Category Archives: 2017-18
Analysis: End game going Miami’s way
OXFORD, Ohio – If Friday’s conference opener was any indication, this could be a fun NCHC season.
Miami led by one then trailed by one, scored the tying goal with 51 seconds left and the winner in overtime of a 3-2 victory over Colorado College at Cady Arena on Friday.
No one expects this to happen 100 percent of the time when games are close, but this is two games in a row in which the RedHawks faced adversity late and killed it.
Last Saturday, Connecticut had all the momentum heading into the third period and Miami came out with three quick goals to shut the door.
There have been a number of similar games the past few seasons in which the final outcome has gone the other way, and 6-on-5 has been RedHawk kryptonite.
MU entered this four-game homestand 1-3 and has won three much-needed contests in a row to pull a game over .500, and the RedHawks have a chance to sweep the four-game set and its first NCHC series of 2017-18.
The way Miami has played late in the past two games, things are definitely looking good heading into the RedHawks’ home finale.
Other thoughts…
– It was a well-played game by both teams, and as expected, CC is much better than in past seasons. Obviously the ending makes that easy to say, but the quality of play was high even in those first two fairly-uneventful periods, especially considering it’s still early November.
– Colorado College scored both of its goals on the power play. The interference on Rourke Russell was the right call, but Grant Hutton barely contacted a player with the puck and was whistled for tripping. The officiating was pretty inconsistent, and the Tigers received six power plays to Miami’s two.
Miami’s Ben Lown (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
– Ben Lown is currently the third member of the top line with Gordie Green and Josh Melnick, and he proved deserving of that role with the centering feed to Melnick for the overtime winner. Like several of the other freshmen, he seems to be gaining confidence with each game.
– Three RedHawks took at least eight faceoffs, and all had winning records. Melnick was 15-13, Casey Gilling finished 13-7 and Kiefer Sherwood won six of eight. Overall Miami was 39-29 on the night.
– Green and Melnick both have five-game points streaks. Green has all of his team-best 13 points in that span (4-9-13), and Melnick is 2-6-8. Louie Belpedio has three goals in his last two games, and Melnick has goals in consecutive games as well.
GRADES
FORWARDS: C+. Melnick and Gilling both found the net, but this corps combined for just 15 shots and four of its five minor penalties resulted in CC power plays. Ryan Siroky dished out a pair of huge hits, but Miami didn’t get much offensive production from its bottom three lines. Kiefer Sherwood and Carson Meyer combined for just one shot, and Karch Bachman had three – including some high-percentage attempts – as the third member of that line, but he appears somewhat snakebitten.
DEFENSEMEN: B+. Belpedio juked at the blue line and wired one home for one of the goals. Colorado College generated 30 shots but 11 were on the power play. Chaz Switzer stopped a 31st and a would-be goal when he blocked a shot at the top of the crease while goalie Ryan Larkin was scrambling to get back into position.
GOALTENDING: B. Twice Larkin sprawled across the goal mouth to stop A-plus chances, and he was 28 of 30 overall (.933). One of the shots slipped through in heavy traffic, and both were on the power play. Larkin had allowed 16 goals the first four games but has surrendered just three in his last three starts.
LINEUP CHANGES: None again. It’s the third straight game the same 18 skaters have dressed, and Larkin has been between the pipes for the start of all seven of Miami’s contests.
Another OT winner for Melnick
OXFORD, Ohio – Josh Melnick loves overtime, especially when Miami plays Colorado College.
Miami celebrates after Josh Melnick’s game winner on Friday (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
The last time the RedHawks played the Tigers, MU won, 3-2 in overtime at Cady Arena, with the winner coming from Josh Melnick.
Copy and paste, as Miami won by the same score at the same venue with the same guy scoring the OT winner on Friday.
It was the third career overtime goal for Melnick.
The extra session came after a wild third period that saw the RedHawks go from up one to down one and finally even after tying it with 51 seconds remaining.
Following a scoreless first period, Miami (4-3) took the lead when Louie Belpedio juked at the blue line and whipped into the top corner of the net with 12:34 left in the second period.
It remained 1-0 until the 6:51 mark of the third period, when Trevor Gooch’s tip-in tied it on the power play.
Colorado College (5-4) went ahead with 4:40 remaining when a blue-line shot snuck past Miami goalie Ryan Larkin in heavy traffic.
But with the extra attacker on, Gordie Green gloved down a puck and slid a pass across the slot to Casey Gilling for a game-tying one-timer with 51 seconds remaining.
