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DENVER — Behind two goals and an assist from Riley Barber and a 23-save effort from Ryan McKay, No. 5 Miami defeated No. 7 Denver 5-3 Friday night.
“I thought it was a great game,” said Miami coach Enrico Blasi. “Our league, I keep saying you have to play a game where you bend but don’t break. Both teams pushed hard tonight, and we got a couple of lucky bounces. I thought we played well in the first period. We needed to do that and get up on them, because we knew they were going to come, and they certainly did.”
Miami came out and had more jump early, and it reflected on the scoreboard, as the RedHawks took a 2-0 lead into the first period despite having to kill off two penalties and not getting a power play of their own.
“They’ve got an unbelievable power play,” said Blasi. “They move it around so good, (Joey) LaLeggia and (Nolan) Zajac, and their forwards are dynamic. We just had to make sure we kept everything in front of us and block some shots and be strong on our clears. They had a couple of chances that missed the net. At the end of the day, you’ve got to do the job on the special teams, and I thought we did the job tonight.”
Miami scored its first goal on a bad defensive breakdown by Denver. Riley Barber carried the puck behind the net, and three Pioneers chased him, leaving Sean Kuraly open on the back door. Barber threw a pass past both Danton Heinen and LaLeggia to Kuraly, who ripped it into the open net at 12:55 before Tanner Jaillet could slide back across.
Denver looked like it might escape down only one, but at 19:24, Barber got the puck in the right faceoff circle, took two strides toward the net and ripped a shot top corner glove side.
“I thought it was them just playing better than we did,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery of the first period. “I thought we played well. I thought we passed up too many shots. They won footraces and they pushed the pace a lot more than we did. In the second, I thought we started to win more one-on-one battles.”
Denver came out with much more jump in the second period, and started to impose itself on the RedHawks. It finally paid off when Trevor Moore made a spin move near the blue line and shot it on net. Daniel Doremus, stationed in the slot, deflected it past Ryan McKay at 11:27.
Denver built momentum off the goal, and generated several strong chances, but couldn’t tie it. The power play continued to struggle, as the Pioneers couldn’t capitalize on their lone chance.
“We’re learning, and we’ve learned in this league, that when momentum starts to shift you have to try to get it back,” said Blasi. “That’s what we tried to do. Like I said, we got a couple of fortunate bounces tonight.”
“They weathered our pushes,” said Montgomery. “They’re a good hockey team, and you can’t fall behind 2-0 at home. The biggest difference was special teams; they were two-for-three, we were oh-for-three. We couldn’t penetrate them, and that’s my fault. I didn’t prepare us well enough. Miami did a great job of being in shot lanes.”
Miami finally got its first power play late in the period, but despite buzzing down low, couldn’t convert. A second power play with 30 seconds left in the period gave Miami its two-goal lead back early in the third, as Barber continued to dominate Denver. At 59 seconds, Barber, stationed in the left circle, got a pass from Alex Wideman and one-timed a shot high glove side that hit the water bottle and knocked it in the air.
“He was ripping it today, wasn’t he?” said Blasi. “I give him a lot of credit. We sat him last week and he did a good job tonight.”
Miami’s two-goal lead didn’t last long, as at 3:03, LaLeggia passed it to Emil Romig on the left side of the crease and Romig redirected it into the open net.
Miami weathered the ensuing Denver blitz, and then defenseman Ben Paulides got the puck in his own zone and banked it off the boards behind the Denver defense, where Alex Gacek picked it up and raced in alone on Jaillet. Gacek cut to his left across the crease and slid it into the open net at 8:33.
Denver pulled back within one late to make the final two minutes interesting. At 18:02, with Jaillet off the ice for an extra-attacker, Moore got a pass from Zajac and fired a narrow-angle shot from near the goal line to McKay’s left and beat him just inside the post.
However, with 55.2 seconds left, Gacek got the puck in Miami’s zone along the right boards and lifted a clear deep that went into the empty net to seal the win.
