Senior Night Brings Nothing But Success
ATHENS – This night was for the seniors, and the seniors prevailed on all ends.
From the crease, defense and to the offense, the Ohio University Bobcats could not be stopped on this special night. Lights-out performances from these athletes are what helped them secure their second consecutive sweep going into the playoffs.
With their time in Bird Arena coming to an end, the final four leaders took the ice first in the warmups as fans and family stood up and cheered in appreciation for their efforts and work.
“It’s a pretty special place to be playing around here, in front of these fans, and I’m sure this night is something that they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives,” head coach Cole Bell said.
Gianni Evangelisti, Tyler Harkins, Jimmy Thomas, and Jake Houston gave this weekend, the final regular-season games, a performance that Bird Arena will remember for a long time.
“It’s awesome because you get to win those games, but it’s sad, it’s bittersweet, I mean we play in front of a packed house every night,” Harkins said. “It’s sad, I’m going to miss everyone a lot and hopefully we can return some hardware for them.”
In another full circle, offense-oriented game, Ohio University brought their all to this game. Goals were the talk of the stands, and consistency was a huge theme and factor of this game.
This time, there were no goals allowed. The Bobcats took this one home 8-0 to end the regular season on top.
Craddick highlighted the first and second periods as he earned his and fourth goal of the weekend. His late bloom in the season is one that came at a perfect time as the teams moves forward to the playoffs.
“Craddick has really picked it up on the offensive side of the puck, it’s been very normal for us now, they show up every day and work hard,” Bell said.
And the defense lead by Houston and Sam Turner, who has proved to be a two-way player, locked down and denied any and all attempts made by the Kent State Golden Flashes. Their performance is what was a key factor in the seeding and stability of the team's place heading into the playoffs.
But what really sent Ohio into the remainder of the game was a buzzer-beater snipe from Gianni Evangelisti at the end of the first. Since then Craddick and Harkins added two more to the board.
To end it all, Thomas recorded another shutout, which broke and set the record of shutouts in Ohio Hockey history. This is the second time that Thomas has done that this season. He fended off 18 shots on goal in this game.
“That was incredible, that was the icing on the cake,” Thomas said. “I had a lot of family here, it was in front of a sold-out crowd tonight, it’s just truly incredible to get that especially in the last night.”