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Hockey: Pilmore Breaks Scoring Record In Playoff Win
By: Nick Hart
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History has been made. In a 7-0 victory over the Indiana Hoosiers in the first round of the CSCHL Tournament at Bird Arena, the Ohio Bobcats’ senior captain Tyler Pilmore broke the all-time scoring record with the 219th point of his career. With the win, Ohio will play Lindenwood University in the second round Saturday, but Friday night was all about Pilmore and his accomplishment.
“He’s one of the best guys we have in the locker room and one of the most humble guys you’ll ever meet. Guys will try to give him credit for something and he will be like, ‘Aw, shucks,’” said Ohio head coach Dan Morris, who previously held the program’s scoring record before Pilmore ultimately broke it Friday. “For someone like Tyler to hold the scoring record at our school, it’s great for as many young players as we have on our team to see here’s the greatest point-scorer in this program’s history, and he’s still the hardest working, most humble guy.”
Pilmore’s record-setting point came at 11:45 of the second period on the Bobcats’ third goal and lone power play goal of the game. Nick Rostek scored from the slot on the man advantage after receiving a pass from defenseman Mike Kretz. Pilmore earned the secondary assist on the play.
Pilmore wasn’t finished there, as he set up Brett Agnew with 4:01 remaining in the second period for another tally.
When the second period came to close, Ohio led the Hoosiers 4-0, but most games at Bird Arena would have already concluded by that point. Due to travel issues and Indiana’s team bus breaking down several times on their trip to Athens, the game’s start had to be delayed. Originally scheduled for a 7:30 puck drop, the game did not actually begin for another hour and 56 minutes.
Indiana had to come straight from the bus to the locker room and then onto the ice with no opportunity to warm-up, but Ohio had to deal with the delay in their own way and try to keep their focus.
“Guys were chomping at the bit to get out there, and then when the game started we were a little shaky,” Morris said. “But once we were able to settle in, we were able to play our game.”
Despite the Bobcats’ rough start to the opening frame, they were still able to muster 16 shots on goal and hold Indiana to only three. Rostek redirected a blast from Paul Sergi to give Ohio a 1-0 lead, a score that stood until the end of the period.
Indiana came out firing on all cylinders at the start of the third period trying to battle their way out the four goal deficit they found themselves in, but Ohio was able to shut them down and score three additional goals. Brett Agnew and Nick Hudeck each earned their second goals of the game at 9:14 and 18:00 of the period, respectively, and Duncan Green scored his first career goal at home with only 4.2 seconds left in the game.
Despite giving up seven goals, Indiana was graced by a spectacular performance in net by sophomore goalie Michael Reed. Reed made 35 saves in the los, and had turned away 29 shots by the end of the second period alone.
Reed certainly displayed his talent, but Morris and his squad had a gameplan to beating him coming into the game.
“[Reed]’s a guy who will oversell a lot on plays, and you can see we were trying to go backdoor a lot, and when we were in tight we were trying to go upstairs because he goes down so quickly,” Morris said. “As he got tired those holes opened up, and since we talked about them we were able to beat him.”
Ohio’s goaltender Matt Michno was not tested quite as often as Reed, but still managed 15 saves in the shutout and was up to the task when Indiana came out hard to start the final period.
Ohio will face-off against Lindenwood Saturday at 7:30 pm at Bird Arena in the Bobcats’ second game of the CSCHL Tournament. Lindenwood is coming off a first round bye and went 2-0 against Ohio during the regular season this year.