Author Archives: Redskin Warriors

>’Hawks defeat Bears 4-1

Dec 29

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photo: Rachel Lewis Photography

Andy Miele scored twice to lead #6 Miami to a
convincing 4-1 victory over #9 Maine

Estero, Fla. –

Miami won the second game of the Florida College Classic over the Maine Black Bears 4-1. Miele, Justin Vaive and Alden Hirschfeld also scored for Miami who move on to tomorrow night’s championship game against a familiar foe, the St. Cloud State Huskies. Miami and St. Cloud played a series in Minnesota in October and played a series last season in Oxford. Miami is 4-0-1 against the Huskies in the last five meetings including a 6-3 win and 1-1 tie early this year. St. Cloud advanced by rallying from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Cornell in the first game.

For the night, Hirschfeld was 1-2-3 and Carter Camper notched an assist for his nations best 36th point of the season. Miele now has 10 goals on the season, second on the team to Camper.

The RedHawks outshot the Black Bears 35-14.

Tomorrow night’s championship game is set for 7:35pm at Germain Arena in Estero, Fla.

Posted in Andy Miele, CCHA, College Hockey - Analysis, Maine Black Bears, Miami RedHawks

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>#1 Miami cruises past Lake St. 6-2

Oct 30

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photo: Rachel Lewis Photography

October 29, 2010 – Oxford, Ohio

The #1 ranked Miami RedHawks opened an early 5-0 lead en route to a relatively easy 6-2 victory over Lake Superior State at Steve Cady Arena Friday night.

The RedHawks (5-1-1, 3-0 CCHA), who were averaging nearly five goals per game, did not disappoint with the top line of seniors Carter Camper and Andy Miele and sophomore Reilly Smith leading the way with ten points between them. Camper, the nation’s leading scorer, notched his eighth goal of the season and 20th point in just his first seven games while Miele recorded his second straight four-plus point night with a line of 1-3-4. The reigning national player of the week took over possession of second place in the national scoring race (4-12-16) behind his linemate. And, the real benefactor of playing with these two veteran seniors has been Reilly Smith who tallied his sixth goal of the season and now has a line of 6-3-9 in six games. In 44 games last season as a freshman, Smith had eight goals and 20 points. The Dallas Stars draft pick is doing his best to pick up the scoring void left by the graduation of Jarod Palmer and the early departure of Tommy Wingels for the pros.

Playing their first game without shutdown junior defenseman Will Weber, the RedHawks limited the Lakers to just 18 shots on goal as junior Cody Reichard improved his perfect season record to 4-0. Reichard took a shutout into the final period, but a series of Miami penalties provided plenty of chances for LSSU who went 1 of 6 on the powerplay.

Frankly, Miami played a very sloppy third period but it’s evident early when the legs are going, the RedHawks have greatly improved their speed and puck movement over a year ago. They are playing with unmatched confidence and great skill that will help them against small, speedy teams that have typically given them fits. And, when they finally field a complete, healthy team, they should be a joy to watch this season.

At the start of the final period, and after a lengthy discussion, Miami senior captain Carter Camper was issued a five minute major for kneeing at :44. It was Camper’s first career major penalty and led to a Laker goal from Chad Nehring at 2:14.

Sophomore Curtis McKenzie answered quickly for Miami and reestablished the five goal margin at 6:33. For McKenzie, it was his second goal of the season and an absolutely beautiful finish as he accepted a perfect saucer pass from senior Pat Cannone and roofed a backhander over Laker senior goaltender Brian Mahoney-Wilson.

Miami would take five penalties in the third period and LSSU was able to capitalize late in regulation just after the expiration of another Miami penalty to make it a 6-2 final. The RedHawks must find a way to cut down on penalties which have been a problem over the past several years.

The series with the Lakers concludes tonight at 7pm at Steve Cady Arena in Oxford.

