Ann Arbor, MI. – The 15th ranked Ohio State Hockey team came into Ann Arbor on Friday night opening with a big 3-2 victory over the 17th ranked Wolverines and followed that up Saturday night with a huge 5-1 drubbing after their University cohorts on the football team came from 2 touchdowns down to grasp their 6th victory in a row over their rivals winning 31-20 with back up quarterback Dwayne Haskins finishing the job, thus completing the perfect trifecta of victories over their arch enemies.
The Buckeyes got the scoring started on the ice at the about the 6-minute mark when Senior Christian Lampasso beat the Wolverines netminder with a hard slap shot off the left circle. It was the only scoring in the first period which saw the Wolverines start out strong getting the first 3 shots on goal, but had the Buckeyes finishing strong outshooting them 12-7.
At the 7:49 mark of the second period the Wolverines would tie it up on a goal by Joseph Cecconi who deflected the shot in off Buckeye netminder Sean Romeo’s blocker side. The tie was short lived however as less than a minute later Matt Weis’ pass from behind the net found Tanner Laczynski in traffic in front of the goal and Laczynski buried it 8:38 into the second stanza to regain a one-goal lead.
Late in the third, with the Buckeyes on a power play, Mason Jobst was able to blast a shot past Wolverine goalie Jack LaFontaine. It was the Junior captain’s team-leading 7th goal of the season and gave his Buckeyes a little breathing room as they headed into the final stanza with a big 3-1 lead.
Early in the third, the Buckeyes were short-handed after two quick penalties giving the Wolverines a 5 on 3 powerplay but the Buckeyes defense killed it off although there was a bevy of 7 shots blasted on Romeo during that time, he brushed them all aside.
Michigan outshot the Buckeyes quickly in the third but despite several good chances were not able to get anything by Romeo. The Junior from North Carolina was stopping everything and the defense made sure to clear their zones for him.
With both teams with players in the box and on a 4 on 4, the Buckeyes won the faceoff and Matt Weis blasted a shot immediately that flew by the helpless Wolverine netminder giving the Buckeyes a 4-1 lead with just a little over 10 minutes left in the game.
With things getting chippy in the third and a 4 on 4 situation again it was Lampasso with 8/10ths of a second left picking up his second goal of the night and his 4th of the season as he just attacked the netminder and beat him clean to his right to help secure the Buckeye victory and give them the weekend sweep in hockey.
Laczynski and Weis would finish the night with 3 points each while Romeo was the first star of the game stopping 34 shots. The Buckeyes were 2 for 4 on the powerplay and 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
The Buckeyes are 8-3-3 on the season, 3-3 in the Big Ten, and will be hosting Penn State this weekend in Big Ten play.
