Ohio State beat CCHA foe Lake Superior State, 5-2, Saturday at Taffy Abel Arena to complete a two-game sweep. The Buckeyes were led by Miguel Lafleche, who posted career highs of two goals and three points.
The Buckeyes, on a three-game winning streak, move their record to 6-2-1 overall and stay unbeaten in the CCHA at 3-0-1. The Lakers fall to 3-7-0, 0-6-0 in league play.
OSU got on the board first with a goal by Chris Olsgard. Pete Broccoli led JB Bittner through the neutral zone, and Bittner took a shot from just inside the Lakers’ blue line. LSSU goalie Terry Denike made the first save, but Olsgard gathered the rebound and shot the puck past Denike for his third goal of the season.
In the period, OSU put 12 shots on net and held the Lakers to an opponent season-low three shots on net.
For the second consecutive night, the Buckeyes scored three goals in the second period. With OSU on the power play, Scott May took a pass from Paul Caponigri and scored from the left faceoff dot at 3:31.
OSU then went up 3-0 when Lafleche scored just three seconds after an OSU power play had expired. May and Caponigri passed the puck back and forth before May passed to Lafleche at the right side of the net. He beat Denike high at 8:55.
LSSU got on the board at the 16:25 mark, as Nathan Ward scored, but Daymen Bencharski regained OSU’s three-goal lead at 18:46 as he redirected a Lafleche pass from right in front of the net. The Buckeyes posted 19 shots in the period, with the Lakers getting nine.
Lafleche scored his second goal of the game for the first multiple-goal night of his career 2:52 into the period, as he put in the rebound of a Bencharski shot. LSSU scored its second goal of the night at 9:45 with the teams skating 4-on-4. Ren Fauci scored for the Lakers.
For the second consecutive game, OSU held LSSU scoreless on the power play, as it stopped all six LSSU chances. OSU was 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
OSU goalie Dave Caruso posted his second career win in net, stopping 23 shots. Violin stopped 31 Buckeyes shots.