Notes

  • Junior assistant captain Alden Hirschfeld returned to the lineup after missing the last five games due to injury. He picked up where he left off by notching what turned out to be the game-winning goal, his fourth of the season. He now has a line of 4-3-7 in just three games this season.
  • In the aftermath of junior defenseman Will Weber’s neck injury, several Miami players including Carter Camper and Curtis McKenzie wore protective neck guards for perhaps the first time during last night’s game. And others, like Andy Miele and Garrett Kennedy, had them on during warm-ups, presumably to try them out.
  • Camper’s early statistics are eye-popping. He leads the nation in goals (8), assists (12 – tied with Miele) and points (20) after seven games and has a +11 rating.
  • The RedHawks have scored at least four goals in all of their victories and have topped six goals four times this season.
  • Miami’s six goals were scored by six different RedHawks.
  • Miami has outscored its opponents 19-3 over the past three games.
  • The win was Miami’s seventh straight over the Lakers (2-4-1, 0-3 CCHA).

Coverage links

MURedHawks.com

Cincinnati Enquirer

Dayton Daily News

LSSULakers.com

Posted in Andy Miele, Carter Camper, College Hockey - Analysis, Miami RedHawks, Reilly Smith

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>The Week That Was/The Week That Is

Oct 29

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photo: Rachel Lewis Photography

Oct. 29, 2010 – Oxford, Ohio

The Week That Was

Coming off two consecutive weekends of non-conference action against top ten opponents, Miami opened the defense of their CCHA championship by sweeping winless Northern Michigan by a combined score of 13-1.

In doing so, junior netminder Cody Reichard registered his first shutout of the season blanking the Wildcats 4-0 on Friday night. The shutout was the eighth of Reichard’s career leaving him four behind school leader David Burleigh’s twelve. Reichard also improved his season record to 3-0 with a 2.14 goals against average and .910 save percentage.

However, the real stories of the weekend occurred on Saturday when the RedHawks trounced NMU 9-1.

  • Sophomore Reilly Smith recorded the first hat trick of his career.
  • Seniors Carter Camper and Andy Miele combined for ten points on the evening.
  • For his weekend efforts, Miele (2-7-9) was named national player of the week by Inside College Hockey and the CCHA’s Offensive Player of the Week. In doing so, Miami has claimed the first three weekly offensive awards from the league (Hirschfeld, Camper).
  • Junior Trent Vogelhuber had a nice night scoring his first two goals of the season. The second of which came on a nice wrister to the top shelf.
  • Seniors Pat Cannone (101) and Andy Miele (100) became members of Miami’s 100-point club.
  • Junior goaltender Connor Knapp made 15 saves to earn his first victory of the season evening his record at 1-1-1.

If those accomplishments weren’t enough, the weekend sweep also vaulted the RedHawks back atop both major college hockey polls. Miami is once again the #1 team in the nation and has been for 28 of the past 75 weeks. Since the beginning of last season, Miami has been ranked in the nation’s top four throughout both campaigns.

Then, there was also a “minor” story involving junior defenseman, Will Weber. Weber was injured near the end of the first period when an inadvertent skate blade from Northern Michigan’s senior captain Phil Fox caught him under his cage resulting in a laceration running from beneath his left ear to his chin. The game was stopped with 2:59 remaining in the period to clean blood off the ice from Weber’s injury. The teams went to their respective locker rooms and played the remainder of the first period before changing ends to begin the second period.

Weber, who needed 100 stitches and 15 staples to close the wound was seen back at Goggin Ice Center as soon as Tuesday and Justin Vaive provided us with this look at the injury.

From all accounts it appears Weber will make a full recovery and rejoin the RedHawks sometime in the coming weeks or months. If I had to guess, I’d say we’ll see Weber back after the holiday break, but perhaps sooner.

The Week That Is

Tonight, the #1 Miami RedHawks (4-1-1, 2-0 CCHA) focus their attention back to the ice and take on the Lake Superior State Lakers in a two-game series at Steve Cady Arena in Oxford.

