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Sweep has Miami headed to CCHA semis

Three Miele points key MU win over UAF

Miami players celebrate after sweeping Alaska in the CCHA quarterfinal round (Cassidy White/WCPO.com).

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Posted: 03/13/2011

By John Lachmann

OXFORD, Ohio - Those unable to watch Friday’s series opener between Miami and Alaska were in luck, as Game 2 was a near-replay of that RedHawks win.

Utilizing the same modus operandi, Miami completed a series sweep in the CCHA quarterfinals at Cady Arena with another 4-1 win over the Nanooks. The RedHawks advance to the conference semifinals, which will be played next Friday.

The main difference between the games was Miami kept the suspense level down by taking the lead for good in the second period instead of waiting until the final stanza.

Like Friday, Miami fell behind in the first period on an early goal. Alaska’s Scott Enders fired a low shot that RedHawks junior goalie Connor Knapp kicked out, but Knapp allowed a long rebound which UAF's Chad Gehon fired past Knapp less than five minutes into the game.

Miami evened the score with 6:37 left in the first period when junior defenseman Cameron Schilling fired a low shot from the blue line that beat Alaska goalie Scott Greenham on his stick side.

Almost off of the opening faceoff of the second period, Miami senior center Andy Miele raced down and buried a top-shelf shot on the glove side of Greenham to give the RedHawks a 2-1 lead 16 seconds in.

Midway through the period, Miami took advantage of the new NCAA rule that allows penalties to be assessed to teams that allow goals in a delayed penalty situation.

In this case, the infraction occurred as Miami was scoring shorthanded. Miele threaded a pass through to senior defenseman Vincent LoVerde, who went in alone and jammed at the puck, which went in as he was held by Enders.

Prior to this season, such a penalty would be nullified by the goal.

But Enders went to the box, and 90 seconds later, RedHawks sophomore forward Reilly Smith batted a rebound in out of mid-air off a rebound from a shot by senior center Carter Camper to make it 4-1.

Once again, Miami scored four unanswered goals in response to surrendering one of its own early.

Miele picked up two assists in addition to his goal, giving him 65 points (21-44—65) on the season. He moved into third place on the all-time Miami single-season assists leaderboard, passing Dan Boyle and Bobby Marshall who had 43 each. He needs one more helper to tie Pete Shipman, who notched 45 in 1978-79, for second.

Miele also pulled to within a point a cracking the team's top single-season mark. Bill Bok and Craig Fisher both had 66-point seasons, and are currently tied for fourth. The all-time school record is held by Gary DeLonge, who rolled up 74 points in 1978-79.

With his assist, Camper is now one point behind Rick Kuraly for second on the school’s all-time career points list with 178.

Knapp, who stopped 14 shots, picked up his third straight win. He has allowed just three goals – one in each game – in that stretch, turning aside 56 of 59 shots.

Miami has won its last five games, outscoring its opponents, 23-5. The RedHawks extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games, dating back to their Jan. 21 loss at Michigan State.

Miami will face either Notre Dame if the Irish win on Sunday, or Sunday’s Ferris State-Western Michigan winner if Notre Dame loses. The semifinals game will be at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

ANALYSIS: Miami had played two games in the last 26 days entering this series, and if the worst result was a little rustiness in the first period of both games this weekend, fans should consider themselves fortunate and sated.

The upside is the rest, of course, and believe me this team needed it. The weight room looked like a triage unit a month ago, and the time off had to help a number of key RedHawks.

Riding an extensive unbeaten streak, game-ready and rested, this team could not be in a better position entering its most critical games.

Granted it wasn’t against a ranked team and the games were on Miami’s home turf, but this team played like it’s ready to go after its third straight Frozen Four berth.

The forwards generated goals, the defense prevented good shots and put three in the net over the weekend and the goaltending was excellent.

Next stop: Detroit.

GRADES

FORWARDS: B+. Only two goals, but six assists and 30 shots. Miele’s goal was very timely (giving Miami the lead and control 16 seconds into the second period), and Smith’s goal was demoralizing (putting the RedHawks up by three).

