Broncos tie, defeat tough Buckeyes

By Karl Henkel/Western Michigan Beat Writer

You wouldn’t figure the Western Michigan Broncos would have much of a chance on the road against the 11th-ranked team in the nation. But for Broncos, it was a pretty successful weekend, coming out of the weekend series with a tie and a victory against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

WMU drew a tie with Ohio State in the opener before stunning the Buckeyes, 4-1, on Saturday night.

In the first game, the Broncos were down early as Patrick Schafer scored on OSU’ s first shot of the game.

Greg Squires tied the game up at the 13:45 mark of the first period and the game remained tied until late in the second when Ian Boots gave Ohio State a 2-1 advantage.

But a minute later, Patrick Galivan re-tied the score and the game was at a stalwart through the end of regulation. The Buckeyes won the ensuing shootout, 2-1, in five rounds, however.

Riley Gill had 35 stops on the evening, while Dustin Carlson had 20 for OSU.

Saturday night was all about Western Michigan, as the Broncos scored four unanswered goals after OSU took an early one-goal lead.

Tyler Ludwig, Max Campbell, Sean Weaver and Cam Watson all scored for WMU (7-13-6, 4-9-5-1 CCHA) and Gill tallied a season-high 37 saves.

Carlson had 15 stops for the Buckeyes.

Western Michigan hosts Northern Michigan next Friday and Saturday. Fox Sports Detroit Plus will have coverage of Friday’s action while Comcast will provide the broadcast on Saturday night. Both games will start at 7:35 p.m.