.”
After the series this weekend, the team will receive a week-long break for Thanksgiving, but Hartman knows the importance of heading into the break with two victories.
“If we bring five days of energy in practice then we usually play two high energy games on the weekend,” Hartman said after practice. “So we just want to finish off strong before the break.”
Illinois comes into this weekends series against Ohio with a 5-4-3 record, which alone looks average, but Hogan knows just because they aren’t ranked as high as some of their other opponents, the Bobcats cannot take them lightly.
“We have to outwork and outcompete Illinois, they are ranked 17th, but they are good, there always a good national tournament team,” Hogan said. “So we have to make sure that we get out there on the ice and have (high energy) this weekend.”
Just like Hogan, Hartman also knows the importance of this weekends games against Illinois, especially the one on Friday because he also sees this ESPN3 game as a second chance for the Bobcats to show the nation what Ohio hockey is all about.
“It’s a redemption game for us, we came out slow against Jamestown and it came back to hurt us,” Hartman said. “We just have to come out ready to play, it’s a big opportunity for us and the organization so we have to treat this game like that.”
The puck drops at 7 p.m. on Friday and at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.