Bobcats lose, tie at Penn State

by Anthony Castrovince
THE POST

If you can't beat 'em, tie 'em.

The Ohio club hockey team entered its weekend series at Penn State hoping to come out with its first win in Happy Valley in four years. Instead, it left with a 6-2 loss Friday and 2-2 tie Saturday. It was the first loss and tie the team has experienced this season.

"I think we out-played (Penn State) all weekend," forward Sean Kass said. "The score didn't tell the outcome of the games."

Coach Craig McCarthy said the Bobcats (6-1-1) knew the Icers (4-0-1) would be their most challenging opponent this season and attempted to hold their own in both games. He said Penn State, the defending national champions in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, simply were more polished.

"We played hard, but we made a lot of mistakes," he said. "Instead of two shifts, we took two periods to adjust to Penn State."

The two periods of adjustment came Friday night, with Penn State bombing Ohio with three goals in the first period. Penn State forward Greg Held scored twice and forward Glenn Zuck scored once in the first nine minutes of the game. Ohio forward Mike Perino put the Bobcats on the scoreboard 12:08 into the first period with a power-play goal assisted by forwards Greg Benedetti and Steve Manning.

Down 3-1, Ohio saw the game fall out of its hands in the second period, thanks to back-to-back major penalties against forward Zac Hernandez and goaltender Scott Walls. Hernandez was given five minutes in the penalty box for a boarding penalty. With 30 seconds remaining on that infraction, Walls was given five minutes for slashing.

"They were two marginal calls," Walls said. "They should have been minor penalties."

McCarthy said the 10 minutes of penalty time blew the game apart for Ohio.

"The Hernandez penalty was the back-breaker," he said. "They scored late on the power play and that was pretty much it for us."

Penn State forwards Zuck, Paul Crooker and Robert Pate all scored late in the second period during the extended power play. Benedetti scored with just over two minutes remaining in the third period, but it was not enough to muster a comeback.

"Friday, we were back on our heels a bit," Walls said. "We didn't play as aggressively. We had a better start on Saturday."

On Saturday, the Bobcats were more aggressive, but bad luck prevented the victory. Penn State began the scoring with two minutes remaining in the first period on a goal from Crooker.

Ohio answered 2:37 into the second, when defenseman Jack Pepper scored with an assist from Hernandez. The Icers took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Zuck, but Ohio defenseman Dennis Reed tied it with a power-play goal assisted by Perino and Benedetti.

The two teams played even in the third period, and neither could come up with a goal in the overtime period. The Bobcats' bad luck came in the form of one disallowed goal by Benedetti in the third period and two shots off the post.

"Scoring chances were pretty much the same at both ends," McCarthy said. "It was actually a very well-played, exciting hockey game."

Walls said the team was happy to come out of the weekend with a tie.

"The fact that, after getting beat so handily on Friday, we were able to come back and get the tie on Saturday shows that we can rise above some adverse situations," he said.

Ohio will face Western Michigan on Nov. 3 at Bird Arena. On Nov. 4, the team will play host to Wisconsin-Whitewater. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.