In overtime, Ben Lown chipped a centering pass to a streaking Melnick, who was able to bat the puck past goalie Alex Leclerc and into the back of the net with 2:23 left in that stanza.
It was the third straight win for Miami and it snapped an 0-9-1 skid for the RedHawks against conference foes.
Green finished with two assists, giving him a team-best 13 points, all in the last five games.
Ryan Larkin stopped 28 shots to earn the win for Miami.
It was the NCHC opener for the RedHawks, who are in a five-way tie for first with three points.
These teams will wrap up their weekend series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.
Preview: CC no longer a pushover
WHO: Colorado College Tigers (5-3) at Miami University RedHawks (3-3).
WHERE: Cady Arena, Oxford, Ohio.
WHEN: Friday – 7:35 p.m.; Saturday – 7:05 p.m.
TV: None.
COLORADO COLLEGE RADIO: KRDO-AM (1240), KRDO-FM (105.5), Colorado Springs, Colo.
NOTES: Remember that Colorado College team that the NCHC beat up the first few years of the league’s existence?
You know, the team that the media kept saying was going to get better one of these days but has finished dead last in the league three of the first four seasons ?
Well, that day has arrived. And what’s scarier: Not a single CC player that has logged a game this fall is a senior.
The Tigers are just outside the USCHO’s top 20, having split in Vermont, swept Alaska-Anchorage, taken 1 of 2 at then-No. 17 New Hampshire and went 1-1 vs. North Dakota.
That’s not a doormat’s resume.
Colorado College has only outscored opponents by one goal, but the Tigers are 4-0 in one-goal games. So the Tigers are finding a way to win the tight games, an area in which Miami has improved so far this season.
Nick Halloran leads the conference in points (4-8-12), and Mason Bergh is tied for first in the NCAA in goals (7) and is tied with Gordie Green for second in the league with 11 points.
But this CC team hasn’t been particularly deep, as that duo has scored 46 percent of the team’s goals. Tyler Gooch is the only other Colorado College player with two goals – 11 others have one.
Among Tigers forwards, Trey Bradley has a goal and seven assists and Westin Michaud has scored once and picked up five helpers.
Colorado College has not gotten much offensive production from its defense. As a team, the Tigers have just two goals and seven assists from their blueliners.
CC has not been great on special teams, converting power plays at an NCHC-worst 12.5 percent clip and killing just 74.3 percent of man-advantage opportunities.
Miami defenseman Grant Hutton (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
The RedHawks are second in the NCAA on the power play at 34.3 percent and are tied for the Division I lead with 12 PPGs.
Defenseman Grant Hutton has five of those for Miami, tops in college hockey.
However, the Tigers have been excellent at drawing penalties, as they have been on the power play 48 times already.
Colorado College and North Dakota played each other last weekend in the first conference contests of the season. This weekend every NCHC team except UND will compete against league opponents.
With the Tigers rejuvenated, this conference gets that much tougher. The PairWise has the Tigers at 13 and Miami at 49.
Except for Cornell, every one of the RedHawks’ remaining opponents is ranked in the top 25.
Photos: Connecticut at Miami
Photos from the Connecticut-Miami series played at Cady Arena on Oct. 27-28, 2017. All images by Cathy Lachmann/BoB.
Analysis: Schedule tougher from here
OXFORD, Ohio – Connecticut is far from an elite opponent.
But when a team has struggled to earn wins in recent seasons as Miami has, a dominating sweep can do wonders for a program.
The RedHawks blew out the Huskies, 7-1 at Cady Arena on Saturday to complete a series sweep. Miami outscored UConn, 10-1 for the weekend.
Connecticut (2-5-1) is 51st in the way-too-early-to-take-seriously PairWise, and Maine – MU’s opponent last weekend – is 54th.
So Miami went 3-1 vs. teams in the lower tier of Division I. The RedHawks were 0-2 against a Providence team that’s ranked seventh.
MU is presently 49th itself, which is in the bottom 20 percent.
Miami goalie Ryan Larkin (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
Some really good things happened this weekend. Ryan Larkin returned to form. The power play continued to excel. The RedHawks played much better defensively, holding UConn under 20 shots both nights.
As mentioned previously, the RedHawks (3-3) needed to get back to .500 heading into their NCHC slate, which they did. But the level of difficulty will amp up substantially from here.
Up next for Miami is a rejuvenated Colorado College team in the RedHawks’ league openers, with both games in Oxford.
