Well, that was an ugly period of play with Miami looking tentative and unsure of themselves and completely unlike the team we saw last night that took it to UND. Here are a few initial thoughts and stats.

– Riley Barber’s early penalty was a foolish slash from behind and led to DU’s first goal late on their first powerplay.

– Miami looks incredibly tentative and almost disinterested.

– Ryan McKay is not on his game tonight. He’s fighting the puck and had another puck slip past after hitting him in the chest. That’s happened several times this year and can’t happen in a big game such as this.

– Miami did a fairly good job keeping DU to the outside, but they need McKay to pick it up and offensively, the RedHawks need to drive to the net and get traffic in front of Brittain. When they did that, they had success generating chances in the first period.

– Denver blocked 3 Miami shots in the first period.

– Faceoff wins were even at 9 apiece.

You know what they say, a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey. Let’s hope that’s the case tonight as Miami will need to come from behind to claim the trophy and continue this late season run.