The MCRHL kicked off the 2007-2008 season on Saturday October 27th in Grandview Heights, Ohio. Ten of the twenty-three MCRHL teams competed in the weekend, including two new teams Shawnee State and Tiffin University. The competition was fierce and the games were full of action packed excitement. It was a great start to the new season and there were two games that stand out from the rest.
(5-0) vs.
(3-2)
The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Purdue Boilermakers faced off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. These two teams came into the 2007-2008 season looking to improve their records from 2006-007 season and right from the start of this game you could see that both of these teams where moving in the right direction. Ohio State was the first to strike at 1:08 of the first period on a power play goal by David Holingshead from Dan Cece. The score going into the first period break was Ohio State one and Purdue zero. Purdue’s Greg Braun looked to even the score at one each when he beat Matthew Smith of Ohio State at 9:06 of the second period. When the horn buzzed after two periods the score was at a dead lock at 1 a piece. The two teams broke the huddle and Purdue must have said something that worked because within 48 seconds Brent Harman fed Keagan Sussman to give the Boilermakers a 2 to 1 lead. But Ohio State was not out of it yet, they relied on the experience of their upper classman to get the momentum back and at the 5:14 make David Holingshead did that by scoring his second of the game this one a shorthanded goal from Derek Lindsey to tie the game at two. With five minutes to go in the game the two teams were battling it out on the court in an excellent display of hard fought hockey. Unfortunately for Purdue Greg Braun was sent off the floor for tripping with under two minutes on the clock. This gave Ohio State an opportunity to take the lead while being a man up. With less than 10 seconds to go David Holingshead passed the puck to Travis Grohoske who banked the puck off the post and in to take a 3 to 2 lead with 4 seconds to go in the game. The three stars of the game were David Holingshead, OSU (2G, 1A) Brent Harman, Purdue (0G, 2A) Travis Grohoske, OSU (1G, 0A). As a side note both goalies played very well Ethan Manon of Purdue had 35 saves and 3 goals against and Matthew Smith had 33 save and 2 goals against.
(4-1) vs.
(5-0)
Ohio State made an appearance in the other stellar game of the weekend. The match-up between Ohio State and Michigan State was much anticipated. Michigan State came into the match-up outscoring their opponents 42 to 7. It was quite the opposite for Ohio State having much closer games up to this point by only out scoring their opponents by a score of 14 to 4.
Ohio State jumped out to a one nothing lead at 10:23 of the first period from an even strength goal off the stick of David Holingshead. Justin Sheridan of Michigan State responded at the 9:35 of the first period to even the score at one. Ohio State looked to take back the momentum by scoring another even strength goal at 7:17 from Max Dobler. Then Ohio State got into some penalty trouble, which changed the flow of the game. James Bush took a cross checking penalty at 5:15 of the first period and eleven seconds later he was joined in the penalty box by teammates Travis Grohoske for slashing and Derek Lindsey for Hooking. This put OSU down two players for more than two minutes. Michigan State took advantage of their first power play of the game by scoring at 4:49 when Tony Asenzo passed the puck to Evan Pomish who was able to beat OSU goalie Matthew Smith. Evening the score back at two a piece. Ohio State was still down two men after the Pomish goal when OSU looked toward their goalie Smith to pick them up. Smith came up with a number of saves to ensure that the score remained tied up. At the end of the first period Evan Pomish would take a roughing penalty with only 46 seconds remaining. Going into the break Ohio State looked to draw up a play that would give them the lead back, and this happened at 10:51 when Travis Grohoske received the puck from Max Dobler to beat goaltender Joe Wurst giving Ohio State a 3 to 2 lead. Ohio State would then take the first 2-goal lead of the game when Brian Folmer scored at 1:55 in the second to up the score to 4 to 2. Coming out of the break Ohio State was a little too fired up, resulting in Max Dobler taking a boarding penalty at 9:04 of the third period. The edge of your seat excitement was a little too much for the Ohio State fans to handle and their anticipation could be felt in the air. Luckily for the Ohio State’s fans their worries were put to ease when David Holingshead took a shot and it went off the defenseman and found the back of the net giving David his second goal of the game as well as the team a three goal lead. Ohio State had a comfortable lead, but Michigan State was definitely not about to wave the white flag yet. They have been down like this in the past and have found ways to pull out the win. Evan Pomish took it upon himself to score another power play goal this time from Jim Goodliffe at 5:44 of the third to bring the score to 5 to 3. Kyle Steinberg then found some room on the floor to beat Smith at 4:02 to bring the score within one to 5 to 4. Michigan State was all fired up and was looking to get the equalizer and pounded Ohio State’s goaltender Matthew Smith with a total of 16 shots in the third but Smith was able to hold off the strong MSU offense to give his Buckeyes the 5 to 4 win and a huge win to start the season. The three stars of the game were #1 David Holingshead, OSU (2G, 0A) #2 Evan Pomish, MSU (2G, 0A) and #3 Max Dobler, OSU (1G, 1A). The goalies also brought their “A” game to the floor with Ohio State’s Matthew Smith having 43 saves and 4 goals against and Michigan State’s Joe Wurst having 32 saves and 5 goals against.
This weekend was an awesome start to the new season. The games were full of action packed fun and a lot of memorable moments. The competition is definitely strong this year with Ohio State being a force to reckon with. Stay tuned for future announcements from the MCRHL weekends, or even better join us in Grandville, Michigan!
