In the biggest game of the year against their biggest rivals of Johns Hopkins, Maryland’s offense got caged up in a defensive slug fest before falling 7-5.
Johns Hopkins came out the gate firing. The Blue Jays scored the first three goals of the game and were looking like their offense was going to tear up the Terps defense all day. However, off a Hopkins turnover, a Hopkins attackman earned a three-minute unreleasable head to head contact penalty and it gave the Terps some life. On the three minute man up opportunity, the Terps offense was able to stop the Hopkins run and score their first two goals of the game thanks to Jack Koras and Daniel Kelly. After Kelly cut the Hopkins lead to one however, Hopkins would get back to even strength and their defense would continue their six on six dominance over the Terps offense.
Heading into the second quarter with a 3-2 score, it was the Terps that would strike first blood in the second quarter tying it up thanks to another goal from Kelly giving him his 10th on the season. However, that would be the Terps last goal of the first half as Hopkins would go on a quick three goal run in 1:28 making it 6-3. Both defenses would settle in once again and the offenses were just not able to find the back of the net for the last 9:41 of the quarter and it would be a 6-3 Hopkins lead heading into the half.
Terps goalie Logan McNaney was a big reason why the Terps were still in the game. McNaney had six saves in the first half and was seeing the ball fairly well. Face-off man Luke Wierman was 6/10 on face-off wins in the first half as well. The offense was simply not taking advantage of the extra possessions Wierman and the defense was giving them.
To start the second half, it was even more of a defensive battle than the first. Maryland cut the Hopkins lead to one with 8:51 to go in the third quarter, thanks to goals from Ryan Siracusa, his 15th of the season and George Stamos, his third of the season. However, those goals would be the last of the day for the Terps after Hopkins’ defense kept forcing turnover after turnover, earning extra possessions for their offense to keep running out the clock. The Terps defense played lights out in the third quarter not allowing any goals considering how much the ball was on their side of the field.
In the fourth quarter, Hopkins kept draining the clock more and more and the Terps five turnovers in the quarter did not help them at all. The Terps defense was still not backing down but would wind up giving up a goal with 2:42 left in the game and with how the Terps offense was playing it felt like the game was over after Hopkins made it 7-5.
The Terps offense had a total of 19 turnovers on the day with three coming off failed clears. There are not many teams, if any, that will win a game when they turn the ball over 19 times. The Terps defense forced 15 turnovers on the Hopkins offense in the losing effort. McNaney finished the day with 11 saves while Wierman won 9/15 face-offs while picking up five ground balls.
The Terps get a much needed bye week next week to regroup and try and fix the offensive woes from today. They will face the winner of Penn State vs Rutgers that will be on Saturday April 27th. The Terps will face the winner of that game on May 2nd at Ohio State with a start time to be determined in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal game.
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