Sports
Ohio Hockeys sweeps in Syracuse in home opening series
By: Caiel Woody
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Athens, Ohio (WOUB) – After topping Syracuse (0-2) 9-0 the previous night, Ohio Hockey (2-0) looked to make lightning strike twice, and they did, getting another commanding victory 6-0.
The Bobcats won the faceoff, and within 11 seconds of the game starting, Kevin Kasper came down the right wing and slid the puck in the back of the net to send Ohio up 1-0. Orange would try to get it back on offense but would be unsuccessful as Lance Mengel found Noah Holt, who scored his first goal of the game to send the Bobcats up 2-0 with 18:18 remaining in the first period.
Not much noise would be made for the rest of the first period, but with Ohio having 16 shots on goal and Syracuse having 10, the game was moving fast, and the outcome would rely on which team could keep up.
After the Bobcats were gifted a power play midway through the second period, their offense would start applying pressure on Orange’s defense. Despite the fact that they were able to hold on throughout the power play, Ohio’s offense did not stop getting shots out; eventually Nolan Abraham wiggled his way through some defenders to find Breydan Zupansky, who immediately connected with Laker Aldridge, and he put another one in the net for the Bobcats to go up 3-0 with 7:38 left in the second period.
Ohio managed to keep possession till the time was up for the second, and things started to get a little chippy as both teams were showing energies that were a little too high, as some extracurricular was being seen outside of play. By the time third period was starting, the Bobcats had 37 shots on goal, more than doubling Syracuse’s 18; if Orange wanted to come back, they would have had to change that.
Only a few minutes after play started again, Lance Mengel and Noah Holt were in a two-on-one; Mengel gave it to Holt, and Holt put Ohio up 4-0 with 14:18 on the clock. Only eight seconds later, Mathieu Ovaert crossed the puck over to Holt; with that puck Holt laid it in. The Bobcats were now up 5-0 while Noah Holt had gotten himself a hat trick along the way. A little over ten minutes later, Brady Gilbert fed Alex Thomas who scored the last goal of the game during a 6-0 win for Ohio.
Syracuse could not get anything moving on offense the whole night; the Bobcats not only kept possession, but even when Orange held the puck, the defense made sure they were not able to do anything with it. A 2-0 Bobcats team will play Cincinnati next at home on Oct. 2, attempting to go 3-0.