January 8, 2023
Denver, Notre Dame Bounce Back
CHN Staff Report
Ohio State rolled over struggling Michigan State, 6-0, on Saturday in Columbus, winning its fifth straight game.
Junior Joe Dunlap scored twice, as he surpassed his career high in goals for a season, now with eight. Goaltender Jakub Dobes made 32 saves for the shutout.
“Everyone is feeling confident and it definitely helps. The guys helped me a lot, just seeing pucks. I didn’t have any troubles with screens. I had a lot of shots where I could just see the puck and save it. The guys made it easy for me.”
The Buckeyes led 3-0 after the first period, added two goals in the second and scored once in the third for the final. Along with the standout days from Dobes and Dunlap, Stephen Halliday had a team-best three assists and points.
“I thought we had more of a complete game tonight (than Friday),” OSU coach Steve Rohlik said. “I thought we started great last night, they had a great push and we lost our way. Tonight we stayed there for close to 60 minutes and that was good to see.
“Sometimes there’s guys names that aren’t in the paper that are doing some of the little things. You look at a guy like Johnny Larkin, he’s playing D tonight, he’s (been) playing forward, he blocked shots. We ask him to do everything. … But that’s how you have to win. You win with guys like that and a team.”
Michigan State has hit a rough patch since soaring to as high as No. 6 in the Pairwise, having lost seven of its last eight. That includes two to Minnesota, a split with Michigan, then losing both games at the Great Lakes Invitational (including one in OT), then this weekend. The Spartans’ confidence seems to have been drained.
It won’t get any easier for the Spartans, who host Penn State next weekend, then go to Minnesota for a series after that. Those are two of the top three teams in the country.
OSU, on the other hand, heads into a showdown with Michigan.
“They’re one of the most talented teams in the country, we understand that,” Rohlik said. “We gotta have a great week of practice if we’re going to go up there and have success. You understand how they can get going with their talent, we have to be prepared and that’s my job.”
St. Cloud State 3, Minnesota 0
With both teams playing games that count for the first time since the second week of December, a little rust was to be expected.
But the game had all the markings of two contending…
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