Saturday’s “Faceoff on the Lake” at FirstEnergy Stadium started with Brian Hartline smashing a Michigan guitar and ended with Ohio State beating its rival.
Prior to the puck drop of Saturday’s “Faceoff on the Lake” between the Ohio State and Michigan men’s hockey teams at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, Ohio State offensive coordinator and former Browns wide receiver Brian Hartline fired up the Northeast Ohio crowd by eviscerating a maize and blue guitar.
The captain, @brianhartline setting the tone for today pic.twitter.com/4NhtANynQb
— Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) February 18, 2023
Hartline, who went 4-0 against Michigan as a player and is now 3-2 against the Wolverines as a coach, continued a trend started by the Browns this past season where a celebrity smashed a guitar featuring the opposing team’s logo before every home game.
The 10th-ranked Buckeyes fed off that energy, earning a 4-2 victory over No. 4 Michigan for their second straight win over the Wolverines after they earned a shootout victory over the team up north on Senior Night at the Schottenstein Center on Thursday. Ohio State will finish the regular season with a 3-1 record against Michigan this year, giving the Buckeyes a tiebreaker over Michigan in the Big Ten standings; the Buckeyes and Wolverines are tied for second in the conference behind Minnesota, which clinched the Big Ten title with Ohio State’s win on Thursday.
Saturday’s game was the second outdoor hockey game to be played between Ohio State and Michigan in Cleveland – the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes in a game at Progressive Field in 2012 – but the first-ever hockey game to be played at the home of the Browns. The game drew a crowd of 45,523 fans, the most ever for an Ohio State hockey game.
Record attendance alert : 45,523 Buckeye Fans #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/ug7lrt6WFf
— Ohio State Men's Hockey (@OhioStateMHKY) February 18, 2023
