At the OSU Ice Rink:
1 2 3--T
Miami 2 2 2--6
OSU 0 1 1--2
1ST PERIOD
Scoring:
1. Miami--Savage (Daikawa) 3:20
2. Miami--Savage (Oates, Bergeron) 11:37
Penalties:
Miami, Saban (Roughing), 8:01; OSU, Green (Roughing), 8:01; Miami, Mallon
(Interference), 8:10; OSU Sellers (Roughing), 8:10; OSU, Skorgstad (Hooking),
13:11
2ND PERIOD
Scoring:
3. Miami--Savage (Cook, Bergeron) 8:41
4. OSU--Sellers (Richards, White) pp 14:08
5. Miami--Daikawa (un) 18:06
Penalties:
Miami, Carter (Holding), 12:30; Miami, Oates (Roughing), 19:44; OSU, Patterson
(Roughing), 19:44
3RD PERIOD
Scoring:
6. Miami--Cook (Savage) pp 2:47
7. OSU--White (Sellers, Skogstad) pp 6:56
8. Miami--Carter (Backen) 12:03
Penalties:
OSU, Sutton (Tripping), 2:35; Miami, Mallon (Holding), 5:22; OSU, Patterson
(Hitting from behind), 10:24; Miami, Carter (Bench minor--verbal abuse of ref
by coach), 14:14
Shots:
1 2 3--T
Miami 14 8 8--30
OSU 6 5 9--20
Goaltenders:
Miami--Sulmistra (20 shots, 18 saves)
OSU--Askey (30 shots, 24 saves)
Power Plays
Miami, 2 for 3
OSU, 2 for 3
Penalties:
Miami 6 for 12 minutes
OSU 6 for 12 minutes
Referees: O'Donnell, Sotiroff
Linesman: Treeger
I was very impressed with Miami. They are fast, they have exce
llent skills on
both ends of the ice, they have a solid goaltender in Shulmistra who played
unconscious at times tonight, and they have excellent team chemistry.
Additionally, they have the Oates-Savage-Bergeron line which was a combined 3
goals and 4 assists tonight, with Brian Savage collecting the hat trick plus an
assist.
On the whole, the teams played this game fairly evenly. Both goaltenders
played extremely well, and had Shulmistra not risen to the task on a couple OSU
flurries in the first period, OSU could have easily come out of that period
with a 4-2 or 5-2 lead. The differences in the game was that Miami made OSU
pay each time they broke down in the first period, OSU's defense could not
clear the puck on the power-play, and OSU could not stop a great individual
effort by Brian Savage (3,1--4).
Just 3:20 into the first period, Savage slipped behind the OSU players as the
defensemen got caught in a bad line change. Dan Daikawa made an excellent
headman pass to him and he broke in alone on Askey, beating him to the glove
side. At 11:37 it was Savage once again as Bergeron stole the puck at OSU's
blue line, tapped a pass to Matt Oates who skated in 2 on 1 down the right
wing. Passing the puck under the defenseman who was going down on the ice to
block the pass, Oates found Savage on the left and he completed the pretty play
with a one-timer by Askey, top-shelf.
The second period saw OSU outwork the Redskins early, but Shulmistra was up to
every scoring chance it seemed. OSU was hovering around the net all period,
but could only manage to get by Shulmistra once, and that was only after Savage
had completed his hat trick. Joe Cook carried the puck across the blue line,
and found Savage streaking into the Buckeye zone. Savage powered through an
OSU forward and broke in on Askey, angling to the left. Savage held the puck
until he was even with the cage to the left and fired a shot that hit Askey's
left calf and deflected into the net.
The Buckeyes did manage to answer at 14:08, about five and a half minutes
later, as Steve Richards made a nice pass from right to left across the
goalmouth to freshman Joe Sellers who merely had to tap it home for the
power-play score. Just moments before Sellers scored though, Buckeye fans got
a taste of what was to come in the last five minutes of the period. Miami had
cleared the puck and Askey came out to the boards to his left , even with the
goal line, to stop the puck and send it back up the ice. In trying to find Ron
White at the OSU blue line, Askey sent off an errant pass that found a Miami
penalty-killer at center ice who immediately shot it back on net. Askey, who
was slow in getting back, had to dive across the crease, barely stopping the
puck with his stick. The rebound came out to Brian Savage who tried to lift it
over Askey, but he nailed the cross-bar. Miami would hit the post 2 more times
in the period as well as miss the net on a breakaway and a 3 on 1.
After Askey stopped a second breakaway in the period, OSU tried to clear the
puck up ice, but the attempt was broken up at center ice by Dan Daikawa.
Daikawa skated to the blue line and let loose a dump-in that was sailing high
and wide of the cage to Askey's right. However, Rob Peters (a 6'6",, 217 lb.
talentless wonder--Cornell fans, imagine Marc Deshamps but with less passing
ability, slower, poorer judgement, and a less accurate shot) decided to try to
glove the dump-in. He was standing in the slot, about five feet from Askey.
His attempt to glove the dump-in merely served to deflect the shot down and to
the left of Askey, going into the goal for Miami's fourth score of the evening.
This, in my opinion, was the key goal of the night. It occurred at 18:06 of
the second and turned a 3-1 game into a 4-1 game just before the intermission,
and effectively sealed OSU's fate.
The third period was even, the difference being that Miami went 2 for 2 on its
power-play chances, and OSU went 1 for 2. The final, Miami 6, OSU 2.
Tom Askey played very well in goal despite saving only 80% of the shots he
faced. He got no help from his defense and the goals scored in the third
period all came on third and fourth shots after Askey had made the initial
saves, but his defense could not clear. As mentioned before, Shulmistra played
an exceptional game and many of his 18 saves were on players standing at the
doorstep. A lesser effort from either goalie could have resulted in a blowout
for the other team.
A bright spot for OSU is that their power-play seems to be getting untracked,
going 2 for 3 tonight and finally creating opportunities after setting up in
the zone rather than relying on lucky bounces from end-to-end rushes. The
Redskins are definitely going to be contenders this year as they have excellent
speed and playmaking ability. OSU's strategy appeared to be to only forecheck
minimally and to concentrate on back-checking in neutral ice, not allowing
Miami to carry the blue line. This seemed to work in the first, but by the
midway point of the second, OSU was backing off even the blue-line and Miami
was carrying into the offensive zone very easily.
The two teams hook up tomorrow night in Oxford, at 7pm.
--
Dave [log in to unmask]
Cornell '91 OSU Med '95
Far above Cayuga's waters.....
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