Not to mention the Smith goal was a thing of beauty. He batted it out of the air while skating toward the net full-speed.

Coach Enrico Blasi stuck with the pairings of Miele-Smith and Camper-junior Alden Hirschfeld on the penalty kill exclusively, and all four were superb in that role.

Blasi made up for it by cutting their power play time, but Miele still finished with three points and Smith two.

While we’re at it, can we stop the Hobey Baker talk right now? Miele has 65 points – 10 points ahead of everyone in the country – on a team headed to the NCAA Tournament.

In the absolute worst-case scenario (Miami bombs two games at Joe Louis and folds in its first-round tournament game,

and Miele gets zero points in those three), Miele finishes with 1.67 points per game, a higher average than any player since Michigan’s T.J. Hensick in 2006-07.

And it’s not like there’s any shortcoming to Miele’s game that wouldn’t show up on a stats sheet. Defense? Check (he’s one of the team’s top PK guys). Physicality? Check. Leadership? Check (note the ‘A’ on his sweater).

He’s having the best college hockey season since Peter Sejna of Colorado College in 2002-03, when he amassed 82 points in 42 games (and Miele currently has a higher points-per-game average than any player since at 1.81), and the best CCHA year since Chris Kunitz put up 79 points the same season.

Bring on the trophy.

DEFENSEMEN: A. Alaska had few decent looks at the net all night, especially after the Nanooks’ lone goal.

UAF had 15 shots all night, and seven in the final two periods when it trailed (one in the middle stanza).

Miami also benefitted from a sweet goal by Schilling and a typical grinding-style goal by LoVerde, and junior Will Weber added a helper on the go-ahead goal.

Without junior forward Matt Tomassoni’s defensive prowess, the entire team – but to the largest extent the blueliners – needed to step their game up, and they answered.

GOALTENDING: A. Miami’s goalies just will not make it easy for Blasi to pick a regular starter.

Knapp stopped 14 of 15 shots, including the final 12, en route to his third straight win.

He allowed a juicy rebound on the lone goal against, but was obviously solid otherwise.

LINEUP CHANGES: As anticipated, Tomassoni was not in the lineup because of what looked like a shoulder injury suffered on Friday.

Obviously the team will remain tight-lipped about his status, but at this point Blasi himself probably isn’t aware of the severity of the injury.

However, there’s a decent chance his injury is not as severe as first speculated. While I would say it’s not completely out of the question for him to play in Detroit, it’s unlikely.

Let’s just say now I think there’s a chance he could come back at some point this season. After Friday’s game I was convinced he was done for the year.

I thought sophomore Garrett Kennedy would take Tomassoni’s place, but instead it was sophomore Steve Mason. Mason played his typical energy Brandon Smith role on the fourth line with linemates junior Patrick Tiesling and Max Cook.

Blasi still hasn’t settled on his second and third lines, but at least senior Justin Vaive was on one of them. Vaive’s ice time was limited on the fourth line on Friday – especially early – but he skated regular shifts with senior Pat Cannone and sophomore Curtis McKenzie on Saturday.

Blasi also has Bryon Paulazzo with Camper and Hirschfeld, which is a good move since the highly-skilled freshman has been underutilized this season.

That leaves the question of the goalies, but I suspect Blasi will continue the rotation until one goalie forces his hand – either with outstanding or mediocre play.

Miami has been through this each of the last two seasons, and Blasi’s company line is “we have two No. 1 goalies”, which is correct, but it can’t make his job any easier, and I’m not a big fan of rotating in the postseason.

Then again, what choice does Blasi have? Junior Cody Reichard has allowed nine goals in six games and Knapp has surrendered three in three starts.

On the season, the paramount numbers are nearly identical (GAA: Knapp 2.03, Reichard 2.06; Sv%: Reichard .911, Knapp .909).

Another problem is the layoff. Reichard will almost certainly start on Friday, having played twice in the previous 34 days. Hopefully having two goalies fresh playing in a front of 15,000 people is a good problem to have.