Sweeps by opponents at Yost Ice Arena are rare.
Before this weekend, Miami had never done it. No team had done it since 2001.
But the No. 1 RedHawks pounded No. 4 Michigan, 5-1 in Ann Arbor on Saturday, giving them just their fifth-ever win there. All-time win No. 4 at Michigan came last night at Yost.
Freshman Reilly Smith scored the first two goals of his career to lead Miami (8-1-1), and sophomore goaltender Cody Reichard stopped 20 shots to improve to 7-0 as a starter.
Freshman Curtis McKenzie and juniors Andy Miele and Pat Cannone finished with a goal and an assist each for the RedHawks.
Michigan's David Wohlberg opened the scoring with just over nine minutes remaining in the first half. But Cannone tied the score 89 seconds later off a feed from sophomore Alden Hirschfeld.
Miele seven minutes into the second period, and Smith scored with five minutes remaining in the middle stanza.
McKenzie's goal and Smith's second were scored early in the third period.
Michigan (4-4) was assessed 51 penalty minutes in the third period, including a major, a game misconduct and two 10-minute misconducts.
BOTTOM LINE: I'm speechless. In my wildest dreams I hoped Miami would get four or five points in this series. Six is amazing. What a weekend.
Typical that Michigan would resort to gooning it up in the third period when the game was out of reach. Here's the entire Wolverines penalty list for the game: Hooking, slashing, slashing, contact to the head-roughing, hooking, unsportsmanlike conduct, contact to the head-elbowing, cross-checking, checking from behind major and game misconduct, grasping the facemask, grasping the facemask, contact to the head-high sticking, 10-minute misconduct, roughing, charging, slashing, contact to the head-roughing, 10-minute misconduct.
Michigan had 65 penalty minutes. Miami had 30. Michigan coach Red Berenson should get a phone call on Monday. The league should tell him they're not going to put up with this crap, and next time he wants to turn a league game into UFC, suspensions will be issued, starting with him.
GRADES
FORWARDS: A. Five goals in a very tough venue against a very good goalie. A big positive is Miami isn't depending on one line scoring. Smith's two goals are very encouraging - the kid has plenty of talent, he just goes unnoticed on a team as loaded as Miami.
DEFENSEMEN: A. Michigan only had 21 shots, and the Wolverines had eight power plays (granted several weren't the full two minutes, but still). Sophomore Will Weber and freshman Joe Hartman were both plus-3.
GOALTENDING: A. Reichard had an incredible weekend. He was 20-for-21, and 47 of 49 for the two-game series. He gave up an early goal, but never let Michigan get back into the game after Miami took the lead.
LINEUP MOVES: Lots of surprises on Saturday.
Senior Dane Hetland and Brandon Smith played again up front, senior Gary Steffes sat again. I wonder again about the possibility of flu with Steffes, but then again he hasn't registered a point in eight games. He's much better than that.
Spinell again played for sophomore Matt Tomassoni. Either Tomassoni is in coach Enrico Blasi's doghouse, or he has the worst flu in U.S. history.
And Reichard did play even though Saturdays are normally sophomore Connor Knapp's night. Last week Knapp had the flu, this week it appears Blasi was riding the hot hand.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Miami killed off all eight Michigan power play chances, breaking a six-game streak of allowing at least one power play goal.
The RedHawks were 1-for-12 on the man-advantage. Miami had scored a PPG in five straight games.
Leave a comment