Lions sweep Bobcats, regain CSCHL lead
It was an opportunity for Ohio to end a difficult road schedule on a high note. It was an opportunity to take a firm hold of the Central States Collegiate Hockey League.
But it was Lindenwood’s ice and they wanted to protect it.
In the battle of the last two league champions, Lindenwood swept Ohio by finals of 5-2 and 4-2. The wins vault the Lions back into the top spot in the CSCHL. The Bobcats drop to the second seed and end road play with a mark of 11-9-1. They’re also now 0-7 against team’s ranked above them in the ACHA rankings. Lindenwood has now one 10 straight contests.
A key to road success was to jump on the Lions early and take the crowd out of the game. On Friday, it was Lindenwood (21-4-0) who jumped on the Bobcats for a 3-0 lead after the first period. Peppi Sipila notched the first two before Niklas Bunnstedt threw in a power play tally.
The second frame provided fewer fireworks, but the home team extended its lead to 4-0 thanks, again, to the stick of Bunnstedt.
As head coach Dan Morris assumed the game manager role that he has many times this season, Ohio (21-9-1) stormed out of the second intermission prepared to mount their comeback effort.
Josh Fodor struck first with his ninth goal of the year just under five minutes into the third. He received the assist from Jonathan Gulch. With just under six to play in the frame, Fodor returned the favor with a pass to Gulch, who buried it to make it 4-2. Brett Agnew also tallied the assist. Both goals were scored on the man-advantage.
However, with 2:58 before the final buzzer, Bunnstedt halted the comeback with the hat trick clincher. For Ohio, goalies Brendan Madden and Fedor Dushkin split time. Madden stopped eight of the 11 shots he faced but was tagged with the loss, dropping his record to 9-2-0. Dushkin blocked 13 of 15 shots.
The next night, Ohio stared down Linus Ahgren between Lindenwood’s pipes. The freshman had made only three prior appearances, but stopped 40 of Ohio’s 42 shots.
The Lions opened the scoring again at the 9:03 mark off the stick of Cam Chinnery. This time, however, the Bobcats responded thanks to another strike by Gulch. The teams would head into the locker room after the first period knotted 1-1.
Lindenwood opened a two-goal lead in the second with tallies by Steve Brancheau and Sipila. Heading into the locker room for the second time, Ohio was prepared to trim the lead for the second straight night.
Joe Bostic made that task more difficult with a breakaway goal early in the third period to push the Lions’ lead to 4-1. Ohio did add one more power play goal with just under eight minutes remaining, but couldn’t sneak another past Ahgren.
The Lion netminder improved his record to 3-1 while Ohio’s Dushkin dropped to 10-8-1.
This marks the second straight year the Lions have taken both regulars season meetings between the clubs. The Bobcats avenged last year’s losses in the CSCHL Championship game with a 4-0 win. The next time these two could meet would be in the tournament in Athens.
The team is back home for the next five weekends, including the CSCHL tournament. The next time they play on a rink other than their own will be in March at the ACHA Nationals in Strongsville, Ohio.
The Bobcats’ first opponent upon their return is the nation’s top-ranked team: Penn State. It marks the final regular season matchup between two squads that have met four times in the ACHA Championship game.
Stay locked to ohiobobcatshockey.com all week from preview, features and more leading up to the action.
