OMAHA, Neb. — Coming into Friday, Miami had only won two road games the entire season, the last one not since on Oct. 23, 2015.
After capitalizing on a power play late in the game following a penalty kill of their own, Metthew Caito scored at 17:57 of the third period, and Miami knocked off No. 7 Omaha 3-1.
“Both teams had their chances, it could have gone either way,” said Miami coach Enrico Blasi. “They don’t score on the power play and we do, so that’s the difference of the game, at the end anyway.”
UNO has only won after allowing the first goal once this year, with this game continuing the trend. Zach LaVelle appeared to have a scored a no-look backhander from in front of the net for the game’s first score, but the goal was waived off.
Yet later in the second period, Kiefer Sherwood put the RedHawks in front. The freshman took the puck from the left circle to the center where he fired it home for the unassisted score.
While Miami seized control the rest of the second, Omaha gained it back quickly to start the third.
Omaha’s Austin Ortega evened the contest with his 18th goal of the season. With an extra man on the power play, Jake Guentzel standing to the right of the net swung the puck out in center to Luc Snuggerud, who directed it to Ortega, who scored the equalizer from the left wing.
The pace of the game exploded as both sides sent rush after rush in search of a game winner.
Following an Omaha penalty for too many men on the ice, Miami capitalized.
Anthony Louis wheeled around from behind the net near the right circle and sent a pass across the middle to Caito, who slapped the one-timer past Alex Blankenburg for the go-ahead score.
Caito praised Louis who found him with a perfect pass.
“Anthony Louis won the battle came out of the corner and, you know, it was pretty much all him,” Caito said. “He made the great pass and I was just trying to get it on net. Went in, and give credit to Anthony Louis for that pass. Amazing.”
Before the junior forward could make the pass, he was sitting in the penalty box for hooking as the Mavericks had their chance at a late-game power play. But the Mavericks were shut out from going ahead, and it was their penalty that ultimately proved most costly.
“The story of the game was too many men on the ice at that point of the game,” Omaha coach Dean Blais said. “It costs you. You just knew that any little breakdown [would]. The guy made a good shot. It’s no one’s fault, but unfortunate.”
The RedHawks iced the game with an empty-net score with less than 30 seconds to play to knock off the Mavericks, handing them their third home loss in a row after starting 8-0 in Baxter Arena.
“It’s huge, they’re a tremendous team, they’ve had a lot of success this year,” said RedHawks goaltender Jay Williams. “But at the same time, the job’s only half done and you know they’re going to come out hard tomorrow night and we can enjoy this for a few minutes, but the focus goes right back to tomorrow.”
For the Mavericks, goaltending held steady behind Blankenburg. To get back on the track, Blais said Omaha has to get more scoring chances.
“We need more scoring,” Blais said. “Obviously, the same thing happened at North Dakota last Saturday night. For the whole weekend, Jake Guentzel was in on every play. We need other guys stepping up and contributing to the offense by getting something happening in the offensive zone.
“We can’t be a one-man team or a two-man team.”
While this ranks as one of the best wins all year for Miami, beating a top-10 opponent on the road, Blasi and his team are simply focused on just sticking to their game.
“I think for us again, we just focused on our play,” Blasi said. “And focus on playing for each other and trusting each other and the outcomes will be there. And if not, we’ll continue to play.”
