NCAA Tournament Predictions
The field of 16 is set. Now that we know where the ‘Hawks are heading, the Redskin Warriors are going on the record with our predictions as to who will take the Division I crown.
**DISCLAIMER: We suggest that you not play the gut feelings informed predictions of three idiots fans who love Miami hockey way too much anywhere in Las Vegas. You’ve been warned.**
RedHawk95
Frozen Four: Boston College, Minnesota, Miami, Michigan
Finals: Boston College v. Miami
National Champions: Boston College
Miamibeef04
Frozen Four: Boston College, Minnesota, Miami, Michigan
Finals: Minnesota vs. Miami
National Champions: Miami
Mac
Frozen Four: Boston College, North Dakota, Miami, Michigan
Finals: Boston College vs. Miami
National Champions: Boston College
Both Miami Goalies Take Home CCHA Hardware, Smith a Hobey Finalist
At last Thursday’s CCHA Awards Banquet, 2 RedHawks took home some hardware on the night. Miami didn’t take home some of the awards we’ve grown accustomed to winning (defensive defenseman, CCHA POTY), but last night was still a success for 2 Miami Seniors.
For the on-ice awards, despite only receiving Honorable Mention for the All-CCHA teams, Senior Connor Knapp took home the goaltender of the year. Somewhere along the lines, the voters changed their minds and moved Knapp from the third best goalie in the league to the best, jumping over . With his stats in 2012, you can understand why – I would have changed my mind as well. 16 games, 10-5-0 record, 1.41 goals against average, .945 save percentage, and don’t forget those 5 shutouts on the season and 13 career shutouts – a Miami record.
Reilly smith won this year’s Perani Cup, given to the player with the most nominations as one of the “3 stars of the game” in conference play. Check out the standings here, and you’ll see that he beat out this weekend’s opposing goalie Frank Slubowski for the award.
Jumping off of the ice now, we turn to Senior goaltender Cody Reichard. We know about Cody’s efforts with Swoop’s Stoop, and his hard work off the ice has also payed of. Reichard won the prestigious Ilitch Humanitarian Award, which is given to a player “who had tremendous philanthropic efforts.” Tremendous philanthropic efforts… that doesn’t even begin to describe Cody’s work with Swoop’s Stoop. Congratulations Cody on this award, and we hope we get to see a Lowe’s Senior CLASS award on your mantle as well!
In addition to yesterday’s CCHA Awards Banquet, the Hobey Baker Award Committee announced its 10 Finalists for the 2012 Player of the Year Award. Reilly Smith made the top 10 list, marking the 5th time in the last 6 years that Miami has had a Hobey Baker Award Finalist. Of the 10 finalists, 3 will be named to the Hobey Hat Trick, invited to Tampa Bay and the Frozen Four, and will be eligible to win the award.
Here’s a list of the finalists all-time for the Redskins/RedHawks.
- Reilly Smith, 2012
- Andy Miele, 2011 Winner
- Carter Camper, 2011
- Cody Reichard, 2010
- Ryan Jones, 2008 – also a Hobey Hat Trick member
- Nathan Davis, 2007
- Andy Green, 2006
- Derek Edwardson, 2004
- Dan Boyle, 1998
- Randy Robitaille, 1997
- Brian Savage, 1993
Sorry for the late posting on this…It was a long weekend for the Warriors!
The Bracket is Set!
As we noted as the pairings were announced, #2 Miami will face #3 UMass-Lowell in Bridgeport, Conn. on Friday at 6:30pm EDT. If they should win, they would face the winner of #1 Union College and #4 Michigan State. Check back this week for full previews and analysis.
RedHawks To Face Lowell In First Round
Look out Bridgeport, here come the RedHawks! It was just announced on ESPNU that Miami will face the UMass-Lowell Riverhawks on Friday at 6:30pm. The other matchup in the East regional bracket features Union vs. Michigan State.
More to come from the Redskin Warriors today and over the next week. We’ll also “phone in” our predictions for the entire tournament and preview some of the matchups.
Here is the bracket at NCAA.com
Miami falls to WMU, faces BG in CCHA consolation
In a performance that was a reminder of their first half struggles, the Miami RedHawks squandered a chance to make school history and dropped their CCHA seminfinal game 6-2 to Western Michigan at Joe Louis Arena.
The RedHawks were outplayed in virtually every facet of the game and the defensive breakdowns that led to several Bronco goals were eerily reminiscent of their struggles in the first half of the season as senior netminder Connor Knapp was routinely left hung out to dry. The most egregious defensive breakdown occurred perhaps on Western’s first goal when Garrett Haar led a 3-on-1 rush up the left wing that was so badly misplayed by freshman defensemen Ben Paulides, it left me wondering if he did more to hurt the cause than help Knapp in that situation. Greg Squires capitalized on an easy pass to beat Knapp top shelf with a redirection after Paulides left his feet, abandoned the slot shooter and simply slid past Haar who centered a perfect pass to Squires for a goal that set the tone.
