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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.
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.
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.
5-goal Maine first dooms Miami
A four-goal second period was crucial in Miami’s win on Friday.
A day later, a five-tally opening frame was the RedHawks’ demise.
Maine scored the first five goals and held on for a 6-3 win over Miami in a penalty-laden series finale on Saturday.
The two-game set saw 19 goals scored 115 penalty minutes assessed. The RedHawks (1-3) won the opener, 7-5, earning a weekend split.
It took the Black Bears (2-2) just 1:01 to register a marker. Eduard Tralmaks took a long neutral-zone pass, crossed the blue line along the boards, skated around a Miami defender and tucked the puck inside the far side of the net.
Just 1:21 later on a 5-on-3, Patrick Holway scored on a blast from the slot that snuck inside the post on the stick side.
At the 8:07 mark of the first period, Tralmaks fired a pass across the high slot to Brady Keeper, who ripped one past Miami goalie Ryan Larkin from the top of the faceoff circle.
Less than three minutes later, Patrick Shea shoveled home a slap pass from the side of the net off a feed by Holway.
Exit Larkin, as the standout had stopped just 7 of 11 shots. Enter Grant Valentine, who made his RedHawks debut.
With 2:13 left in the first frame, Maine again capitalized on a two-man advantage. A shot from Mitchell Fossier snuck through Valentine’s pads.
Larkin was back in net for the final two periods.
Miami did get one back before the first 20 expired. Defenseman Grant Hutton threw a puck toward the net, and it hit a stick or skate and caromed to a wide-open Phil Knies, who deposited it in the net for his first collegiate goal with five seconds remaining.
Midway through the second period, Maine’s Emil Westerlund sent a pass from behind the Miami net to a wide-open Tim Doherty, who skated around Larkin and tapped it home to make it 6-1.
The RedHawks cut the deficit to four with 3:47 left in that stanza, as Louie Belpedio teed up Grant Hutton from the center of the faceoff circle, and his blast beat Black Bears goalie Jeremy Swayman on the glove side.
Miami’s Grant Hutton (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
Miami pulled its goalie in the final minutes, and Hutton connected again when he whipped a wrist shot into the far side of the net.
Hutton finished with two goals and an assist, giving the blueline four markers and a helper for the weekend.
Knies ended the game with a goal and an assist, and Gordie Green picked up a pair of assists, giving him a 2-5-7 line for the weekend.
The RedHawks were 3-for-5 on the power play and were 7 of 10 for the series.
There were a pair of skirmishes after the outcome was no longer in doubt. Green, Carson Meyer and Rourke Russell were all assessed roughing minors after a pushing-and-shoving incident in the second period.
Belpedio and Keeper were given game misconducts for a dust-up midway through the third period, as 89 combined penalty minutes were dished out.
Miami returns home to face Connecticut in a weekend series on Friday and Saturday.
Analysis: Eerie parallels to Plymouth
A week after winning an exhibition against Team USA, 7-5 on the road, Miami beat Maine by the same score in its first regular season road game of the season on Friday.
The odds of winning back-to-back road games by that score are pretty long, but it gets weirder.
– Grant Hutton had never scored multiple goals in a game prior to last week. He netted two vs. the USNDT and two vs. Maine.
– Josh Melnick had never recorded three assists – or even three points – in a game. His line was 0-3-3 in both contests.
– Got one better: The last time Miami and its opponent had both found the net at least three times in the second period? Oct. 17, 2009. The RedHawks outscored the U-18 squad, 4-3 in the middle stanza last week. On Friday both teams connected three times in that frame.
And that wild game 5-5 road tie eight years ago to the date? Nope, it wasn’t against Maine, but it was at the closest Division I school to Orono – at New Hampshire, less than 200 miles away.
Winning a road exhibition had to instill confidence in a team that had gone so long between victories. Traveling over 1,000 miles to beat a Division I team is way better.
The freshmen have a win under their belt after an 0-2 start including a brutal ending to Game 2. The sophomores finally got back on the winning track after a seemingly eternal winless streak and the veterans needed the pick-me-up as well after a lack of success Miami’s past couple of seasons.
Other thoughts…
Miami’s Grant Hutton (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
– Amazing how Grant Hutton went from a zero-goal freshman campaign to being one of the biggest defenseman scoring threats in recent history. He netted nine last season and has three in three games in 2017-18.
That’s 12 in 39 games. The rest of the RedHawks entire D-corps has the same number in that span.
Also, Hutton’s goals have all come on the power play, as he is in a nine-way tie for first in the NCAA in PPGs and among just three defensemen with three man-advantage tallies.
– Love seeing Karch Bachman score. He seems to create a scoring chance every time he’s on the ice, and he was rewarded with ice/power play time on the Kiefer Sherwood line. Here’s hoping he gets more time on the man-advantage and the penalty kill, where he held his own vs. Providence. He’s got great speed, a great shot and an active stick that creates turnovers. He could break out this season.
– We saw the Josh Melnick-Gordie Green chemistry in Plymouth, and that was on display again on the east coast. They were on the ice together for five of Miami’s goals, and one or the other was out there in each of the team’s seven markers.
– Casey Gilling: 16-4 in the faceoff circle on Friday. This is a very welcome stat, as it’s an area in which the RedHawks have struggled in recent years.
– On the flip side, Miami still has work to do defensively, as it has allowed 10 goals in six periods (albeit one of those games didn’t count), and it won’t score seven goals a game the rest of the season. Ryan Larkin faced 25 shots and allowed five goals last night, and his save percentage is just .857 thus far. His defense needs to help him see fewer high-quality chances, and he needs to stop more of the ones he does face.
