Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

[osualum86]

Our team is off to a great start with a 10-4 record and we currently set in second place in the WCHA, which I think any Ohio State Womens Hockey fan should be thrilled with! I would like to see a sweep this weekend, but Princeton played us very tough last season here in Columbus, so I look at this as a big challenge for our team. Our kids are coming off a split at home with Wisconsin and certainly played better in Saturday's game than they did on Friday. Hopefully they can carry that over to this series in Princeton. Princeton fans, what kind of season are you having and what can we expect to see? Oh, one more thing, I think it is great that our kids are going to get to play a couple of hockey games in a historic venue like Hobey Baker Rink. Wish I was able to be there!

[PrincetonFan]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

It's a very disappointing season so far, but I've only seen two games. One was a blowout by Harvard, the other a loss in overtime to Clarkson. It's hard to figure out what their problem is so far, but the game against Clarkson gave me hope that they will improve as the season goes on and the chemistry clicks.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

PrincetonFan, thanks for chiming in! I try to start these threads every week for our games. Sometimes it's hard to get some chatter going. I really wish I didn't have other plans this weekend! I have tickets for a little football game (Ohio State vs Michigan). Princeton would have been a great road trip, and I would love to see a game in Hobey Baker Rink. Gotta add that to my bucket list!

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

It's hard to figure out what their problem is so far, but the game against Clarkson gave me hope that they will improve as the season goes on and the chemistry clicks.

I can easily imagine that Rachel Weber is badly missed, no matter how much potential the replacement has. Rachel gave two excellent performances in the nets last year in Columbus...

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

Pgb & PrincetonFan, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you both had a wonderful day with family and ate some delicious food! This guy sure did!

[CanHockGuy]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

Team looks like they're for real; nice come back and good luck!

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

Team looks like they're for real; nice come back and good luck!

It's been an amazing season so far! I agree, it does look like this team is for real, and who would have thought that with the losses to graduation! It appears what has happened is improved defense/goaltending, and scoring by committee on offense, which is not a bad thing when you don't have any superstar forwards. It seems like we are actually tougher to defend this season. I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I am thoroughly enjoying the ride!

[Eeyore]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

I've seen it happen before that a team gets better after losing a key player to graduation, but I don't think I've seen it as dramatically as it has here. In other cases there was a real sense that the previous team was underperforming while waiting around for that key player to win the game for them. That wasn't the impression I gathered of last year's Buckeyes. I thought that, after the first line, there really wasn't anything there and that disaster awaited. Admittedly, the games against Minnesota may not have been representative of the way you played other teams. After all, if the one weekend up here was all I had to go on this year I'd think that my prediction had come true.

It will be interesting to see how well you play against us in February. I'm glad this is the year I'm making the trip.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

We dropped our game vs Princeton today, but I have no complaints with an 11-5 record. I think this team is for real. The D is improved from last year, and we are getting goals from a number of players. It makes us harder to defend when the opponent cannot key on a few players to shut us down.

[twointhebox]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

Tigers showed up this weekend and shoulda won on Friday and willed it to happen today. Even the winning goal was just shear will to bring it to the the promise land. Nice work and great team pride.

[ARM]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

It makes us harder to defend when the opponent cannot key on a few players to shut us down.

Maybe. But outside of the big third period yesterday, OSU scored one goal in five periods -- many shots, few goals. I think this was a game that the Buckeyes had to have.

[osualum86]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

Maybe. But outside of the big third period yesterday, OSU scored one goal in five periods -- many shots, few goals. I think this was a game that the Buckeyes had to have.

Yeah, it would have been nice to finish the job and sweep this weekend. These games may not give us points in the WCHA standings, but they sure matter when it comes to the polls and the PairWise! We have a big series coming up at Minnesota State next weekend.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Ohio State @ Princeton 11/23 - 11/24

... I think this was a game that the Buckeyes had to have.

An appropriate concern in terms of the pairwise. The Men's hockey truism of "sweep at home, split on the road" usually hasn't gotten the job done on the Women's side.

And yet, if you can't start the back-up goalie during a non-conference series in November, when can you start her? I'm certainly not faulting Steffes for Saturday's loss; just saying that one reason you have non-conference games is to mix things up a bit, give certain players additional ice time, etc. We're already in a situation where we can't afford a single false step in conference play. If you try to go full throttle for 100% of the regular season, you're likely to be running on fumes by playoff time. A balancing act is part of the process, whether the pairwise "likes" it or not.

Speaking only as one fan, looking at the results of the season to date: I'd be content with a top three finish in the regular season, and a leave-it-all-on-the-ice effort in the conference playoffs. If that's good enough to get us into the NCAA's, awesome. If not, I'll be able to sleep at night.

Granted, if we're a near miss next March and the result is traceable to Saturday's loss, it will hurt. But despairing over one road loss isn't a reasonable reaction either.