St. Cloud crushes Miami again

Miami hoped it had sank to its lowest point on Friday in a 10-goal loss at St. Cloud.

But the RedHawks didn’t fare any better in the finale, as they were crushed, 8-0 in the series finale at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center on Saturday.

It was the third straight game Miami has been outshot by a 3-to-1 margin, as the RedHawks were outscored, 19-1 in the two-game set.

MU is winless in its last seven (0-6-1) and is 0-12-1 in its last 13 conference contests.

RECAP: St. Cloud State scored eight goals. Four were at even strength, two were on the power play, one was shorthanded and another was on a penalty shot.

STATS: The last time Miami allowed at least eight goals in back-to-back games, RedHawks coach Chris Bergeron was a player. Michigan beat MU, 8-4 and 10-5 on Feb. 14-15, 1992 in Ann Arbor.

— Maine was the last team to score at least 19 in a weekend set vs. the RedHawks, netting 21 Jan. 5-6, 1991 the season the Black Bears won 32 games and saw Jean-Yves Roy and Jim Montgomery both rack up over 80 points.

— Miami finished the weekend 0-for-10 on the power play with three shorthanded goals against – including one 3-on-5 – and killed off one of five penalties.

THOUGHTS: Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe this series.

Fans have gotten the message from the start of the season: Miami isn’t back in the top half of the NCHC yet, but at least these RedHawks are going to work hard every night.

Now that’s not a thing either with this team.

— Miami’s special teams line might be one of the worst for a weekend series in Division I history.

MU was 0-for-10 on the power play with three shorthanded goals allowed, including two on the same PK with one being 3-on-5. And the RedHawks were 1 of 5 on the penalty kill. That’s 20.0 percent.

So Miami gave up seven special teams goals while scoring zero. SCSU was 4-for-5 on the power play in the series.

LINEUP CHANGES: Just two.

On defense, Alex Murray dressed in place of Bray Crowder.

Up front, Michael Holland returned to the lineup for the third time in four games as Brian Silver was scratched.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The coaching staff has worked its hind quarters off for three years to put together a competitive team.

Obviously that hasn’t worked out, and that responsibility falls on their shoulders since their job is to recruit and develop players.

And we’ve addressed that and will continue to do so, but we know that players frequent this site, so VFTG wants to send a quick note to the current Miami hockey team:

Dear 2021-22 RedHawks: I wish you were old enough to truly appreciate the 2008-09 Miami team.

Coming off a regional final overtime loss to Boston College by a veteran corps in April of 2008, that fall’s version of the RedHawks was extremely young, but they rolled up 13 wins before the calendar flipped.

After limping to the end of regular season with a 1-2-1 record, Miami won the opener of its CCHA playoff series, 3-2 over Northern Michigan, but MU dropped the last two games to the Wildcats at Cady Arena.

And while several of the players gathered at BW-3s after the Game 3 loss, many doubted whether the RedHawks would even qualify for the NCAA Tournament after being upset by NMU.

That team fought through adversity. The 2008-09 RedHawks not only dropped 4-2 and 3-2 decisions to Division I bottom dwellers Clarkson and Army, Miami had to face Michigan the next weekend at Yost and were clobbered, 5-1 and 4-0.

Next up was Michigan State, which was a train wreck that season, yet the RedHawks dropped a 4-1 decision in Oxford the first night, extending their losing streak to five games.

But Miami got tired of the losing and went 6-0-1 in its next seven, including a 3-0-1 road record as the RedHawks thrust themselves back into NCAA Tournament consideration, and partly through luck, that MU team earned an at-large bid to the national championships.

After that turbulent Miami team got in, it beat Denver, Minn.-Duluth and Bemidji State before finally falling, 4-3 in overtime to Boston University in the Division I championship.

Your head coach, Chris Bergeron, was an assistant for the RedHawks that season and key reason Miami was able to rebound after such a bleak stretch.

The moral of the story is that every team has tough times. Really original, right? But rather than battle and provide fans the effort we’ve always seen from this team, in good times and bad, you have largely just gone through the motions the past few weeks.

And that’s not fair to the people who have built and supported this program the past 45 years and it’s not fair the fans that support you now.

We’ve been season ticket holders since the rink opened, a 5-2 opening-night win over Denver in the Ice Breaker in October of 2006 in front of an overflowing crowd.

For 16 years, we’ve paid top dollar for season tickets to see this team because not only is the level of play exceptional (especially if you’re a big NHL fan and love seeing top prospects), Goggin Ice Center is drop-dead gorgeous and has amazing atmosphere.

In that span, we’ve seen amazing players like Reilly Smith, Ryan Jones, Jarod Palmer, Austin Czarnik and Jeff Zatkoff skate on this ice.

Under the previous coaches, Steve Cady, Bill Davidge, George Gwozdecky, Mark Mazzoleni and Enrico Blasi, for all that has been imperfect about Miami hockey, work ethic has rarely been an issue that has hounded this program.

Until now.

Having watched practically every shift you guys have played over the past few years, overall, I’m absolutely stunned at the lack of consistent effort and flat-out laziness you’ve displayed at times this season.

As a whole, from someone who has watched Miami hockey for over a quarter century, you guys have been absolutely terrible, and for the first time in that stretch, it’s more of a burden than a pleasure to drive an hour from Cincinnati to watch your games live or view them online.

It’s almost like some of you don’t even care anymore.

It’s understandable that losing sucks and hurts confidence, but you should kiss the Cady Arena ice every day that you’re playing for a fanbase that sold out this season’s opener despite the team’s righteous five-win season in 2020-21 and blistering 1-3 start.

Outscored 19-1 for a weekend series? Seriously? I’d rather have 12 Monte Grahams up front who bust their tails on every shift and play the game the right way than a bunch of skaters with way more talent quitting when things go poorly.

I brought up the 2009 team to show that teams can endure some boo-boos and still come out fine. You guys certainly aren’t going to the NCAA final this spring but you can at least give fans a reason to show up at your games this season and beyond and help fund your scholarships. Stop the selfishness.

Realize that .200 hockey hurts the program you’re earning an education to represent for years, since prospects will be less likely to choose a school that has this abysmal a record.

In short, act like representing the university that is helping provide you nearly guaranteed life success — either in hockey or otherwise — actually means something.

Your head coach has been a winner at every level, both as a player and behind the bench, so get with his program and start acting like you actually want to be a member of this team and university.