From Oklahoma Hockey
By Ben Dackiw
On a weekend that was viewed as an opportunity to get their season back on track, the Sooners’ disappointing start to the 2021-22 campaign continued as they split the series with the Alabama Crimson Tide, losing 3-2 on Friday and winning 4-3 on Saturday.
Head Coach Austin Miller’s thoughts on the series weren’t anything new for a Sooners team still trying to find consistency in a full 60-minute hockey game.
“We need to start playing more consistent and start playing how we know we need to play,” said Miller. “We did for large portions of the Missouri State series, and then we went to Alabama and we were unsuccessful.”
The Sooners went into the weekend on a six-game losing streak that would grow to seven games, but the skid would end with Saturday’s win. Obviously, the team would have preferred to get more than just a win and a loss out of 20 hours total on the bus.
The Sooners power play that saw early success against Arkansas has gone cold. The unit went 1-for-12 over the weekend, including failing to convert a two-minute five-on-three power play.
Brendan Sinclair had a nice weekend, with two goals on Friday and another on Saturday. That brings his total on the season to seven.
The Sooners seem to be suffering from just plain old bad luck. In their Friday night loss, they did not have a lack of scoring chances.
“When it was 0-0, we had five or six grade-A scoring chances that we didn’t score on, and then they would get one scoring chance and score,” said Miller. “We’re not scoring the first goal enough. It’s not a skill issue, It’s more of a consistency and effort issue.”
The Sooners are back at home this weekend for a series against the Colorado Buffaloes. Back in October, Colorado swept the Sooners with 2-0 and 5-3 wins in Colorado. The Sooners hope to build on last weekend’s win in Alabama and find some more consistency back at home at Blazers Ice Centre.
As always, you can catch the action at home on bdehockey.com.
(Originally published at https://www.ouhockey.net/post/inconsistency-mounts-as-sooners-split-series-with-alabama)
