Less than two weeks after their overtime loss to Maryland in the Showdown in the Shoe, the Ohio State Buckeyes came to College Park to face the Terrapins in a Big Ten semifinal contest. The Terps didn’t play their best game for the first three quarters and had missed two critical opportunities but still managed to hold on to a slim 5-4 lead. The fourth quarter belonged entirely to Ohio State and the Buckeyes pulled away for a 9-6 win.
FIRST QUARTER
Though Maryland head coach John Tillman had been somewhat coy about Charlie Raffa’s status the media got general confirmation of their opinion that Raffa would not likely play when John Garino came out to take the opening faceoff. The Buckeyes’ Christopher May won that faceoff and Ohio State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead.
Jesse King registered the goal on an extra-man opportunity (EMO) after B1G Defensive Player of the Year Casey Ikeda picked up a one minute unnecessary roughness penalty. King’s face dodge got him inside his defender and left Terrapins goalie Kyle Bernlohr essentially helpless on a point blank shot.
May won the second faceoff but the Terps defense stepped up in the form of Matt Dunn who forced a turnover inside the box. Maryland got to the ground ball and King was whistled for a one minute cross check penalty.
Matt Rambo scored the equalizer for Maryland on the EMO on a pass from Bryan Cole. Tillman replaced Garino with Andrew Walsh and it paid immediate dividends as the freshman won the next two faceoffs. The Terps capitalized on the first when Cole found Joe LoCascio who crossed into space in the center of the Buckeyes defense for an easy look from inside 10 yards.
The Terps carried that 2-1 lead for the remaining nine minutes of the period as some sloppy play and strong defense combined to stifle any real scoring opportunities for either squad. The Buckeyes would carry an advantage into the second quarter after Matt Neufeldt garnered Maryland’s second one minute penalty when he was called for slashing with about 16 seconds to play in the period.
SECOND QUARTER
The Buckeyes opened the quarter with possession and over 40 seconds left on their EMO. Ikeda atoned for his earlier miscue with a brilliant check on Carter Brown. He and LoCascio combined to ultimately secure the ground ball and allow Maryland to kill the penalty.
Much of the rest of the quarter belonged to the goalies. Maryland’s Bernlohr and Ohio State’s Tom Carey with each picking up a pair of saves in the first ten minutes of the period. LoCascio ended the scoring drought with 4:02 to play scoring on a left handed bullet going top shelf to the far post.
With his team trailing 3-1, May won his first faceoff against Walsh. However, twice it appeared that the Terrapins’ defense stepped up big against King first when Mac Pons forced a bad pass that Bernlohr retrieved but stepped out of bounds. Less than a minute later, Dunn also checked the ball out of King’s crosse but, in the ensuing scramble, the ground ball went out of bounds off Maryland and Ohio State retained possession.
The Terps paid the price as Turner Evans scored with 38.8 seconds to play. May again outdueled Walsh on the faceoff and the Buckeyes had the final possession of the half. The Terps forced an unexpected but poor shot from David Planning and King’s desperation side armer went well wide as the horn sounded with Maryland clinging to a 3-2 lead.
THIRD QUARTER
Starting the third quarter the Terps once again felt the absence of Charlie Raffa as May won yet another faceoff. Dunn forced another Ohio State turnover but an aggressive Buckeyes ride resulted in a failed Maryland clear. However this time, Ikeda forced the turnover, Bernlohr corralled the Terps affected the clear.
Maryland squandered a golden opportunity on the ensuing possession when King was whistled for a two minute non-releaseable penalty but Colin Heacock forced a shot and Carey made an easy save. Of the missed opportunity Tillman said, “That was something we talked about after. We had two minutes so we had plenty of time. For having two minute, we really settled, from my vantage point we had a really below average shot.”
Carter Brown made the Terps pay gaining the equalizer as the game clock ticked under eight minutes and a shot clock warning ticked under ten seconds.
Walsh secured the faceoff but the Terps quickly turned the ball over. This time, though, it was a strong Maryland ride that prevented the Buckeyes from a successful clear. An explosive effort by Rambo dodging down the right side and leaping over his defender to put the Terps back in front with just over five minutes to play in the quarter.
Garino returned to the faceoff ‘X’ for the next two and won them both. The first led to Maryland’s fifth goal of the night and the 100th goal of Jay Carlson’s career. Once again Cole served as the facilitator. Starting behind the net, Cole hit Carlson just in front of the crease to put Maryland up 5-3.
The Terps held the second for an extended possession and with the shot clock on, Rambo appeared to have registered the hat trick but had the goal waved off for being in the crease. With seconds left to play in the period, Planning launched a low shot from 16 yards that found the net and the quarter ended with Maryland still holding to their one goal lead.
FOURTH QUARTER
The Buckeyes won the first three faceoffs the the fourth quarter but the Terps forced a turnover on the first possession. Playing with a shot clock warning, LoCascio fired a shot that Maryland didn’t have backed up. Turner Evans scored to pull the Buckeyes even at five and Tillman gave Bobby Gribbin his first chance at the ‘X’. May controlled the faceoff and forty seconds later, Planning gave Ohio State their first lead since the score was 1-0.
Maryland had a chance to pick up the equalizer but Heacock’s shot hit the cross bar and, as he regained control in the midst of three Ohio State players, Maryland called a timeout just before he launched what might have been the equalizer.
Much as they had against Johns Hopkins on Saturday, once the Terps fell behind they seemed to lose some focus and intensity. King found Colin Chell for a pair of back to back goals as the clock ticked first under five minutes and then under four minutes. With three and a half minutes to play looking at a three goal deficit.
“I think it’s certainly something we have to look at,” Tillman said of his team’s fourth quarter struggles in back to back games. “You look at the second straight game where we won one faceoff in the fourth quarter. In a close game, that puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
The situation is certainly something the Terps will have to look closely at should they have done enough to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. In the fourth quarter of their last two games, Maryland has lost 13 of 15 faceoffs and 20 of 28 ground ball opportunities. That leads to being outscored 11-2 in the ultimate period.
In middle of the fourth period, Tillman chose to try Raffa at the faceoff dot but the senior was unable to win a single faceoff. “We had him ready just in case,” the coach said. “He wanted to take a lot more and we were like, alright, let’s give him a go and see how he felt. When Charlie is right, we are a different team.” Tillman spoke sincerely and movingly about his concern for Raffa’s health and wrestling for five days with a decision whether to use him at all. “You have worry about the well being of a young man. Sometimes we have to save him from himself.”
Though the coach indicated that the players work with whistles on the sideline during dead balls and timeouts, I have to wonder whether the brief experiment with Raffa might have served Maryland better had it occurred earlier in the game and without the added pressure of trailing in a low possession game with the clock winding down.
Tillman pulled his goalie with just under two minutes to play and Carter Brown split Maryland’s defense to put the ball in the empty net and extend the Buckeyes’ lead to four with a minute and a half to play.
Bryan Cole registered a meaningless final score with 29 seconds to play and, after Garino picked up a penalty on the final faceoff, the Buckeyes ran out the clock. The B1G Championship game matchup – Johns Hopkins and Ohio State – was set.
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