Last season Miami swept the Lakers in Oxford by scores of 2-0 and 10-4. As you may recall, that series was marred by the untimely death of former student manager Brendan Burke on Friday night. And, on Saturday, the RedHawks played with a major burst of emotion overwhelming the Lakers en route to the lopsided victory.

Miami enters the game with the nation’s leading scorer, Carter Camper (7-10-17) propelling an offense that is generating 4.83 goals per game (3rd NCAA) while the Lakers are scoring just 3.17 per night while surrendering 4.17 goals per contest.

Last weekend, the Lakers (2-3-1, 0-2 CCHA) secured their first victories of the season by sweeping Colgate at Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. LSSU is led offensively by sophomore forward Domenic Monardo (3-3-6), senior forward Rick Schofield (3-5-8) and sophomore defenseman Zach Trotman (3-3-6). In net, the Lakers will be carried by senior Brian Mahoney-Wilson and freshman Kevin Kapalka.

The Lakers are 0-2 away from the Soo.

Posted in Andy Miele, Carter Camper, College Hockey - Analysis, Miami RedHawks

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>RedHawks Knock off St. Cloud 6-3

Oct 15

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Camper’s two goals lead #4 Miami over #11 St. Cloud State

St. Cloud, Minn. – Senior captain Carter Camper tallied on the powerplay and added a shorthanded goal to lead #4 Miami to a 6-3 victory over #11 St. Cloud State.

After surrendering an early first period goal, Miami would recover on the strength of two powerplay goals by senior Andy Miele and sophomore Curtis McKenzie to lead 2-1 after one period. The RedHawks were able to withstand early energy from the Huskies who were playing their home opener after splitting a pair at the Maverick Stampede last weekend in Omaha, Neb. On Friday the Huskies defeated Frozen Four upstart RIT 3-1, but fell to Clarkson 6-2 in Saturday’s finale.

The RedHawks rebounded nicely from a subpar outing last Saturday night against then #10 New Hampshire when they surrendered five second period goals en route to a 6-3 loss at Steve Cady Arena. Though they were outplayed in the first period of tonight’s game, they found themselves ahead 2-1 after one period despite a 12-5 SOG disadvantage.

Miami took control of the game in the second period on the strength of Camper’s powerplay marker and freshman Bryon Paulazzo’s first career goal taking a 4-1 lead into the final period. The RedHawks imposed their will in the second period carrying the play and reversing the SOG deficit by outshooting the Huskies 14-4 in the period.

The Hawks put the game out of reach in the third on goals by Camper and sophomore Reilly Smith, but took five penalties in the frame allowing two Husky powerplay goals during garbage time. Miami needs to clean up their play in order to finish off St. Cloud tomorrow night in the series finale (8pm EST).

Junior netminder Cody Reichard made 21 saves and recorded his second win of the season to run his record to 2-0. For the game, Miami outshot the Huskies 31-24. St. Cloud was 2-7 on the powerplay while Miami converted three of six opportunities with the man advantage.

Notes
– Junior assistant captain Alden Hirschfeld, the reigning CCHA offensive player of the week, did not play this evening and apparently did not make the trip to St. Cloud.
– Camper has five goals already this season in just three games.
– Miami is now 8-1-1 all-time against St. Cloud State.
– The Huskies are coached by former Miami assistant Bob Motzko, a George Gwozdecky disciple. Motzko actually mentored current Miami head coach Enrico Blasi when he was a player for the then Miami Redskins.
– Sophomore defenseman Joe Hartman is making a homecoming this weekend. Hartman is originally from St. Cloud, Minn.
– Curiously, each of Miami’s three games has finished with identical 6-3 scores.

Posted in Carter Camper, CCHA, College Hockey - Analysis, Miami RedHawks, St. Cloud State Huskies

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Say It Ain’t So, Tommy!

