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.....