Miami has Maine seeing Green
Miami made its first win in nearly nine months a memorable one.
Thanks to an explosive power play and career-best five points by Gordie Green, the RedHawks scored seven times in the first 40:08 and held on for a 7-5 win at Maine on Friday.
Miami forward Gordie Green (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
The last time Miami (1-2) had ended up in the victory column was Jan. 28, as the team snapped a 12-game winless streak during which MU went 0-11-1.
The RedHawks had not scored seven goals in a game since Jan. 23, 2016, but Green’s feat was much more rare. The last five-point game by a Miamian was Nov. 30, 2013, when Austin Czarnik dished for five assists.
Miami opened the scoring with one second left on a power play, as Josh Melnick slid a pass from behind the boards to Gordie Green, who quickly hit Karch Bachman in the slot for a one-time, top-shelf blast 5:16 into the first period.
Just 19 seconds later, Green skated toward the net, eluded goalie Rob McGovern and tucked it into the corner of the net to make it 2-0.
Defenseman Grant Hutton buried a one-timer from the faceoff circle off a slot pass by Green, extending the RedHawks’ lead to three less than two minutes into the second period.
Miami’s Grant Hutton (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
Maine (1-2) got on the board on a wrister by Veli-Matti Tiuraniemi, and the Black Bears made it a one-goal game as a Mitchell Fossier shot hit a Miami skate and tricked over the goal line. Both goals came in a 91-second span midway through the second period.
Hutton made it 4-2 with a blast from the same spot as his first goal, as he slapped one through traffic with 7:27 remaining in the middle frame.
But Maine refused to go away. Fossier knocked down a pass at the top of the crease, move it to the top of his stick and bat it past RedHawks goalie Ryan Larkin with 3:41 left in the second stanza.
That was the fifth marker of the period, and Miami would strike for two more in the closing minutes. A give-and-go between Green and Kiefer Sherwood ended with Sherwood shoveling one just under the crossbar from the side of the net with 2:16 left in the period.
And 1:10 later, Scott Dornbrock teed one up for Louie Belpedio in the high slot, as his one-time rip made it 6-3.
The RedHawks took their largest lead of the game with their final goal eight seconds into the third period. Carson Meyer stole a pass at the blue line and connected with Green, who went in alone and beat backup goalie Jeremy Swayman on the forehand.
Miami forward Josh Melnick (photo by Cathy Lachmann).
Maine pulled to within two on a slap shot from the blue line by Eduard Tralmaks and a head-hunting shot by Rob Michel.
Miami finished 4-for-5 on the power play as the RedHawks recorded four PPGs in a game for the first time since Jan. 25, 2014 vs. Colorado College.
Melnick ended up with three assists – his first career three-point game – and Hutton had never scored two goals as a RedHawk.
Sherwood and Belpedio also notched two points, both with a goal and an assist.
These teams wrap up their weekend series at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
Preview: Miami at Maine
WHO: Miami University RedHawks (0-2) at Maine Black Bears (1-1).
WHEN: Friday and Saturday–7 p.m.
WHERE: Harold Alfond Sports Arena, Orono, Maine.
NOTES: Maine visited Oxford last season, and the RedHawks went 1-0-1, tying the opener, 3-3 and winning the finale, 5-0.
A Division I force through the late 2000s, the Black Bears have won 20 games just one time in the past 10 seasons, and that 23-win season in 2011-12 represented Maine’s lone NCAA Tournament appearance in that span.
The past three seasons have been particularly brutal for the Black Bears, as they have failed to reach the .400 mark, averaging just 11 wins.
Amazingly, Maine didn’t win a single road game in all of 2016-17, salvaging just four ties including one at Miami.
The Black Bears lost their top two scorers from last season in Blaine Byron and Cam Brown. Nolan Vesey, a Toronto draft pick and brother of New York Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey, is the team’s top returning scorer with 13 goals and 10 assists for 23 points.
Sophomore Chase Pearson, a Detroit selection, finished 14-8-22 in 2016-17 and has a pair of assists already this season.
The Black Bears have two other drafted players – G Jeremy Swayman and F Patrick Shea. Swayman is a freshman who gave up four goals in a losing effort in his debut. Shea, a sophomore, has dressed for both games this campaign.
Cedric Lacroix, Peter Housakos and Mitchell Fossier are all back this season, and each found the net vs. Miami last year.
Miami was swept at home by Providence two weeks ago and beat the U.S. Under-18 team, 7-5 in Plymouth, Mich., last Friday.
The RedHawks are looking for their first non-exhibition win since Jan. 28, having gone 0-11-1 in their last 12 games.
D Grant Hutton is 1-1-2, found the net nine times in 2016-17 and scored twice in Miami’s exhibition and has to be considered a credible threat to score from the blue line, which should create more space for his linemates.
The Gordie Green-Josh Melnick chemistry last week vs. the USNDT was undeniable, as Green scored twice – both times set up by Melnick, including a spectacular kick-pass-for-breakaway goal, and Melnick finished with three helpers.
Miami’s Carson Meyer (photo by Cathy Lachmann/BoB).
These types of long trips early in the season can help teams bond, and Miami will have played just one exhibition in 13 days entering this series, so the RedHawks have reason to come out strong.
Miami and Maine have only played eight times, with the Black Bears leading the all-time series, 5-2-1.
Carson Meyer recorded four assists in last season’s series, and Louie Belpedio netted a pair of goals.
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