Ohio State men's hockey blanks Quinnipiac

COLUMBUS, Ohio – With three points from John Albert and 32 saves from Cal Heeter, the Ohio State men’s hockey team blanked Quinnipiac, 4-0, Saturday at TD Bank SportsCenter in Hamden, Conn. The win is the first for Buckeye head coach Mark Osiecki as a collegiate head coach and moves the Buckeyes to 1-1 this year.

“This was a good response from last night’s loss,” Osiecki said. “It was a lesson learned– you have to take care of the puck to win. We played smarter with the puck and had a lot less turnovers tonight. Cal gave us an opportunity to stay in the game early and made some big saves. Albert had a lot of jump and created a lot of things offensively.”

Freshman Chris Crane tallied his first career goal at 7:58, assisted by classmate Travis Statchuk (his first career point) and Kyle Reed. Albert stole the puck and raced into the Quinnipiac zone with Sergio Somma, making a nice move to get the puck over to Somma for his second tally of the weekend, scoring at 14:49. With the Buckeyes on their first power play of the night, Albert added a goal of his own with just 45 seconds left in the period, putting a shot from the middle of the slot in the top-right corner of the net off an assist from junior Danny Dries (his first point as a Buckeye). The teams had 24 shots in the period, with Heeter stopping 13 Bobcat attempts.

Neither team found the back of the net in the second period, as the Buckeyes maintained their 3-0 lead. Each team put eight shots on net in the period. Ohio State had three power-play opportunities in the stanza (including back-to-back chances) but could not convert. Quinnipiac had one extra-man chance.

In the third period, sophomore defenseman Devon Krogh scored on the power play as his shot got through a screen, trickled off the goalie’s glove and in. Albert and senior defenseman Chris Reed set up the goal, which came at 2:43. Heeter made 11 stops in the period, with the Buckeyes putting nine shots on net. Each team had one power-play chance in the stanza.

Heeter played 59:47, stopping all 32 shots he faced. Dan Clarke played 60 minutes for the Bobcats and had 24 saves, as the Buckeyes were outshot, 32-28.

The Buckeyes converted 2-of-5 power play chances in the game, holding the Bobcats scoreless on four opportunities.

Article courtesy of The Ohio State athletic department.