Home : Sports : Sports Blogs Local :

Miami ends goal slump, beats Ohio St.

RedHawks strike for 5 No. 4 Buckeyes

Miami-Paulazzo generic_20111210060740_JPG

Bryon Paulazzo (Cathy Lachmann/WCPO.com).

Regular Photo Size

Posted: 12/10/2011

By John Lachmann

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A weekend after being held to two goals in two games, Miami posted its second-highest goal total of the season.

The RedHawks broke out of their offensive slump with a 5-3 win over No. 4 Ohio State at Value City Arena on Friday.

Miami (9-8-2) has only surpassed this game’s offensive output once this season, with that coming in a six-goal effort vs. Providence on Nov. 25.

Freshman forward Austin Czarnik put Miami ahead early when he poked at the Buckeyes’ net twice off of a rebound before the puck slipped in less than four minutes into the first period.

RedHawks’ senior goalie Connor Knapp surrendered a rebound goal of his own when a shot by Justin DaSilva bounced well off Knapp and straight out to Darik Angeli for a slam-dunk goal 29 seconds later.

Miami freshman forward Blake Coleman scored off of a feed by sophomore forward Bryon Paulazzo 93 seconds into the second period to give the RedHawks another one goal lead.

This time it would hold up. Miami senior Matt Tomassoni scored on a shorthanded breakaway, slipping the puck through Ohio State goalie Cal Heeter’s legs with three minutes remaining in the middle frame.

But Buckeyes’ forward Nick Oddo netted a power play goal less than a minute later to cut the Miami lead to one, 3-2.

From the top of the faceoff circles, Paulazzo buried a wrister just inside the post with 17:17 left in the game to extend the RedHawks’ lead to two again.

Once again, Ohio State (12-4-1) refused to go away. The Buckeyes shot the puck in, and Knapp went behind the net to play it, but it deflected off his stick and rolled in front of the Miami net where OSU’s Chris Crane slammed it home with 10:44 remaining, making it 4-3.

The Buckeyes followed with a goaltending blunder of their own. Heeter went behind the puck with Miami junior forward Reilly Smith charging, and Smith intercepted the puck and found freshman forward Jimmy Mullin, whose initial shot was saved by his second chance found the net with 5:40 left.

Paulazzo and Mullin finished with a goal and an assist each (Paulazzo’s first multi-point game of the season), and Smith – just named the third captain along with seniors Will Weber and Alden Hirschfeld – added two helpers.

Paulazzo was named the game’s first star, and Smith was second.

Knapp stopped 27 shots to win for just the third time this season.

Once again freshman played a prominent role in the Miami offense, scoring three goals. Since his one-game suspension, Czarnik has five goals in eight games, and Coleman netted his fifth in seven games.

Mullin has four points in five games, due largely to his increased playing time since being promoted from the fourth line.

Ohio State had won its previous nine games and was unbeaten in its last 11.

The series finale will be at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday at Cady Arena. After the home-and-home set concludes, Miami will not play again until it travels to Michigan State for a weekend series Jan. 6-7.

ANALYSIS: This team is impossible to predict and can be one of the most frustrating I’ve ever watched. Obviously every team has good and bad nights, but it’s amazing the amount of variance this team has – from very good to very bad – and the in-season and even in-game frequency with which this team can go dominating to dominatee.

Fortunately for RedHawks fans, Miami continued its trend of getting up for its toughest opponents.

It looks like Miami coach Enrico Blasi has found solid line combinations.

The Czarnik-Smith-Mullin line is a force and the McKenzie-Paulazzo-Coleman line accounted for a pair of even-strength goals. The combo of Hirschfeld-Vogelhuber-Biggs did not get on the scoresheet, but Ohio State didn’t score while they were on the ice either.

All of the defensive forwards played well – seniors Trent Vogelhuber and Patrick Tiesling (although Tiesling did cough up the puck that ultimately led to OSU’s third goal, but that was much more a product of Knapp misplaying the puck) and Smith has turned into an excellent player on the PK.

Tomassoni was outstanding. Not only was his goal a thing of beauty, he absolutely battled on penalty kills in a way Miami fans have become used to.

The officiating didn’t favor either team, but it was pretty shaky. Keith Sergott usually isn’t bad and Miami doesn’t get Brent Gawlik that often, but it seemed like they’d make a questionable call and then tried to impose make-up calls.

GRADES

FORWARDS: A. Heeter has been one of the top goalies in the CCHA, and Miami beat him five times on Friday, with all of its goals coming from forwards.

They accounted for five assists and 29 of Miami’s 38 shots.

One negative: They took four minor non-coincidental penalties (although Biggs was assessed a roughing minor for being physically stronger).

After being benched last Saturday, McKenzie came back with a solid effort. Paulazzo, his linemate, broke out of his slump after not scoring since Oct. 27.

Tyler Biggs wasn’t much of a factor, but fellow freshmen forwards Coleman, Czarnik and Mullin

were all excellent on offense. Tomassoni and the other defensive forwards played well also.

DEFENSEMEN: B. This is usually the toughest area to grade, and Friday was no exception.

They recorded two assists and took nine shots on goal while Ohio State finished with 30 as a team, equaling the third-most SOG Miami has allowed this season. Then again, Ohio State is one of the best teams the RedHawks have faced this season.

Not sure if this belongs in the defensemen evaluation section, but ultimately it falls at least somewhat on senior Will Weber, since he’s a captain and was on the ice. Miami enigmatically decided to play the I-formation on defense when Ohio State scored its second goal, which obviously shouldn’t happen.

A definite positive is that the six blueliners only took one non-coincidental penalty (Joe Hartman – a borderline interference call).

Senior Cameron Schilling was arguably Miami’s best defenseman, and he took two coincidental minors for altercations with Max McCormick that are likely to carry over to Saturday.

Hartman, a junior, picked up a primary assist for setting up the first goal, and junior Stephen Spinell earned a secondary helper, blocked three shots and finished with a team-best plus-4 rating.

GOALTENDING: C. Statistically Knapp had a .900 save percentage, which is average, and that pretty much sums up his performance.

The first goal came on a big rebound he did not control, and the third was on an egregious stickhandling error.

Knapp looked a little shaky early before settling down to make 27 saves. With the exception of OSU’s third goal he seemed to get better as the game went on.

LINEUP CHANGES: Sophomore forward Max Cook was benched for just the third time this season and snapped a streak of 15 straight games he has dressed. Cook has one point in his last eight games.

McKenzie was back in the lineup after sitting for a game, and he responded with an assist.

Blasi seems like he’s set on getting freshman Alex Wideman in the lineup and sitting junior Steve Mason. Wideman has played in five straight games and nine of 11 while Mason was scratched for the 10th straight game.

Wideman has been a solid fourth-line energy player, but he has not recorded a point since Oct. 22.

On defense, Blasi seems to be rotating at the sixth spot between freshman Ben Paulides and junior Garrett Kennedy.

Paulides played just two of the first 14 games but he has been in the lineup each of the last three Fridays and was solid in this game. Kennedy has played previous two Saturdays, and if Blasi continues his rotation both he and senior goalie Cody Reichard should both play.