May 31

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According to buzz on the World Wide Web, Miami captain Tommy Wingels has signed an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks and will forego his final year of elegibility as a RedHawk, in favor or joining the professional ranks.

More to come when details are officially announced. Stay tuned.

Posted in Miami Alumni, Signings

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>Berschbach Skips Out On Miami; Joins Blashill at WMU

May 28

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> Several outlets have reported late this week that Miami commit Shane Berschbach will no longer be heading to Oxford and will instead join former Indiana Ice front-man Jeff Blashill at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Berschbach, who signed a National Letter of Intent at Miami in 2008, played under Blashill in Indiana for the past two seasons and will be a part of his first ever recruiting class. The Clawson, Michigan native registered 79 points (32 G, 47 A) during his time in the USHL and is considered to be undersized, standing 5’8 and weighing 140 lbs.

“Once I was in place at Western Michigan, he was the first call I made,” Blashill said of Berschbach. “He’s a skilled forward, and very, very smart offensively. He’s not very big, but he has a lot of courage.” (MLive.com)

You’ll recall that Blashill, a Miami assistant from 2002-2008 was hired as the new Broncos’ head coach in May, after Jim Culhane was removed as the bench boss with one year remaining on his contract and will spend the final year as a fundraiser for intercollegiate athletics, the University has said.

Posted in Commitments, Jeff Blashill, Shane Berschbach

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>Under Construction & A Call for Blog Help!

May 14

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>Welcome back to “The Brotherhood!” You’ll notice a few changes, including the overall look and feel of the webpage. It’s still a work in progress, so everything isn’t up to par just yet. This new look offers a much cleaner feel and is easier to navigate.

In the meantime, if anyone is good with Photoshop, I would LOVE to have a new header image to go with the new blog design. If you’d like to make one, please incorporate several elements and images that represent what Miami Hockey is all about. Please also incorporate the name “The Brotherhood” into the image, which needs to be the same size as the current one. If you can help, please e-mail me your design. I’d be happy to use it.

Please provide feedback in the poll found on the right hand side and let me know what you like and don’t like. Thanks for your continued support and Go RedHawks!

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>Jarod Palmer signs with Wild

Apr 26

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Miami’s Palmer signs free agent deal with Minnesota

A few weeks ago, Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson mentioned that he was looking at one college free agent as a potential signee. I was hoping it was going to be Miami’s Jarod Palmer who had 18-27-45 this year for the RedHawks. Aside from possessing blistering speed, Palmer has everything you’d want. Decent size, great hands, a penchant for penalty-killing. Sound like someone the Jackets could use? You betcha. Plus, he’s 24 years old and would have the maturity the team sometimes lacks.

Alas, the Wild scooped up the Minnesota native and signed him to a 1-year, $700,000 deal.

Here’s the Star Tribune’s coverage.

And, perhaps the Wild were swayed by THIS from last year’s developmental camp. Nasty.

Best of luck to Jarod in the future. He was a great player at Miami for four years.

Posted in Columbus Blue Jackets, Jarod Palmer, Miami RedHawks, Minnesota Wild

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>Bowling Green Hires Bergeron

Apr 12

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>It was bound to happen sooner or later. Longtime Miami assistant coach Chris Bergeron has been hired by Bowling Green State University and will be officially introduced as the school’s seventh head coach this afternoon at 4 P.M. ET.

“I’m very excited to be a part of putting Bowling Green back where it belongs in the hockey world,” Bergeron said. “My family and I are looking forward to becoming part of the Bowling Green community. What excites me the most, though, is seeing how hungry everyone is to make Bowling Green hockey successful again — from Dr. (Carol) Cartwright to (AD) Greg Christopher to everyone I talked to during the interview process.” (BG News Release)

Bergeron is the second former Miami assistant coach to be hired by a CCHA program this off-season, as Jeff Blashill was hired as the next Western Michigan head coach earlier this month. Congratulations and best of luck to Berg, his wife Janis and the rest of their family. His numerous contributions to the Miami Hockey program will be sorely missed.

