{"id":22959,"date":"2000-10-06T18:51:09","date_gmt":"2000-10-06T23:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2000\/10\/06\/season-preview-miami-redhawks\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:53:57","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:53:57","slug":"season-preview-miami-redhawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2000\/10\/06\/season-preview-miami-redhawks\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Preview: Miami RedHawks"},"content":{"rendered":"
Miami head coach Enrico Blasi<\/b> is a man of few words.<\/p>\n
“We return 19 letterwinners from a year ago, including offensively our leading scorer Pat Leahy<\/b>, and two gentlemen who missed the bulk of the season due to injury, Jason Deskins and Gregor Krajnc<\/b>.<\/p>\n
“Defensively we return six starters. We add three freshmen to that list and hopefully they can compete for ice time.<\/p>\n
“In the net we return David Burleigh<\/b>, who as a freshman played 25 games for us, had a real good first half and tailed off toward the end. We’re looking for him to…do a good job for us in the net.”<\/p>\n
That’s nearly all he has to say about the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the second-year head coach is just being cautious. After all, in addition to losing Deskins and Krajnc for the season last year, a slew of other players sustained injuries that either took them out of the lineup or impaired their play, including Evan Cheverie, Matt Medvecz, and Jake Ortmeyer.<\/b><\/p>\n
“As much as we don’t want to use excuses, we didn’t have enough guys to finish the season, really,” says Blasi. “We were practicing 15, 16 guys some days.”<\/p>\n
Blasi is actually not<\/i> one to make excuses, but the injuries–and Burleigh’s mediocre second half–do explain how the RedHawks went 5-11-0 in the second half of the regular season, losing their last two games to Ohio State, a team that didn’t make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
How does the way in which the season ended affect this year’s Miami squad? <\/p>\n
“If anything,”says Blasi, “it motivates us.”<\/p>\n
— Miami head coach Enrico Blasi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Obviously, the RedHawks are excited to have Deskins and Krajnc back in the lineup, but Blasi cautions against expecting too much from Deskins, who two years ago made a run at the league scoring title.<\/p>\n
Top returning scorer is Pat Leahy<\/b> (16-22–38), who was also by far and away the team leader in penalty minutes with 89. Nick Jardine<\/b> (12-10–22) had an impressive rookie season. Cheverie (8-12–20) and Ernie Hartlieb<\/b> (3-15–18) round out the ‘Hawks veteran offensive threats.<\/p>\nDefending the Tribe<\/h4>\n
Burleigh (3.13 GAA, .870 SV% CCHA) and seniors Ian Olsen and Andy Marsch<\/b> combined for an overall team GAA of 3.34, and save percentage of .872. Burleigh’s overall save percentage was just .864; he saw just over 19 shots per game while allowing 3.33 goals in overall play.<\/p>\n