Persistence Pays Off In Ohio

January 18, 20098

The Eagles traveled to the unfriendly confines of Ohio University and Bird Arena this past weekend and even after a Friday loss, they held their heads high and played tough to garner a win on Saturday.

Friday's game did not start well for Eastern, as the Bobcat's scored two goals within nine seconds only four and a half minutes in.  Ian Chornoby was the first Eagle to score with 6:24 left in the first.  That left EMU trailing by one after one period.  In the second Kevin Lapointe would tie the game at the 3:57 mark on the power play, but then Ohio would score three unanswered goals to end the second 5-2.  Eastern played hard in the third, but the Bobcat's were too strong and played a good defensive game to maintain their lead.  Teams exchanged goals in the third to make the final score 6-3 in favor of Ohio.

The second game of the series, on Saturday, saw a determined Eagles team.  Unfortunately the first goal went to Ohio on the power play.  It wasn't until the 17:30 mark before the Eagles would get a goal by Jon Sutton from Chris DeRoche.  That ended the first period tied 1-1.  The Eagles tried to put the game out of reach in the second.  They scored two goals; first by Chris DeRoche then Kevin Lapointe.  The Eagles went to the second intermission leading by two goals.  The team knew the third period would be the toughest of the weekend if they were going to get the split.  The Eagles played tight defensive hockey which helped them add another goal at the 6:54 mark by John Schultz.  After that the Bobcat's threw everything they could at the Eagles, even pulling their goalie on a power play.  Eastern stood tall though and it took a questionable 5 on 3 advantage for Ohio before the Bobcat's would get back in the game.  Ohio scored two times, one on each penalty to make the score 4-3 with four minutes left.  EMU did not panic and continued their solid play which eventually lead to an empty net goal by Chris DeRoche to give the Eagles a 5-3 win.  DeRoche played a solid 60 minutes scoring two goals and assisting twice for four points in his fourth game as an Eagle.

This weekend the Eagles meet Oakland University for the second home and home series of the season.  Friday's game is at the Onyx in Rochester Hills before the series ends at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube on Saturday.