Goaltender Aaron Schmeilski kept his shutout streak alive helping OU to a sweep of Robert Morris-Chicago (12th, Central). OU (8th, Central) is now 12-0 this season.
Schmeilski had his second consecutive shutout Saturday night as the Sooners won 7-0. Schmeilski last gave up a goal on Oct. 4 at Robert Morris-Springfield. Schmeilski has gone 141:44 without allowing a goal.
Schmeilski missed OU's series with Missouri for his brother's wedding. He was injured while shutting out Texas and missed the BYU series.
Saturday's game was his first appearance in net since the Texas game Oct. 25.
"I've been playing pretty good since a couple weekends ago," Schmeilski said. "The defense has been playing pretty good, and the offense has been playing pretty good, and we've been scoring a lot of goals. The puck's really not down in our end that much. I give the credit to our defense and our offense."
OU's defense made the game very boring for Schmeilski. The puck stayed in the Robert Morris-Chicago zone most of the game. Schmeilski only faced 17 shots on goal.
"Sometimes you have to find ways to occupy yourself," Schmeilski said. "Sing a little tune or something."
Both goalies were superb for OU. Sean Broderick made 26 saves as OU won 4-1 Friday night.
"Broderick has game experience," said OU head coach Craig McAlister. "There's a lot of battles that he goes through that he does really well. If the game flow is irregular, [Schmeilski] is better than Broderick in that regard. He can concentrate, and he's OK if the play doesn't always come after him. If we go against somebody like Iowa State who wants to keep firing the puck at us left and right that would be a good game for Broderick."
OU outshot Robert Morris 100-44 during the two games. The defense and offense complemented each other. The defense was effective at stopping potential scoring opportunities for Robert Morris and pushing the puck up the other end of the ice.
"That's the thing we did really good especially in the neutral zone," freshman defenseman Matt Ridens said. "We just really came together as a team over the weekend."
Down 2-0 after Ridens' goal, a Robert Morris player high sticked the puck. If an Eagle player was the first to touch the puck, there would have been a face-off in the Robert Morris zone. One Eagle player yelled at a teammate not to touch the puck, and the puck was free in the neutral zone.
OU's Kelly Forbes took the puck, skated past two Robert Morris defenders and scored to put the Sooners ahead by three 9:43 into the second period.
Four more goals came as a result of Robert Morris' short bench. The Eagles had only six players on their bench plus their back-up goalie. OU had 13 players on its bench plus a goalie.
"They had their top line and kept revolving those guys every other shift," McAlister said. "That takes a toll on you when you put your best guys out there all the time. We were revolving three, sometimes four lines."
OU will next face Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. Face-off will be at 7:30 both nights at the Blazers Ice Center. The next ACHA Division II poll comes out on Wednesday.
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