Then comes the North Dakota trip.
The RedHawks have shown can light the lamp against mediocre teams, but we’ll find out a lot more about this team’s make-up in the coming weeks.
Other thoughts…
– The key timeframe in this game was late in the second period when Connecticut scored to cut its deficit to one and Miami’s response early in the third period. Miami had dominated to that point but led 2-1 entering the third period up with the Huskies holding the momentum.
– I give Coach Enrico Blasi his staff a lot of credit for their coaching in the third period. Holding leads has been an issue in the past, and the RedHawks came out with five goals to put it away. Blasi also distributed ice time very well in those final 20 minutes, allowing almost every skater to log power play time. Beyond that, a frustrated UConn team took some dumb penalties out of frustration and tried to drag Miami into confrontations, but the RedHawks answered with goals instead of fisticuffs. There are times to engage opponents in that manner, but up a handful of goals against an inferior opponent is not one of them. Just in case, Blasi sent tough guys Conor Lemirande and Ryan Siroky out late.
– Along those lines, surprised the Huskies mailed it in after Miami made it 4-1. UConn led the RedHawks impose their will on them the remainder of the game.
– There have been very few players in recent years who have started their Miami careers slowly in terms of points and just suddenly blown up. Gordie Green is one of them. He tallied four points his first 17 games but has 28 points in 25 games since. Not in any way comparing these players, but Ryan Jones and Andy Miele are two of the only players in the Cady Arena who have taken off in similar manners their sophomore seasons after pedestrian rookie campaigns.
– Where was everyone? The announced attendance was 1,863 but even that seemed high. It was 1,894 on Friday. There was almost no student section either night. Word is there were several Halloween parties, but Miami has drawn just fine the final weekend in October in the past and everyone knows parties in Oxford start well after the final whistle at 9:32 p.m.
GRADES
FORWARDS: A. The power play was especially brilliant, and it was inspiring to watch some of the passing and stickwork. Eight of the 12 forwards recorded at least one point. Freshman Casey Gilling was 13 of 18 on faceoffs.
DEFENSEMEN: A+. All six were solid all night. UConn managed just 18 shots, and not many were high quality. And what an offensive outburst. Louie Belpedio scored twice and assisted on another. Grant Hutton, Scott Dornbrock and Chaz Switzer picked up a helper each. Switzer had looked tentative at times in previous games, but this was a solid performance for the lone sophomore in this corps.
GOALTENDING: A-. The shorthanded goal was a quality shot that would’ve required an above-average save by Larkin. He faced a few more Grade-A chances but stopped them all. Like Friday, the rebound control was excellent and he played with confidence.
LINEUP CHANGES: There were none. All 19 skaters-plus-Larkin from Friday were back on the ice Saturday. Blasi has typically let competition play out on the ice early in the season and solidified his go-to lineup card in January, but he seems pretty well settled in most spots already.
Miami nets 5 late to blow out UConn
OXFORD, Ohio – For the second straight night, Miami put a game away with a flurry of goals.
On Saturday, it was a four-goal outburst over a six-minute span of a five-marker third period that lifted the RedHawks to a 7-1 win over Connecticut.
That completed the series sweep, the first for Miami since early January.
Defenseman Louie Belpedio (photo by Cathy Lachmann).
Defenseman Louie Belpedio netted two goals and tallied three points, both tying career highs, and Gordie Green finished with a goal and two assists as he extended his points streak to four games.
At 3:40 of the first period, Kiefer Sherwood put Miami on the board with a power play blast from the top of the faceoff circle that snuck in the short side off a feed from Scott Dornbrock.
With two minutes left in the opening stanza, MU defenseman Grant Hutton carried the puck the length of the ice and temporarily lost it before regaining possession and sliding it through the top of the crease to a wide-open Green for a one-timer to make it 2-0.
That score remained until the 18:45 mark of the second period when UConn (2-5-1) forward Adam Karashik emerged with the puck along the boards in the offensive zone, skated across the top of the crease uncontested and deposited the puck in the back of the net shorthanded.
It was 2-1 at the second intermission, but the RedHawks’ offense awakened in the final frame.
Sherwood dropped a behind-the-back pass to Phil Knies, who skated around the back of the net and dumped it into the open side of the cage just 1:25 into the third period.
Then it was Belpedio’s turn. Josh Melnick skated behind the net to the sideboards and connected with Gordie Green in the faceoff circle, and he sent a pass to Belpedio for a high wrister that snuck under the crossbar less than two minutes later.