To read the official BG release, click here.

Posted in Bowling Green, Chris Bergeron

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>Frozen Four Preview: RedHawks Take On Eagles & More

Apr 8

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>Game Preview Written By: “Swaindog”


The Miami RedHawks, last year’s national runners-up, ranked #1 for the majority of this season, the runaway winners of the CCHA regular season title, champions of the NCAA Midwest Regional and the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed are back in the Frozen Four. Standing in their way in tomorrow night’s national semifinal, however, is a name all too familiar to Miami hockey fans, players and alumni: Boston.

Whether it’s followed by “University,” as it was in last year’s national championship game, or “College,” as it was in 2006, 2007 and 2008, it has meant the same thing – loss. In some cases as in 2008 and 2009, it meant heartbreaking loss.

As Miami’s program has continued to improve, the past six years have returned remarkable success. Consider two things: Miami has the best winning percentage in college hockey since 2005-06. Additionally, since 2007-08, Miami has spent more time atop the college hockey polls than any other school but they are just 1-4 against Boston College/University during those years with the one victory coming over BU at the now defunct Lefty McFadden Tournament in Dayton back in 2004. And, tomorrow’s opponent, Boston College, knocked the RedHawks out of the national tournament three consecutive years.

In 2006, Miami captured just its second ever CCHA regular season title and was ranked number one during the regular season for the first time in school history. However, they would fall in the CCHA Championship game dropping the RedHawks from a #1 to a #2 seed setting up the first of three consecutive meetings with the Eagles. This one coming in the first round. A broken stick and two empty net goals led BC to a 5-0 blanking of Miami. BC earned a trip to the Frozen Four, but lost in the national championship game to Wisconsin.

In 2007, Miami eeked out an at-large berth and #4 seed drawing New Hampshire in the first round. Led by junior captain Ryan Jones and classmate Nathan Davis, the RedHawks upset UNH earning the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. Awaiting in the regional final? BC. Once again, the Eagles shut out the RedHawks breaking open a close game late and winning 4-0. With the victory over Miami, BC earned another trip to the Frozen Four, but fell in the national title game to Michigan State.

In 2008, Miami finished the regular season and CCHA Tournament 32-7-1 garnering a #1 seed in the national tournament. In the first round, Miami found themselves in a dogfight with all-world netminder Andrew Volkening and Air Force. After defeating the Falcons in overtime, they found themselves face to face with nemesis Boston College. Again. This time, Miami would take a 2-0 lead in the second period, but on the strength of three quick, consecutive goals, BC led 3-2 entering the final period. Senior captain Ryan Jones tied the game at three, but a fluke goal during overtime by current BC junior Joe Whitney sent the Eagles to their third consecutive Frozen Four. This time, they would not be denied winning the national title by defeating upstart Notre Dame in the final.

That said, seeing Boston College on the docket standing between Miami and a return trip to the national championship game isn’t all that surprising. The Eagles started slowly but have gone 17-4-1 over their last 22 games finishing 27-10-3 and are currently riding an 11 game unbeaten streak. But, BC has been incredibly lax defensively surrendering 14 goals over the past three games which will be a killer against a Miami team that is number one in the nation in team defense and ranked in the top 10 offensively. On the flip side, the Eagles can score. They rank second nationally in team offense and have potted 19 goals over those past three games winning each of them including a wild 9-7 win over Yale in the Northeast Region final.

