Sports
Cowboys wrangle Ohio Hockey in weekend sweep
By: Caiel Woody
Posted on:
ATHENS, OH (WOUB) — After losing Friday night, Hockey Ohio looked to split the weekend with the Oklahoma State Cowboys on their Saturday night matchup.
Just two minutes into the game the Cowboys made a statement that they would not let off the gas when Jack Budd broke away and scored sending Oklahoma State up 1-0. Later in the first period TJ Richy and Nick Mahy had to go serve time in the penalty box for Ohio, which let the Cowboys have a five on three power play. Jack Ziliotto quickly took advantage of the opportunity scoring a second goal while the Bobcats were left to look for an answer with 13:19 left in the period.
The answer the Bobcats came up with was more physicality. This led to a small scuffle that gave three players penalties, Nolan Abraham for Ohio, while Zilotto and Riley Bassen were penalized for the Cowboys. With momentum in their favor the Bobcats quickly put one in the net as Luc Reeve cut the Cowboys lead down 2-1. Keeping up the attack was the Bobcats, but Merrek Arpin ripping the helmet off of Laker Aldridge and waving it to the crowd, earned himself a game misconduct that sent him out of the game leaving Oklahoma State with one ejected player going into the first intermission.
Starting off a lot quieter than the first, the second period took a little time to heat up, yet when it did Corbin Roach and Reagan Milburn were in the penalty box for Oklahoma State and the Bobcats had a power play on their hands. Unable to get anything out of the advantage, Ohio went into the break still down 2-1 before they came out for the final period. Picking up the pace in the third was the Cowboys who came out the lockers with a new sense of speed and urgency when attacking the net, and the Bobcats managed to keep up with the pace, however before either team’s endurance could really be put to the test, a few infractions handed out by the referees forced the pace to slow down.
Both teams started to find that same quicker footing around the time the clock hit the last ten-minute mark right before the Bobcats got a penalty shot. Zion Green was charged with a delay of game that gave Ohio the penalty, but the shot did not make it into the net, so the Bobcats were left scrambling to get points as the clock was winding down, but a breather in the form of a tripping penalty called on Reagan Milburn of the Cowboys gave Ohio another power play; and if the Bobcats wanted to come out without a loss they would have had to score on this one. Unfortunately for the Bobcat hopes, Oklahoma State managed to hold off any points being scored by the time they were
back to full strength, so with just a few minutes left in the game the teams were equal again, and it was all on Ohio to make their moves.
With 3:21 left in the game the Bobcat goalie was pulled, and Ohio was all in on the attack just trying to even up the score, but one breakaway from Corbin Roach was all the Cowboys needed to seal the game up with a 3-1 lead before they cruised to victory.
With Oklahoma State going home after sweeping the weekend, Ohio has to turn their heads to the next week’s visitor, that being Delaware on November 14th.