Frankly, there isn’t much else to talk about.
Miami allowed a shorthanded goal, three powerplay goals and played nothing like the team we’d seen down the stretch. The team looked disinterested and Western took Miami’s physical, on the edge game, and threw it in the RedHawks’ faces. They were clearly more motivated and more aggressive than Miami who simply seemed flat and unmotivated. It was the best I’ve ever seen a Western Michigan team play. Junior forward Reilly Smith was the lone bright spot as his Hobey campaign is hitting its stride. Smith netted both of Miami’s goals and now has a career best 29 (he had 28 last year playing with Hobey Baker Award winner Andy Miele).
The RedHawks will try to salvage something out of this CCHA championship weekend when they take on Chris Bergeron and Bowling Green in today’s consolation game at 3:30pm EDT. Honestly, I can easily see Miami losing this game as they have little to play for, weren’t interested when they did, and I suspect the Falcons will try to send a message that their late season run wasn’t a fluke. BG, despite their double OT loss to Michigan last night, wants to prove they’ll be back and better than ever in the CCHA’s final season.
The good news is that Miami is safely in the NCAA tournament. Get right after yesterday’s disaster and move on. There’s still a national championship out there for the RedHawks to claim…if they want it.
Weekend Preview: CCHA Semifinals and Finals
This weekend marks the final weekend of conference play in all of college hockey, with the final positioning for the NCAA tournament at stake and conference championships waiting to be won. Your 4th seeded and defending Mason Cup Champion Miami RedHawks take to the ice at 4:35 pm Friday afternoon against the #3 seed Western Michigan Broncos in the first CCHA Semifinal and #2 seed Michigan takes on the #11 seed Bowling Green in the late game.
Semifinal 1: #3 Western Michigan vs. #4 Miami 4:35
TV: Fox Sports – Ohio (DirecTV 660), Fox Sports Detroit Plus (DirecTV 664 SD, 664-1 HD) and Fox College Sports-Atlantic (it’s out there somewhere)
This season, the Broncos and RedHawks faced off twice, and Miami took both games in Oxford by scores of 3-1 and 4-0. Connor Knapp started both games and made 48 out of 49 saves on the weekend, and Reilly Smith started his torrid second-half streak with a hat trick on Friday night, and added another goal on Saturday night.
On Friday, expect to see a showdown of Knapp, a senior, and Rookie of the year candidate Frank (the big) Slubowski in opposing nets. Knapp, as we know, has been absolutely on fire in 2012. Here’s the low-down on Knapp’s unbelievable season from muredhawks.com:
- Connor has not allowed an even-strength goal since Feb. 4, 2012 against Michigan, a span of seven starts.
- In those 7 games: four goals allowed, all on the power play.
- Knapp has allowed one or fewer goals in 13 of his last 15 games, during which he has a 0.89 goals against average and .964 save percentage (since the start of 2012).
- Knapp leads the NCAA with a 1.43 GAA and is second in save percentage at .943.
- His 5 shutouts this year (all since 1/7/12) are a career high, and he broke the school’s career shutouts record with his 13th last Friday.
Miami comes in with an 8-game winning streak, second longest in the nation to Boston College who has won 13 straight contests. In those games, Miami has outscored their opponents 32-5. Western Michigan is unbeaten in its last 4 games, including a win and a tie against the previously bounced Ferris State Bulldogs, and last weekend’s sweep of Lake Superior State in round 2. While the Friday game is the first time Miami and WMU have met in the CCHA Semifinals, it is a rematch of the CCHA Championship game from 2011, a contest won handily by the RedHawks for Miami’s first Mason Cup title.
More notes for the weekend:
- Reilly Smith is carrying an 8 game point streak into this weekend. He had previously scored goals in 7 straight until Saturday night’s game. He continues to lead the NCAA with 8 game winners and is second in the NCAA with 27 goals scored.
- Jimmy Mullin has scored in 5 straight games – his career long – and has 11 points in those games.
- Western Michigan Head Coach Andy Murray will coach in his 22nd game at Joe Louis Arena in Friday’s CCHA Semifinals. As a head coach of the Los Angeles Kings he went 1-9-1 against in Joe Louis Arena, with the lone win coming as a playoff series clinching victory over the Red Wings in 2001. (Source: wmubroncos.com)
- Miami will want to stay out of the penalty box this weekend. WMU is 3 for 5 on the power play during the CCHA playoffs, and were performing at a 20.1% clip in the regular season. Miami’s penalty kill stands at 6th in the nation at 85.9% of penalties successfully killed, and also ranks 6th with 16.4 penalty minutes per game.
