Sports
Ohio Hockey Dominates Delaware
By: Robbie Dipaola
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Unlike Friday night, the 3rd-ranked Ohio Bobcats wasted little time getting on the board and scored often in their 10-1 rout of the 15th-ranked Delaware Blue Hens at Bird Arena Saturday.
The physical play picked up from where it left off between the Bobcats and the Blue Hens as was evident from the massive scuffle that took place early in the first period. From that point it was game on.
Ohio peppered the net early and had their fair share of chances to take the early lead but once again Stephen East, the Blue Hens goalie, stood tall in net and kept the game deadlocked at 0-0.
Later in the period Ohio once again charged the net hard, which resulted in another huge dust up in front of the Delaware net. The Blue Hens were trying to gain an advantage by being the more physical team, but the Bobcats stood their ground and pushed back.
Gabe Lampron gave Ohio the lead late in the first period when he slipped the puck past East to put the Bobcats ahead 1-0.
However, the Blue Hens responded just 70 seconds later on the power play with a goal of their own to knot the score up at 1-1.
Ohio took back the lead just 59 seconds into the second period when Tyler Harkins set up Mike Palasics for an easy tap-in goal to put the Bobcats up 2-1.
Jake Faiella gave Ohio a two-goal lead midway through the second period when he sent a shot from the point and it bounced off the top of the goal and the Delaware goalie’s back helped guide the puck into the net.
Just 23 seconds later senior Liam Geither deflected a shot past Delaware’s goalie, which gave Ohio a comfortable 4-1 lead halfway through the period.
Late in the second period the Bobcats seemingly put the game out of reach with goals from Geither and Palasics. The Bobcats, who only scored once last night, made it a point to come out tonight and make a statement and that is exactly what transpired.
Through 40 minutes, Ohio held on to a comfortable 6-1 lead.
Ohio coach Sean Hogan’s message to the team before the third period was to play their game and not react to any extra circular plays from Delaware.
Throughout the third period it was clear Delaware was no longer interested in playing a hockey game, they were simply trying to throw the Bobcats off their game by instigating them whenever possible. To the Bobcats’ credit, they remained level headed and did not let the Blue Hens get to them.
“We told our guys to play hard between the whistles but anything after the whistles just skate away because of two reasons,” Hogan said. “(A), we don’t need any penalties and (B), we don’t want to get hurt by getting into a mix-up where up could get punched.”
While the Bobcats already had the victory in hand, they still were relentless in their attack. As a result Harkins netted two more goals to give himself a hat trick. The crowd erupted and even a couple hats were thrown onto the ice as a result.
“It was pretty exciting (to get a hat trick),” Harkins said after the game. “My line mates and teammates helped me out and gave me some great passes and opened up some lanes for me and made it really easy to just tap the puck in.”
The Bobcats will hit the road next weekend when they take on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.