ERIE, Pa. — Last year, Mercyhurst carried a five-game unbeaten streak into Ohio State, only to lose both games by a large margin.
The Lakers looked to rebound from last year’s defeats when they met Ohio State in the inaugural Snowtown Throwdown at the Erie Insurance Arena.
However the Lakers were unable to avenge their losses from a year ago as Ohio State defeated Mercyhurst by a score of 6-3, with Matt Johnson leading the Buckeyes with a hat trick.
“When you fall behind 3-0 or 4-0 against anybody, it’s really tough to come back from, but especially against a team like Ohio State,” Mercyhurst coach Rick Gotkin said. “They are a really good team and they proved it to us tonight. We’ll definitely need to have a much better start tomorrow to give ourselves a chance for a split.”
Ohio State’s leading scorer, Tanner Fritz, got the ball rolling a little over six minutes into the game, deflecting home his fifth goal of the year when Drew Brevig’s shot attempt flew right towards to Fritz, who made no mistake with finishing off the play.
About seven minutes later, Johnson netted his 1st of three even-strength goals on the night. Christian Lampasso broke down the wing sending a puck towards the net and Johnson battled his way to the crease where he was able to come up with the loose puck and put the Buckeyes ahead 2-0.
In the latter stages of the first, Nick Schilkey found the scoresheet for OSU after Matthew Weiss won an offensive-zone faceoff and followed it up with a turnaround shot on net. Ohio State led 3-0 heading into the first break, and outshot the Lakers 14-6.
OSU continued its scoring pace in the early stages of the period, going up four on Johnson’s second of the game less than three minutes in. Lampasso and Chad Niddery each earned their second assists of the game the tally.
Midway through the second, OSU gave the Lakers some life by being called for a too-many-men penalty. Mercyhurst worked the power play well, getting three pucks to Buckeyes’ netminder Matt Tomkins, but Tomkins answered the call turning all three pucks away. Shortly after OSU was back to even strength, Kyle Dutra put Mercyhurst on the board, notching his seventh of the year on an assist from Kyle Just on a 2-on-1 rush.
Less than a minute later, Daniel Bahntge got his first of two point on the night for the Lakers, when he brought Mercyhurst back within two off of a nice pass from Jack Riley. Dutra also notched his second point of the game on the play.
The game had a back-and-forth, high-tempo pace that continued into the third.
With Ohio State carrying a two-goal lead, the Buckeyes looked hungry in the early portion of the period, taking the bulk of the play to the Lakers and peppering Lakers’ goaltender Jimmy Sarjeant. OSU eventually cracked Sarjeant as Weiss and Schilkey grabbed their second points of the evening on a Buckeyes’ power-play goal near the midway point of the period. Weiss finished off some great movement on the powerplay off feeds from Schilkey and David Gust.
Philippe Drouin scored to get the Lakers back within two with a blast from the point with just over six minutes remaining, but OSU came right back a few minutes later as Johnson finished out the scoring, and the hat trick, with a quick release that surprised Sarjeant with just over three minutes left to play.
Ohio State outshot Mercyhurst 43-18 on the night.
Game two of the Snowtown Showdown is Saturday at 2:35 p.m EDT at the Erie Insurance Center.