- As the games go final on the weekend, keep your eye on USCHO’s PairWise rankings. Miami sits tied with Boston University for the #4 spot at this moment, meaning if the season had ended and today we were watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, Miami would be a #1 seed. After every final score of the weekend, these standings are going to jostle ever so slightly, and almost every game is important.
- Senior Goalie Cody Reichard was named one of 5 finalists for the NCAA’s Wooden Citizenship Cup. The award is presented annually to two distinguished athletes, one collegiate and one professional, for their character and leadership both on and off the field and their contributions to sport and society. (source: muredhawks.com)
- For your reading pleasure, check out USCHO blogger Elliot Olshansky’s Hobey Baker picks for 2012, where he picks Reilly Smith as a finalist.
- And for your viewing pleasure, take a gander at the CCHA’s 20 Questions with Miami Senior Defenseman Chris Wideman, and their CCHA Now feature for 3/14/12.
Semifinal 2: #11 Bowling Green vs. #2 Michigan; approx 8:05PM Eastern
TV: Fox Sports-Detroit Plus, and Fox College Sports-Atlantic
Coming off of a 2-1 series victory over Northern Michigan 2 weekends ago, Bowling Green got 5 more goals from Freshman Dan DeSalvo and took down top-seeded Ferris State in dramatic fashion last weekend. Ferris State led 3-0 after 1 period of play in Sunday’s round 2 finale, but 4 straight goals from the Fighting Chris Bergerons, and they move on to Detroit for the first time since 2001. Consider these facts about BG’s improbable run:
- BG was the first team to win a playoff series from the last place seed in 2011. They repeated that feat in 2012, and in doing so, knocked off the #6 and #1 seeds in the CCHA tournament in the process
- BG won 5 CCHA conference games all season, and have now won 4 of their last 6 in the tournament. Throw in a win over Michigan in the last series of the season, and they’re 5-3 in the last 3 weeks of play
- Freshman Dan DeSalvo scored 4 goals all season in 17 games, and missed the last 4 games of the season with an injury. Against NMU, he had 5 goals in the 3 game series, and he scored another 5 in the three games against Ferris State.
- DeSalvo scored the first hat trick for BG since Jan. 18, 2008, and DeSalvo’s 10 playoff goals are already a new CCHA Tournament record, with 2 more games to play.
Third place game: The losers of the semifinal games will meet at 3:35PM Eastern Saturday.
CCHA Championship game: winners of the 2 semifinal games, 7:35PM Saturday; Fox Sports-Detroit, Fox Sports-Ohio (Alternate channel)
If you’re looking for your hockey fix tonight and can’t wait until tomorrow, catch 3 future Miami conference-mates in action from the WCHA’s Final Five tournament (that consists 6 teams). Denver takes on Michigan Tech at 3:07 Eastern today and St. Cloud State takes on North Dakota at 8:07 Eastern. You can catch both with the “sports packages” on Fox Sports-North (DirecTV ch. 668) out of St. Paul, Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center tonight.
After all the dust settles on the entire weekend, jump over to ESPNU on Sunday at high noon. John Buccigross, Barry Melrose and Aaron Ward will announce the NCAA Tournament Field on the NCAA Hockey Selection Show, and we’ll find out exactly where Miami is heading for its first round NCAA tournament game.
Saturday night game highlights
Here are the highlights from Saturday night’s 4-1 victory over Michigan State that sent the RedHawks to Joe for the CCHA semifinals against Western Michigan.
Miami/Western game time confirmed
This morning, the CCHA announced that Miami and Western Michigan will faceoff at 4:35pm EST on Friday at Joe Louis Arena in the first semifinal of the weekend. That means Bowling Green and Michigan will play at approximately 8pm Friday night to maximize both attendance in the rink and on television. Both games will be televised by FOX Sports Detroit PLUS with Saturday’s championship game on FOX Sports Detroit.
Miami to face Western Michigan in CCHA semifinals
With Bowling Green’s come-from-behind victory over Ferris State earlier this evening, it means the RedHawks will face Western Michigan in a rematch of last year’s Mason Cup Championship game in (likely) the first semifinal game Friday afternoon at 4pm. The Falcon victory means former Miami players and coaches Chris Bergeron and Barry Schutte will take the orange and brown to Joe Louis Arena for the first time since 2001.
Earlier this year, Miami swept the Broncos 3-1 and 4-0 in Oxford. However, Western played the series without two top players — Dane Walters and Shane Berschbach — and presumably the Broncos will be at full strength on Friday afternoon.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone really cared whether Miami drew Ferris State or Western Michigan — at least I didn’t. With the way Miami is playing, they only need worry about themselves and continue to do the things that have propelled the club steadily upward throughout the second half of the season. Miami is playing its best hockey of the year at precisely the right time. Let’s hope they have another good weekend left in them as they prepare for the NCAA tournament.
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