Sports
Twelve Players Ejected From Ohio Win After Brawl
By: Matt Summers
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Bird Arena hosted a full house of brothers and sisters for sibling’s weekend as the Ohio Bobcats continued their offensive dominance over the Pittsburgh Panthers with a final score of 8-4, but not before a dozen players were ejected in the middle of the second period.
Later in the second period, Bryan Lubin scored to put the Bobcats up 5-2, and the Panthers were not happy about it. After a few pushes and shoves, there were around three to four different fights going on at one time. Goalie Ryan Heltion came down to the offensive zone and got shoved to the ground by Pitt’s goalie, Ben Cirba. The brawls eventually ended, but 12 players in total were tossed. Ohio’s defensemen Reilly Moore and Tom Pokorney, forwards Tyler Harkins and Gabe Lampron, Lubin and Heltion were among those 12. These six guys will not be playing next Friday at Illinois due to their impending suspensions for fighting.
Ohio assistant coach Nathan De La Torre felt the guys were defending themselves, but it thins them out even more with point leader Gianni Evangelisti possibly missing more time due to a knee injury.
“Next weekend is pretty important for us going to Illinois so we’re gonna have to get that all figured out,” De La Torre said.
Before the fights happened, Pitt got on the board early with Daniel Merz finding the back of the net. It appeared that the Panthers were actually going to put up a fight, compared to their dismal performance Friday, a 9-0 loss with few shots on goal. However, the Bobcats did not stay down long.
Pitt had a hard time staying out of the penalty box and Jake Houston capitalized with a sweet backhand that found the back of the net. Following another power play opportunity, Patrick Spellacy squeezed one through the five-hole to give the Bobcats a 2-1 lead heading into the second period. The Bobcats had regained momentum at this point following a somewhat sloppy start.
After a few penalties by both teams, Merz scored on a four-on-three and tied the game at 2-2. That tie was short lived as Houston scored again on a power play to put the Bobcats up 3-2. De La Torre had emphasized movement during power plays earlier in the week.
“We stressed it a lot this week on Thursday in practice,” De La Torre said. “Just talking about movement and creativity. We felt like we were too stagnant at times, guys just standing still so we had guys moving more. We just let them use their creativity.”
Houston obviously listened to his coach as he slapped home two power play goals for the day.
“I think we had a lot of creative plays,” Houston said. “We were working the puck around trying to get them out of position and movement on the puck really opened up seams for us to get pucks through. Good play scoring goals.”
The Bobcats led going into the third period with a score of 6-2. Each team scored a pair of goals. It seemed like the Bobcats were just trying to kill time without getting any more penalties and trying to preserve the players they have left for next Friday’s game.
The Bobcats would cruised to an 8-4 victory as Houston, Cody Black and Spellacy each scored a pair of goals. The Bobcats travel to Illinois Friday, Feb. 10 where they will try to survive with six of their players suspended.