OXFORD, Ohio — No. 9 Miami ended a season-worst three-game losing streak on Saturday in forcing a series split with No. 11 Denver in front of a near-capacity home crowd.
After jumping out to an early lead, the RedHawks shut down the NCHC’s best power play for a second straight night to take the contest 4-1.
The opening period saw even play on both sides of the ice as each team came up with several key chances.
Shots – and points – were at a premium in the early going, but Anthony Louis opened the scoring by following his own rebound midway throught the first frame with a diving effort to elevate Miami to a 1-0 lead. Cody Murphy, who marked the secondary assist on Louis’ goal, sneaked a wrist shot past the pad of goaltender Tanner Jaillet to extend the RedHawks’ lead at 13:26 of the second.
“I can’t even tell you how the way the play worked out,” Murphy said of his second period strike. “A two-on-one ended up happening and I was looking at [Jaillet’s] pad because I wanted to feed [Blake] Coleman with a pad-shot rebound and sure enough, it found a hole.”
Around that point in the contest, Denver began to control the puck and scoring chances. A failed Miami clear and a heads-up pass from Gabe Levin was all Zac Larraza needed to register the late-period goal, narrowing Miami’s lead to 2-1.
The third period was filled with even more physical play and strong efforts from both squads’ defensemen and goaltenders.
Jaillet and Ryan McKay stepped up in a big way several times throughout the period, but it was Murphy who came through yet again for the RedHawks on a seemingly innocent high-slot wrist shot that Jaillet deflected into the air, only for the puck to bank off of his back and into the net. Murph contributed another assist on Coleman’s empty-net finisher. The Andrew Schmit-Murphy-Coleman line combined for nine points on the evening.
“I thought we came out with some good energy tonight,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “Scoring the first goal is key, but the second goal is extremely important. We weathered the storm that Denver pushed back. It was important for us to bounce back, but there’s lots of room for improvement and we’ll get to work on Monday.
Even in the face of defeat, DU coach Jim Montgomery was impressed by the heart his team showed and the physical presence they brought into the contest, which was much closer than the final score would indicate.
“That was a great college hockey game,” Montgomery said. “It was the most physical game we’ve been a part of this year. I liked the way we pushed back on the road and I really liked the way we played together for 60 minutes.”
Denver forward Larkin Jacobson would have obviously liked to come away with a sweep, but acknowledged the difficulty of doing so in a league like the NCHC.
“Last night, we came out with a win, but I thought we played better tonight,” Jacobson said. “We had a lot more energy and played our style of game and made them cough up some pucks, but we just couldn’t capitalize. They’re a very tough team and in this conference, that’s going to happen.”
The victory was just the second of the season for McKay, who turned aside 20 shots in the winning effort. It also bolstered Miami’s record to 15-9-0 on the year and places the RedHawks in sole position of fourth place in the NCHC at 8-6-0. Denver drops to 14-8-1 with the setback and sinks to fifth in the conference standings with a 7-6-0 mark.
