Box Score

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State Buckeyes scored three goals in the span of 1:45 late in the third period, snapping a 3-3 tie, to defeat the Mercyhurst University men's hockey team 6-3 on Saturday night in front of 4,225 fans at the Value City Arena. The Lakers had their five-game unbeaten streak snapped as they fell to 9-8-2 overall. Ohio State improved to 9-6-0 on the season.

The Lakers and the Buckeyes were tied at 3-3 when junior goaltender Jimmy Sarjeant was whistled for a tripping penalty with 7:20 left in regulation. On the ensuing power play, Mercyhurst had a chance to clear the zone off the faceoff but fanned on the clearing attempt. The Buckeyes intercepted and worked the puck to Tanner Fritz, who beat Sarjeant from the left wing circle at the 12:49 mark for the game-winning tally.

The roof caved in from there as the Buckeyes tacked on two more goals to close out the scoring. David Gust deked out Sarjeant on a mini-breakaway at 13:23 and Ryan Dzingel followed, roofing a shot under the crossbar from the left wing circle at 14:34, to put Mercyhurst away.

The two-minute stretch ruined a strong performance from Sarjeant, who made a number of difficult saves during the contest. He finished the night with a career-high 42 saves as the Buckeyes outshot the Lakers by a 48-28 margin.

The first period saw each team score one goal 23 seconds apart of one another.

It was Mercyhurst that drew first blood at the 5:38 mark when junior Edward DeWald scored his first collegiate goal in his 51st career game. The Lakers intercepted a pass inside of the defensive zone and sophomore defenseman Anthony Mastrodicasa sent redshirt freshman Alec Shields to center, developing a 2-on-1 opportunity. Shields found junior Zac Frischmon cutting down the slot who was able to get a weak backhander on goal. But, a long rebound came right to the stick of DeWald, who was trailing the play, and the Laker forward one-timed it past Ohio State netminder Christian Frey for a 1-0 Mercyhurst lead.

It was DeWald's first career goal and it was Shields' first career point after earning the second assist.

But, just 23 seconds later, at the 6:01 mark, the Buckeyes responded on a 2-on-1. The hosts intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and sprinted into the Laker zone with Chad Niddery and Tyler Lundey leading the rush. Niddery's centering pass to Lundey ended up trickling through the five-hole of Sarjeant, knotting up the game at 1-1. Niddery's goal was assisted by Anthony Greco and Craig Dalrymple.

Shots favored Ohio State in the opening twenty minutes, 19-12.

The Buckeyes earned their first lead of the night at the 7:20 mark of the second period when defenseman Justin DaSilva ripped a slapshot over the blocker of Sarjeant for a 2-1 lead. Nick Oddo won the offensive zone faceoff cleanly, worked it to Darik Angeli, who then got it back to DaSilva for the one-timer.

But, the Lakers responded with a pair of goals 1:11 apart to take a 3-2 advantage. With Mercyhurst on its first power play of the night, junior Ryan Misiak buried a rebound over the glove of Frey to tie the game at 2-2 at the 8:59 mark. Junior Tyler Shiplo took the initial shot that was stopped. But, freshman Kyle Dutra, who provided the screen in front, kicked out the rebound to Misiak who flipped home his seventh goal of the year.

Then, at 10:10, redshirt junior Kyle Just attempted a centering feed from the right wing corner that was misplayed by Frey and trickled across the goal line for the Laker lead. It was Just's sixth goal of the season and was assisted by sophomores Kyle Cook and Mychal Monteith.

However, the hosts, who outshot Mercyhurst 20-10 in the second period, knotted the game at 3-3 with time winding down on their third power play chance of the contest. The goal, which came at the 14:30 mark, was a give-and-go goal from Oddo to Nick Schilkey, who beat Sarjeant to the glove-hand side from point-blank range. DaSilva had the other assist.

Junior forward Matthew Zay and senior forward Daniel O'Donoghue were held off the scoresheet on Saturday night as Ohio State did a number on the duo that had combined for 50 points in the first 18 games of the season. Zay saw his point-scoring streak end at 15 games while O'Donoghue's came to a halt after nine straight contests.

Frey, appearing in his first collegiate game, stopped 25 shots for the victory. Sarjeant, meanwhile, dropped to 9-4-2 on the season.

Ohio State went 2-for-4 on the power play while Mercyhurst capitalized on its only power play opportunity of the night.

The two teams will conclude the weekend series on Sunday night beginning at 8:05 p.m.