By: Michael Amman (UWeekly.com) —
This should have been an article about how our young hockey team was vastly improved from its youthful struggles a year ago. While the team is vastly improved, its most recent series against the conference’s worst team stains what was a glorious 12-game streak and the team falls to 16-7-3 (9-6-3-3 CCHA).

A home series against Western Michigan, now 7-13-6 (4-9-5-1 CCHA), should have been two cheesecake wins to extend its unbeaten streak to No. 14. The fates, however, had other things in store. The game saw the Buckeyes suffer what was perhaps the karmic result of the university it represented improperly pulling off a cheap hot dog promotion. Instead of soundly beating the lowly Broncos at home, the Kolts of Kalamazoo hung with the Buckeyes all night, answering the Buckeyes lighting fast first period goal (Corey Toy made a run in 23 seconds with the help of Peter Boyd) and scored less than a minute after Hunter Bishop’s second period score. The teams then went scoreless first in the third period and then the entire overtime to tie 2-2. The Buckeyes outshot the directional school in every quarter, totaling 37-22. It was only in the shootout when the team was forced to take the same number of shots as its opponents that it had any advantage in score.

Of course, this requires a brief refresher on what exactly a shootout is in CCHA play. In the event of a tie at the end of regulation, teams are given an overtime period to score. If neither team scores in this period, the CCHA has instituted a tie-breaker of sorts this year. But since the NCAA doesn’t recognize shootout results, it still counts as tie. It also counts as a tie in the CCHA. However, the winner of the shootout gets one extra point in addition to the tie-point both teams get. This has led to somewhat confusing record ledgers. A key: x-y-z-a, x=wins, y=losses, z= ties (and shootout losses), a= shootout wins. Confusing, but the system actually works spectacularly when it comes to seeding the conference tournament.

The Buckeyes did manage to grab that extra league point. However, the team was less than enthusiastic about the “win”.

“We can play better and they played how we expected,” said coach John Markell. “We didn’t fight hard enough for the puck and I really thought we played like a young team tonight.”

“I don’t think we played to our potential tonight,” said sophomore John Albert. “We should come out tomorrow with some real fire in us though.”

Unfortunately, they did not.

Western Michigan dominated the Buckeyes at home- a sentence no man should have to write. But write it, this reporter must. Despite shooting the bejeezus out of the plucky Broncos (38-19), Ohio State only came away with one lonely score by John Albert thanks to an epic outing by Western Michigan goalie Riley Gill. Bronco Sam Weaver managed a shorthanded goal, thanks to teammate Steve Silver to ice the game in the third period. The final score was 4-1.

The team was, as previously stated, ludicrously hot. After dropping a series to Michigan in the Crisler and before this weekend, it was on a 14-1-0-1 tear that included sweeps over then 11th ranked Michigan State and then 14th/16th ranked Nebraska-Omaha and winning the Ohio Hockey Classic. However, since its last regulation win on Jan.16th against Ferris State, the team is now 0-1-0-2 in the last three games.

The men’s hockey team now faces Alaska in Fairbanks next weekend, Jan. 30 and 31. Then the Bucks come home to face the winningest team of the season, the Notre Dame Skatin’ Irish on CBS college sports.

The game airs 8:05 p.m. on Feb. 6.

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