Your Ohio State University Buckeyes had every chance to win a game no one, including me, thought they could win. Up to and including a last second, 4th quarter shot that was easily saved by Brian Ruppel of Maryland. Ohio State lost every single statistical matchup, aside from shooting percentage, through 4 quarters. And yet, they did enough to tie the game after going down 4-0 in the first quarter.

Ohio State finally broke its streak of scoring 2 goals or less after 17 quarters, but failed to score 2 goals in either quarter of the second half, and overtime. The offense was atrocious. Full stop. Only .233 shooting percentage, 56% SOG percentage. The defense shut down a full strength Maryland offense with its entire lineup for 4 quarters. And got zero help.

Granted, the 5 goal first quarter was shockingly bad. But the next 45 minutes saw Maryland score just twice. Ohio State limped along on offense to tie it in the 4th quarter. But things were too poor to get all the way through. And, from the looks of it, Russell Melendez may be done for the year. And his career.

Ohio State is essentially mathematically eliminated from the postseason as an at large. Johns Hopkins beat Penn State today. The Jays are the toughest team OSU will play in the Big Ten right now, surprisingly, and I have no faith in this staff to right the ship.

Three straight wins and at least one Big Ten Tournament win would get the Buckeyes on the bubble again. Lose to Hopkins and we're going to have a long, long rest of 2026.

And the offseason should see plenty of changes, I reckon. And if the game next week is bad, it may be sooner.

Go Buckeyes.

Onto the Jays.