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Men's Hockey
Heart Ripped Out at the End
By Craig Merz

The cold, hard facts from Alaska tell you Ohio State was blanked for
the second time in three games to lose the CCHA quarterfinals with a
1-0 defeat Sunday.

What the scoresheet can’t possibly show is the devastating,
heartbreaking manner in which the game Buckeyes outplayed the
Nanooks, doubled the shots on the home team for most of the game and
killed two penalties in the third period of a scoreless game which
decided who advanced to the semifinals Friday in Detroit.

Time after time, the Buckeyes tried to pierce All-American candidate
Chad Johnson but the senior netminder was impenetrable, stopping 43
shots for his sixth shutout of the season.

OSU’s Dustin Carlson was his equal until the 25th shot came out of
the corner with 50 seconds to play. That’s when the centering pass
from Ron Meyers hit Carlson’s stick and then his blocker before the
puck trickled in for the stunning winner to send the Carlson Center
crowd of 2,543 into delirium.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Ohio State coach John Markell
said.

“I’m disappointed for Dusty. He feels like the weight of the
world is on his shoulders. It was a fluky goal. We knew it could come
down to that. That’s why we wanted our guys to get the puck on net.

“I thought we played well. We had had the better of the game and we
killed off that penalty with four minutes to go. It’s just a raw
feeling to lose like that.”

He then praised the Nanooks, a team that played 12 freshmen Sunday
and has the best defense in the nation.

“I want to compliment Alaska,” said Markell. ‘They hung in there like
they’ve been doing all year. They’ve got the chance to move on and we
don’t.”

While the Buckeyes had still had an opportunity to tie the score –
they pulled Carlson with 53 seconds left and got a power play with 18
seconds remaining for a 6-on-4 advantage – it was too late to recover
and the damage was done.

Like The Beatles, They Need Help

That’s how a possible dream season turned into a nightmare. OSU
(23-14-4) was trying to double its win total of last season and
secure not only a trip to the Motor City but an NCAA berth was well.
CCHA rival Miami had been upset in the deciding game at home to
Northern Michigan earlier in the night and OSU had moved ahead of the
RedHawks into a tie for 12th in the Pairwise Rankings that mimic the
NCAA selections. The top 14 teams plus two lower ranked schools that
receive automatic bids would qualify for the 16 spots. A win over the Nanooks (17-14-6) would have helped slightly and made the Buckeyes’ position more secure. Now, there’s very little chance of OSU receiving an at-large bid.

Ohio State dropped to 16th (essentially two spots out of qualifying)
and teams ahead and behind have the opportunity to strengthen their
rankings in the upcoming tournaments or at the very least not hurt
themselves based on whom they are playing.

In the ECAC, Cornell (10th in the Pairwise) plays No. 11 Princeton so
the loser would not take much of a tumble. In the other semifinal,
St. Lawrence (tied for 14th with Miami just ahead of OSU) plays Yale
(7). A St. Lawrence loss might help the Buckeyes but OSU would still
trail idle Miami.

The WCHA has Minnesota (10) vs. Minnesota-Duluth (13). Again, the
loser shouldn’t fall behind OSU. The winner plays North Dakota (5)
with a chance to gain valuable points. In the other matchup, No. 18
Wisconsin might leap over Ohio State with a victory over Denver (4).
Likewise for Boston College in Hockey East. The Eagles are one spot
behind OSU at No. 17 but play No. 1 Boston University. In the other
semifinal, Mass.-Lowell (19) plays Northeastern (6).

All Ohio State can do is hope for every single outcome that it needs
to go its way does and that it’s 23 wins – including victories over
Notre Dame (2), Michigan (3) and Denver – are worth something.
The worst thing that could happen is if Alaska (24) or Northern
Michigan (t-22) wins the CCHA tournament to reduce the at-large spots
by one because neither is going to make the NCAAs otherwise.

So Close, So Far

It would be difficult for the selection committee to give a spot to
OSU over Alaska even though the Buckeyes have the superior record.
The Nanooks finished fourth in the CCHA, one point ahead of the
Buckeyes and won three of five meetings this season although every
game was in Fairbanks.

Close in the standings and equally inseparable on the ice. That’s the
way it was in the series this year. Alaska won the first regular
season meeting 4-1 on Jan. 30. OSU responded with a 6-2 win the next
night.

On Friday, the Nanooks rolled to a 4-0 win against the sluggish
Buckeyes but OSU took a 3-0 lead Saturday and evened the series with
a 4-2 victory.

The Buckeyes got off to another fast start Sunday but it didn’t pay
off in a goal. They led in shots 17-7 after the opening period but
Johnson made a highlight save on Fairbanks native Hunter Bishop and
stopped his rebound as well with 7 ½ minutes left.

“That was the best chance we got,” Bishop said. “(John) Albert slid
the puck over to me. I tried a one-timer as fast as I could hoping to
beat Johnson across. He did a good job sticking out his pad. He
caught it with his pad or his glove. Give him credit. He made a great
save on me.”

OSU had 16 of the 24 shots in the middle period when it had the only
power play of the game to that point.

“We knew the first five minutes would tell whether we were ready to
play or not,” OSU video coordinator JB Bittner said. “They came out
hard. We had a couple of good chances. Their goalie made some
spectacular saves.”

Although the shots favored Alaska 11-10 in the third that was because
of the two power plays.

Everything But A Win

“We knew we had to get rubber on the net, that was the game plan,”
Bishop said.

“In the end, Johnson (second nationally in goals against average) had a great game. Hats off to him. We had 43 shots. Coach was pretty happy with the way we played. I don’t think we can ask much more than perhaps a win at the end of the game.”

That didn’t happen because a pass by Meyers from behind the OSU goal line that he intended for one of two teammates streaking down the
slot instead found its way past three Buckeyes and the line drive hit
the blade of Carlson’s stick. The puck bounced up and went off the
blocker pad into the goal.

“I kinda of threw one there toward the net and just kinda got lucky,”
said Meyers.

“The hockey gods were there with me tonight. I tried to make a pass, and it wasn’t a very good pass and hit the goalie.”

Maybe the “gods” are fair. If so, next year might be OSU’s turn. Last
season, Alaska lost its opening round series in the third overtime of
Game 3 to Nebraska Omaha and used that tough setback as motivation.
Ohio State has been eliminated in a deciding third game for three
straight years.

“The best thing about a game like this, especially with our team
losing only three seniors, is when you lose a game like this you
always remember the feeling from the last game,” Bishop said.

“Everybody takes that into next year so when it comes to crunch time
we’ll have been there. We’ll be that much more prepared and be that
much more driven to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
That awful feeling will persist in the offseason unless the Buckeyes
somehow receive a tournament bid. The NCAA selection show is 11:30
a.m. Sunday on ESPN2.

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