DaytonDailyNews.com

FAIRBORN — Ohio State pounded home two power-play goals in the third period, the last at 9:47, to beat Mercyhurst 2-1 Friday night in the Lefty McFadden Invitational at the Nutter Center.

Tonight in the Lefty championship game, the Buckeyes ice hockey squad will face Wisconsin, which scored three times in the third period to bury Notre Dame 4-1 in Friday's first game. In this afternoon's consolation game, Notre Dame meets Mercyhurst.

"It was a good way to win it, on the power play," said OSU coach John Markell. "It was also good to get rid of the first-game jitters."

Neither team scored in the first period and Mercyhurst — which came onto the ice to Wright State's theme song — scored on its own power play at 3:22 of the second period.

It didn't take long for the Buckeyes to even the score. With Mercyhurst a man short on a slashing penalty just 12 seconds into the third period, it took Ohio State only 27 seconds to tie the score on senior Tommy Goebel's goal.

A too many men on the ice penalty led to OSU's winning Peter Boyd goal, but the Buckeyes put themselves in a bad position when Shane Sims was called for grabbing the puck and pushing it forward with only 49 seconds to play.

That put the Bucks in a two-man disadvantage, and Mercyhurst did its best to crash the net and score.

"You can't kill yourself like that," Markell said.

At least Ohio State recovered and kept the Lakers from tying the score.

Now it's Wisconsin, which may prove to have a little bit of a home advantage even though this is OSU's state and the Buckeyes are hosting the tournament.

It appeared most of Friday's crowd favored Wisconsin as many of the 2,000 or so who attended the first game left before the second contest began.

At least OSU had its own band, a small group of alums who played all the right songs.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.