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If the Ohio State Men's hockey team doesn't do anything productive for the rest of the regular season or in the Big Ten tournament, at least they can say they won the Snowtown Throwdown.
Ohio State tied Mercyhurst, 2-2, on Saturday afternoon in Erie, Pennsylvania to give them a tie to go with their win on Friday night to give them the series victory. Ohio State now moves to 6-9-2 on the season overall while Mercyhurst goes to 8-6-3.
Christian Frey got the start today after Matt Tomkins' sterling .833 Save Percentage game on Friday but staked the Lakers to a 2-0 lead by 1:16 into the second period. Tyler Shiplo was credited with both goals for Mercyhurst to give them that lead, with one late in the first at 19:41 and the second at 1:16 of the second. His first was later credited to Jack Riley. Shiplo's second was then credited to Jonathan Charbonneau. Rough day for Shiplo's goal totals. Ohio State was held to a resounding and impactful two shots on goal in the first.
But those two goals were all that Frey would give up.
Matt Johnson scored his fourth goal in two games to cut the lead in half at 9:10 of the second. Freshman walk-on Christian Lampasso has assisted on all four of those goals. OSU looked better in the second and got the 13-11 shots on goal advantage out of it.
In the third, OSU would even it up on Anthony Greco's tally at 8:28 of the third. The goal was reviewed as it appeared that Mercyhurst's goalie Brandon Wildung was interfered with, but the goal stood. Shots ended up at 24-24 at the end of regulation, with OSU leading in SOG in the third 9-7, but nobody scored after Greco's goal.
And nobody would score in overtime either. OSU led in shots 4-2 in OT and Charbonneau put one off the crossbar for Mercyhurst, but neither team could capitalize.
The tie closes out OSU's non-conference schedule and the Buckeyes will really need to step it up facing the Minnesota's and Michigan's of the world on a regular basis now. They should be dominating teams like Mercyhurst, at least when they fall behind, but haven't been doing it. Getting the series victory and a solid performance out of Frey are very positive, but the Buckeyes will have to take it to another level and quickly.