Miami Student

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Sports

Ohio State goaltender Joseph Palmer looks away as Miami celebrates one of its five goals Sunday evening. The RedHawks won both games of the series 5-1.

It must have seemed like deja vu for Ohio State University (2-2-0, 0-2-0 CCHA) goaltender Joseph Palmer Sunday evening, who after giving up five goals Friday night against the Miami University RedHawks (4-0-0, 2-0-0 CCHA), gave up five more goals Sunday, as the RedHawks skated away with a 5-1 victory and a series sweep at the Steve Cady Ice Arena.

"It has been a great beginning to the season," Miami forward Tommy Wingels said. "All the guys are stepping up right now and making plays."

OSU committed 14 penalties as well as committing careless mistakes throughout the game. With a Buckeye almost always in the penalty box it seemed it was tough for the team to establish a rhythm on the ice.

"We just deflated ourselves with the penalties," Ohio State Head Coach John Markell said. "Our best players had to kill penalties."

Miami took advantage of OSU's first mistake at 7:06 in the first period when Ohio State turned the puck over in its own zone. The 'Hawks quickly capitalized as Wingels took the loose puck and notched his third goal of the season with a wrist-shot just over the left shoulder of Palmer.

The mistakes continued for Ohio State throughout the period. With just under six minutes left in the first period, the 'Hawks cleared the puck down the length of the ice; assuming an icing call, the Buckeyes didn't play the puck aggressively. The referee waived off the icing, while RedHawk forward Bill Loupee kept skating hard; when Palmer finally left the net to play the puck it took a weird hop off the boards right to Loupee, who fired on the open net, giving Miami a 2-0 lead.

Although the Buckeyes had their fair share of chances during the first period, Miami goaltender Jeff Zatkoff continued his early season domination between the pipes, stopping all of OSU's 13 shots in the period.

"We've done a great job defensively and that makes my job a lot easier," Zatkoff said. "This was a huge series that we knew we had to win."

In Miami's four games so far, Zatkoff has let up just one goal in each game this season.

"He will be the first one to tell you that everyone in front of him is playing well right now," Head Coach Enrico Blasi said. "We're going into every game focused on playing disciplined hockey."

Continued...

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