Green next set up Melnick, feeding him at the top of the crease. Melnick tipped the puck under Adam Huska on a change-up shot, as the puck sat just across the goal line at the 6:13 mark of the period.
Belpedio struck again 1:24 later, hitting the corner of the net from the slot for an unassisted tally.
Austin Alger capped the scoring on a late power play, notching his second goal of the season as he slammed home a deflected puck thrown at the net by Conor Lemirande.
Thirteen Miami (3-3) players recorded at least one point. Melnick and Sherwood also notched two points.
The RedHawks led, 19-3 on the shot clock early in the second period and ended the night with a 44-18 edge.
It was the third time in four games Miami recorded at least three power play goals. The RedHawks were 4-for-7 in this game and are 52.4 percent during that stretch.
Miami will host Colorado College next weekend as it opens its NCHC slate. The teams will play at 7:35 p.m. on Friday and 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.
Analysis: Good job preserving lead
OXFORD, Ohio – The last 50 minutes might not have been the most exciting in Miami history, but with the RedHawks allowing 17 goals the first four games, the shut-down hockey over the final two and a half periods was welcomed.
Miami scored three times in the first 10 minutes and coasted to a 3-0 win over Connecticut on Friday.
The RedHawks held the Huskies to 11 shots over the final two periods – in other words they did an excellent job of preserving the lead.
This weekend’s games are so important because the NCHC season begins next weekend for Miami, which doesn’t want to enter league play under .500.
Posting a winning record in this conference is hard enough, the RedHawks don’t need the additional burden of chasing victories against top 10 teams.
Whatever position in which Miami finds itself during NCHC play, this game had to help the RedHawks gain confidence in their ability to hold a late lead.
As exciting of a sport as hockey is to watch, sometimes an unsexy period or two are good for a team.
For Miami, the final 40 minutes of defensive, grind-it-out hockey were exactly what it needed.
Other thoughts…
– It must’ve been in Miami’s scouting report to throw the puck at the net from the left side of the blue line. Scott Dornbrock did this twice early in the first period: Once Carson Meyer tipped home a goal and the other time Dornbrock’s shot got all the way through.
Miami goalie Ryan Larkin (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
– Boy did Ryan Larkin need a solid performance. The sophomore entered the weekend with an .840 save percentage and a goals-against average well north of 4.00. He also wasn’t bombarded with A-plus scoring chances. Hopefully with this win Larkin’s confidence sores. So does the confidence of his teammates in Miami’s goaltending, because when the skaters don’t have faith in the guy between the pipes, it can takes players out of their game.
– The only downer is that as many NHL draftees as Connecticut has, it wasn’t a very impressive squad. At least it wasn’t very impressive in this game. The Huskies didn’t have much of an offensive punch, and they lacked a high level of team speed. One doesn’t get the feeling UConn is going to compete for a Hockey East title.
– Realized recently that only one or two file photos are loaded for some of Miami’s newsmakers, so BoB (read here: I) promise to add some very soon.
GRADES
FORWARDS: B-. Not a bad effort. There was nothing doing after the top two lines, really, as forwards not named Gordie Green or Kiefer Sherwood combined for just nine shots. Coach Enrico Blasi has never had any fear of throwing freshmen into the penalty kill, and Casey Gilling et al are doing a solid job. Both goals were sweet to watch: Meyer re-directed one from the slot and Green one-timed a thread-the-needle pass from Josh Melnick for the other marker by this corps.
DEFENSEMEN: A. This group not only held its own defensively, helping hold Connecticut to 19 shots and very few of high quality, it is also chipping in on offense regularly. Grant Hutton’s five goals are well documented, and he and Louie Belpedio racked up 10 shots on goal between them. Dornbrock scored on a beautifully-placed wrister. The freshmen are playing somewhat conservatively but aren’t making mistakes. Four shots allowed in the third period with a three-goal lead is pretty much optimal.
GOALTENDING: A. There were only a few good scoring chances for UConn, but Larkin looked his old self, playing technically sound but with lightning reflexes and top-notch instincts. Most of the Huskies’ good chances came early, and Larkin made the necessary stops late to preserve the shutout. His rebound control was outstanding as well.
LINEUP CHANGES: On defense, Mahalak was back in the lineup after being scratched for the finale in Maine. Up front, Zach Lavalle and Ben Lown returned the ice, as Alex Alger and Christian Mohs did not dress.