Boston College appears to be a small team, compared to Miami, with one line that encompasses nearly 40% of their scoring. The Eagles are led by the line of Cam Atkinson (27 goals), Brian Gibbons (16) and Joe Whitney (16). However, none of the three are taller than 5’8″ and Whitney is just 5’6″. What does that mean? It means Miami’s big, and mobile, defense should have a field day clearing pucks, punishing BC forwards and should dominate this game. You have to believe the CCHA’s Defensive Player of the Year and Columbus Blue Jackets’ draft pick, Will Weber (6’4″, 225) is licking his chops considering the size differential. Weber and his defense partner, Joe Hartman (6’4″, 200), comprise Miami’s top defensive pairing. And, with Vincent LoVerde likely still out of the lineup due to injury, you can expect this pair plus Cameron Schilling (6’2″, 185) and Steve Spinell (6’1″, 200) to see quite a bit of ice time versus the diminutive, but speedy, Eagles.

In net, Miami and BC have experienced netminders to choose from. BC’s John Muse backstopped the Eagles to the national title in 2008 as a freshman and of course, Miami’s Cody Reichard took the RedHawks to within a heartbeat of the title last year while Connor Knapp made 55 saves in the 3-2 double overtime Midwest Regional final victory over Michigan just under two weeks ago. Muse, however, has been shaky as of late.

While the Eagles are no fluke, their defense and goaltending have been abysmal, and you can’t count on scoring five goals in a game like this. Defense and goaltending win championships and Miami has a distinct advantage in both categories.

Like the Michigan game, Miami must defeat a team that’s become their nemesis. If they want to become a truly elite program, these are the teams, in these situations, that the RedHawks must knock off to exorcise their past failures. In a sense it’s a revenge game for Miami. Considering BC has beaten them three consecutive times in the tournament, you’d think Miami will be more than up for this game and playing with something to prove. They desperately want to beat a team with the word “Boston” on the front of their sweaters.

Tidbits:

– Miami broadcasting “legend,” Steve Baker (he’ll love that, trust me) has been hard at work in Detroit, covering the RedHawks’ first day in the Motor City. Check out the links for the Miami press conference and a recap of day one festivities.

– Western Michigan has hired former RedHawk assistant Jeff Blashill as their new head coach. Read the full release here and enjoy some quotes from Blash below:

“I am extremely excited for the opportunity to lead the Western Michigan Bronco Hockey team and build upon the foundation laid by so many Bronco Alums,” Blashill said. “I’d like to thank President Dunn, Kathy Beauregard, the athletic staff and those who were a part of this process, for the trust they’ve placed in me and for allowing me the opportunity and challenge of pursuing, with passion and integrity, championship level ice hockey at Western Michigan.”

– I received a nice e-mail from Kat over at Rival Films with a reminder about the Frozen Four documentary, currently in production:

The official Frozen Four documentary will be sponsored by Reebok and is being created with the full support of the NCAA. The crew has been shooting since Monday, and will continue through Sunday. The current plan has the documentary not only covering game footage, but the back story of one player per team.

The Rival Films Facebook page has pictures and behind the scenes info from the Frozen Four and their taping this week. In addition, the Facebook page has a trivia contest ongoing up until Saturday’s championship game, with Reebok prizes for winners.

The DVD is available for pre-order here at a significant discount from the retail price, including free shipping. DVDs will ship close to June 15th.

– For those that missed it, The Pipeline Show has a blog recap of the Frozen Four Coaches’ Edition, featuring Enrico Blasi. You can read about the episode, or listen to it by clicking this link.

– If you’re looking for a good read, check out this piece from “Let’s Play Hockey”. It’s a great look at just how many college-“honed” players are currently in the NHL today. Astounding, actually, when most players seem to come from the Canadian junior leagues. Good stuff and great pub for college hockey.

– College Hockey News has a nice feature about the RedHawks goaltending dilemma. There are some great quotes from Rico (comparing choosing a goaltender to selecting a Pope-priceless) and more!

– And whatever you do, please find time to watch the video of Pat Cannone at this link from ESPN. It shows just how long the players’ walk from the Ford Field ice to the dressing room is. It’s uphill and upstairs.

Go RedHawks!

Posted in Boston College, Jeff Blashill

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