Somehow, some way, Ohio State managed to keep its season alive today despite another utterly dreadful offensive performance. With basically nothing going well on offense, the Ohio State defense carried a team that is playing pretty poorly to victory by smothering Johns Hopkins for four quarters.

Johns Hopkins jumped out to a two-goal lead, keeping Ohio State off the scoreboard until extremely late in the quarter. Three fruitless possessions by both offenses in the opening 5 minutes set the tone for the rest of the day.

Despite trailing, the Buckeyes blanked Johns Hopkins in the second stanza, scoring two goals and coming within a whisker of a third. The halftime score of 3-2 was just as accurate a reflection of the game as you will ever find.

The second half was about as nail-biting as it gets. Ohio State had a two goal lead in the third that was cut down again within a minute by Johns Hopkins. Johns Hopkins tied the game early in Q4, before Ohio State used a Man Up opportunity to retake the lead. An Alex Marinier dagger with 3 minutes to play put the Buckeyes up two, only for Hopkins to score with 28 seconds left.

After winning the faceoff, Hopkins took its final shot. Caleb Fyock, after two shaky weeks due to injury, stood tall once more and stopped Hopkins for good. The 14th save of the day was his best. And it allowed Ohio State to eke out a desperate victory. Setting up THE Game. Of all games.

The offense is bad. Awful, really. Faceoffs got worked today. The defense is elite. Hopefully it's a recipe for success in 7 days.

Bring on HATE WEEK.

Go BUCKEYES!