Miami shuts out Connecticut
OXFORD, Ohio – Arriving late for Miami’s inaugural game against Connecticut would have been ill-advised.
The RedHawks scored three goals in the first nine-plus minutes and Ryan Larkin stopped all 19 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over the Huskies at Cady Arena on Friday.
Miami’s Scott Dornbrock (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
At the 3:52 mark of the first period, Miami’s Scott Dornbrock wristed a shot from the blue line that Carson Meyer redirected from the slot and into the net.
Just 1:36 later, Dornbrock lit the lamp from near the same spot off a drop pass by Casey Gilling, extending the RedHawks’ lead to two.
With 10:53 left in the opening stanza, Gordie Green buried a shot from the slot on a one-timer, as Josh Melnick fed him a pass from along the boards through traffic.
That was it for the scoring despite both teams having four power plays.
Huskies goalie Adam Huska left the game late in the third period after going down awkwardly, appearing to suffer some type of lower-body injury. He was replaced by Tanner Creel, who stopped both shots he faced.
Green now has eight points on the season, taking solo control of first place on the team.
Dornbrock finished with a goal and an assists, his third career two-point game and his first with a 1-1-2 line.
It was Larkin’s second career shutout, with his other coming against Maine on Oct. 22.
The teams wrap up their weekend series at 7:05 p.m. tonight.
Preview: First meeting for UConn, MU
WHO: Connecticut Huskies (2-3-1) at Miami RedHawks (1-3).
WHEN: Friday, 7:35 p.m.; Saturday–7 p.m.
WHERE: Cady Arena, Oxford, Ohio.
TV: None.
NOTES: Strange that a pair of Division I teams in a tier of 60 have never met, but Friday will represent the inaugural contest between UConn and Miami.
The Huskies went Division I in 1998-99 and won 20 games that season, but they have not reached that high-water mark since. They have also never advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Current coach Mike Cavanaugh took over prior to 2013-14 – UConn’s final season in the Atlantic Hockey before joining Hockey East – and after an 18-14-4 debut, his teams have not posted a winning record since.
Like Miami, the Huskies split with Maine. After that season-opening series, they beat American International and lost to Sacred Heart then went 0-1-1 in a home-and-home with Boston University.
Connecticut has had no problem generating offense, averaging 3.3 goals and 35.3 shots per game.
F Alexandre Payusov was limited to two points in 15 games as a freshman, but he is 6-2-8 in six games to start 2017-18, leading all UConn forwards in goals and points.
Like Payusov, Karl El-Mir is from Montreal, and he has a pair of goals and four assists. Maxim Letunov, a second-round pick of San Jose, also has six points (1-5-6) and Kasperi Ojantakanen and Spencer Naas have recorded four points.
At defense, Johnny Austin has one goal and team highs in assists (8) and points (9) – his point total is tied for second among D-I blueliners – although the senior’s career high at UConn is 10 points last season.
Derek Pratt has a goal and three assists, and four NHL draftees – Miles Gendron (Ottawa), Philip Nyberg (Buffalo), Joseph Masonius (Pittsburgh) and David Drake (Philadelphia) also patrol the blue line for the Huskies.
The Huskies are outshooting opponents by nearly five shots per game, yet they have a goal differential of zero.
Which means UConn is not stopping the puck at a high enough clip. Starting goalie Adam Huska, a seventh-round New York Rangers pick in 2015, has a .905 save percentage and a 2.95 goals-against average.
Backup Tanner Creel was solid two years ago in relief but started against America International and allowed three goals on seven shots.
Like Miami, UConn is executing at a 33.3 percent rate on the power play, tied for fifth in the NCAA, but the Huskies are tied for 42nd with just a .722 penalty killing clip.
Connecticut has outscored its opponents in the final two periods but has struggled early, as it has netted just three goals while allowing 10 in the opening 20 minutes.
This series begins a crucial four-game homestand for Miami. These are extremely winnable games for the RedHawks, as are next week’s tilts against Colorado College.
If Miami is unable to thrive against these opponents, it could be a long season. UConn and CC were a combined 15 games under .500 in 2016-17.
The RedHawks are currently two games under .500, and the schedule gets a lot harder following these two series.
Analysis: Blowouts in college common
It’s always tough to watch a team you root for get blown out.
In certain sports with significant parity, it does happen to even the best teams.
