Miami did not score a shorthanded goal in its first 11 games of this season.
But the RedHawks netted one last Saturday, and had a pair on Friday to lead the RedHawks to a 3-0 win over Western Michigan at Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Junior Andy Miele scored a pair of goals, and sophomore Cody Reichard stopped all 15 shots he faced to lead the RedHawks.
Miele took a feed from senior Jarod Palmer and scored as a power play was expiring to give Miami a 1-0 lead midway through the first period.
Junior Tommy Wingels netted an unassisted shorthanded goal with 7:41 left in the second period to extend the RedHawks' lead to two.
Then Miele found the net shorthanded just under seven minutes into the third period to seal the game.
No even-strength goals were scored in the game.
Miami (9-1-3) continues to play almost flawlessly on the road. The RedHawks improved to 6-0-1 away from Cady Arena this season, with their lone blemish being a 5-5 tie at New Hampshire.
BOTTOM LINE: It's baffling how Miami can look so vulnerable at home, then goes on the road and is unbeatable.
It was great to see the RedHawks bounce back after a somewhat lethargic home weekend vs. Ferris State.
I guess ultimately Miami is 5-0 in the state of Michigan, and that's where the Frozen Four will be held, so it's good that the RedHawks are playing well there.
Reichard continued his amazing start to the season. He's making it very hard for fellow sophomore Connor Knapp to get starts, but Knapp will probably be between the pipes on Saturday.
GRADES
FORWARDS: B-. All three goals were scored by the forwards, two shorthanded and one on the power play. Miami needs to put more than 24 shots on goal against a team of this caliber (20 came from the forwards).
DEFENSEMEN: A+. Western Michigan (5-5-1) only had 15 shots, with eight of those coming on its seven power plays.
GOALTENDING: A. Because Miami's defensemen are so good, RedHawks goalies will have a lot of games in which they face 20 shots or less. It can be tough on a goalie going long periods of time without facing a shot.
But Reichard has handled the long in-game layouts well. He only saw eight in the first two periods, and was ready when he was needed in the third.
LINEUP CHANGES: Senior forward Brandon Smith sat, and did freshmen Devon Mantha and Steve Mason. In an unexpected move, coach Enrico Blasi moved sophomore defenseman Matt Tomassoni up to left wing, and put freshman Steven Spinell in the lineup.
Sophomore Trent Vogelhuber dressed again after a two-game layoff.
I like the idea of getting Spinell in any way possible, and moving a defenseman up accomplishes this. Blasi used to do this with Stephen Dennis and Matt Davis a few seasons ago.
If I had a preference, I think I'd rather see Chris Wideman up front and Tomassoni returned to the blueline, since Wideman is better offensively and Tomassoni has better defensive skills.
IF YOU'RE SCORING AT HOME: I don't know what it is with scoring discrepancies this season, but I'm not sure the first Miele goal should've been considered a PPG. What's even stranger is the Western Michigan box, the Miami box and the CCHA box all have different information.
The only consistency is that the WMU penalty was taken at 8:02.
Miami's box score has Miele scoring at 10:01, which would've been with one second left in the man-advantage.
The Broncos' box has Miele's goal occurring at 10:02, which means the power play should've expired, but WMU still credits Miele with a power play goal.
The CCHA box originally had the goal as even strength, but it's currently up as a PPG, although the time of the goal is 10:02.
Here's the thing: Without trying to bore people or get too technical, it's my understanding that a goal time of 10:02 means the goal was scored after 10:02 had elapsed in the period, therefore the player in the penalty box should be back on the ice.
It's like a goal that's scored with 0.1 seconds left in a period - it's still credited at 19:59, not 20:00, because the full 20 minutes hadn't ELAPSED yet.
Maybe I'm wrong about this (and feel free to leave a comment if you believe I am), but when it's all said and done, that may not stand as a power play goal. If someone with 20 brain cells like myself can piece information together and ask someone in the know about hockey timing policy, surely someone in the CCHA office will figure this out.
VERY SPECIAL TEAMS: Western Michigan had Miami 1-for-4 on the power play, and Miami's site said the RedHawks were 1 of 5.
Miami killed all seven WMU power plays, and scored two shorthanded goals after netting just one SHG in the RedHawks' first 12 games.
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