The Ohio State Buckeyes got multi-point performances from seniors John Albert and Sergio Somma in a 4-2 victory over the Michigan State Spartans Saturday evening in Value City Arena.<\/p>\n
“I thought even last night, (Somma) and Johnny (Albert) did a tremendous job last night” despite losing 2-0, Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki said. “They didn’t get rewarded with it from a scoring standpoint; they’re doing lots of good things right now. I think they’re feeding off each other.”<\/p>\n
Ohio State “had more energy tonight,” Michigan State coach Rick Comley said. “They’re very good (senior) players. They are excellent on faceoffs, and they’re good players that are experienced.”<\/p>\n
Albert assisted on all four Ohio State goals, and Somma scored a pair, including the eventual game-winner at 4:05 of the third. Albert has a team-leading 31 points this season. Ohio State’s four-game losing streak came to a close. Osiecki thought the mindset of the team going into the game was probably ‘fragile.’<\/p>\n
“All of a sudden, you’re working your rear ends off, they’re doing everything you ask; they’re not scoring goals,” he said. “That is just the way hockey is. If you’re not scoring goals, all of a sudden you’re squeezing a little bit, playing a little bit different.”<\/p>\n
After posting a shutout last night against the Buckeyes, Spartans goalie Will Yanakeff allowed three goals on 38 shots against. He was opposed by Cal Heeter, who stopped 26-of-28.<\/p>\n
Michigan State’s power play struggled, going 0-for-5 and allowing a short-handed goal at 4:30 of the second to give the Buckeyes a 2-1 lead. Buckeyes forward C.J. Severyn intercepted a Spartans’ pass that led to a two-on-one break with Albert.<\/p>\n
“I think we did a good job talking down low,” Albert said. “We have a three-plus-one mentality on the PK. I thought we did a great job of it, and C.J. made a nice job passing it, taking it wide and get it back to the net.”<\/p>\n
“The overall game was better tonight; last night’s game was a little bit choppy,” Comley said. “It was a good game, it was up and down. We didn’t give up a five-on-five goal. At the end, we had chances to tie it.”<\/p>\n
Michigan State had a pair of power plays in the final 10 minutes of the third, but was unable to convert.<\/p>\n
“The penalty kill was good,” Osiecki said. “We were fortunate on a couple bounces, but that happens. The best thing about it was we were extremely aggressive. I think we finally have an understanding of the terminology that we’re talking about, being aggressive.<\/p>\n
“Just being aggressive, the guys understand that, they’re seeing that, they’re feeling that. Cal (Heeter) made some great saves. We scored a short-handed goal, could have had scored another one.”<\/p>\n
Michigan State took a 1-0 lead 5:55 into the first as Dean Chelios scored his fifth of the season when his shot beat the stick of Heeter.<\/p>\n
Ohio State knotted the game at 1:50 of the second on its third power play of the game. Somma took a loose puck that went off Spartans forward Derek Grant and fired the shot past the glove of Yanakeff.<\/p>\n
Ohio State entered the third period up 2-1. Michigan State is 0-11-1 when trailing at the second intermission.<\/p>\n
“I think since Christmas, the third period has been our best period,” Comley said. “I am not sure if we have come back or not come back, but we have scored a lot. With this young team, two months ago that was a game we would have probably lose by five or six the way it went. There is learning and growing, and they certainly haven’t peaked yet.”<\/p>\n
Somma scored his second of the game 4:05 into the third on a delayed penalty, as he skated in on Yanakeff from the left circle and beat his glove on the far post with a backhander.<\/p>\n
The Spartans got within one at 7:29 of the third when Dustin Gazley stole the puck after two Buckeyes collided into each other and he had an unassisted breakaway, beating the glove of Heeter.<\/p>\n
Ohio State’s Cory Schneider sealed the Buckeyes’ victory by scoring a breakaway empty-net goal with 2.2 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ohio State Buckeyes got multi-point performances from seniors John Albert and Sergio Somma in a 4-2 victory over the Michigan State Spartans Saturday evening in Value City Arena. “I thought even last night, (Somma) and Johnny (Albert) did a tremendous job last night” despite losing 2-0, Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki said. “They didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12216,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12214\/revisions\/12216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12214"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}