So in the ultra-competitive world of NCAA Division I hockey, there’s no reason to panic after Miami fell behind five goals in the first period in a 6-3 loss to Maine on Saturday.
Not at all dismissing this pounding, but it’s still very early in the season and the RedHawks did earn a split on the road, which is rarely a bad thing.
There were a number of positive things to take from this game for the Miami fan.
Such as…
– Miami did fight back after falling behind by five early. Sometimes in hockey we see blowouts snowball, and at least the RedHawks battled down the stretch, cutting the final deficit to three.
– The power play is unreal. With Grant Hutton taking an active role on the man-advantage and Gordie Green joining the first unit full-time, Miami was 7-for-10 (70 percent) this weekend. And 3 of 5 in the finale, showing that even after the RedHawks lit the lamp four times on the man-advantage on Friday, Maine was unable to adjust.
– And I know it’s not always popular to say, but the chippy-ness we saw in this game can generate momentum and galvanize a team. There were two skirmishes on Saturday, and in the first Green was targeted along the boards after a stoppage. He not only stood up for himself, Rourke Russell came to his defense and was engaged with opponents the entire time, and Carson Meyer got involved as well. The my-teammate-has-my-back mentality is a bigger factor in hockey than almost any other sport, and such an incident can only help a young team.
Miami’s Louie Belpedio (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
– The other altercation: Captain Louie Belpedio ended up in a scrum midway through the third period and was tossed from the game. Sometimes captains have to get involved in these things. Again, this shows the team youngsters that the captain has everyone’s back.
– And good for the officials, Jack Millea and Kevin Keenan, about whom I know nothing other than they handled the after-the-whistle antics very well. No reason to suspend anyone, instead choosing the 10-minute misconduct option to address the possibility of repeat offenders.
Other thoughts…
– So Ryan Larkin. Again, blowouts happen. At one point, Patrick Roy let nine in for the Canadiens. Admittedly, he’s not exactly dominating, but let’s remember that this was a player who was named team MVP as a freshman at the team’s awards banquet. That’s a rarity. He had a .910 save percentage in 2016-17 despite getting pelted with Grade-A chances. The smart money is on him rebounding, and soon.
– Follow up to that point: Larkin did have a .792 winning percentage for the weekend, and it’s interesting that Grant Valentine backed him up on Saturday. Valentine logged nine-plus minutes and stopped 2 of 3 shots, giving up a low between-the-pads goal. Chase Munroe played the entire exhibition game in Plymouth, Mich., last weekend, and he allowed five goals. He was the backup down the stretch in 2016-17, so it looks like coach Enrico Blasi prefers Valentine as a backup at this point. But as long as he is healthy, it’s obvious the net currently belongs to Larkin, and if that’s the case through 2019-20, Miami will likely thrive.
– The RedHawks pulled the goalie down by four late, which typically indicates a coach thinks his team has played well enough that it deserves a chance to play on what’s essentially a power play. Hutton scored on the 6-on-5 to make it a three-goal game. Really, if you’re going to lose, who cares if it’s 3-2 or 13-2? Coach Blasi doesn’t, and I’m in agreement.
– It wasn’t a great night for Chaz Switzer. He was beaten, 1-on-1, resulting in Maine’s first goal, and his penalty on that play ultimately resulted in a 5-on-3 for another Black Bears goal. He was also on the ice for Maine’s third goal.
– Some perspective about Hutton’s scoring rate: He has 14 goals in 40 games since the start of 2016-17, and 10th place on BoB’s unofficial all-time career defenseman goal leaderboard is Josh Harrold with 15. With five goals in five games already this season, Miami could be looking at one of its top-scoring blueliners of all-time.
– Veli-Antti Tiuraniemi, a Black Bears defenseman, was committed to Miami last season and appeared to be headed to Oxford this fall. Instead he had a goal and an assist vs. the RedHawks.
– Thanks to the University of Maine for its free high-quality online stream. The game experience in Orono is supposed to be fantastic, and BoB wishes the Black Bears nothing but success in the future, especially since subsequent wins by Maine will affect the PairWise!
LINEUP CHANGES: F Zach LaValle was scratched after dressing for the first three games. Alex Alger played for the first time this season in his place. F Ryan Siroky replaced Ben Lown for both games this weekend. On defense, Alec Mahalak sat for the first time in 2017-18, as Grant Frederic logged his second game of the season. Fs Willie Knierim and Carter Johnson, plus D Bryce Hatten are the only Miami players not to log ice time this season, although Knierim played in Plymouth.
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