OXFORD, Ohio — For the first time in five years, Miami won its home opener.
The RedHawks ran off four of the first five goals — with Artur Turansky scoring two of them — and they held on for a 4-2 victory over Canisius at Cady Arena on Friday.
Miami was 0-2-2 facing its first opponent of the campaign on home ice since 2018.
The RedHawks continued their domination of the Golden Griffins, improving to 9-0 vs. Canisius, with seven of those wins coming in Oxford, all at Cady Arena.
These teams wrap up their weekend series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: Miami (2-1) took the lead when Max Dukovac dropped a pass to William Hallen at the blueline, Hallen penetrated the zone and had a pass partially deflected to Turansky, who poked it under the crossbar 4:51 into the first period.
The RedHawks’ Spencer Cox fed John Waldron, who was streaking through the high slot unabated, and Waldron slid a pass to Raimonds Vitolins at the side of the cage for a tap-in goal to make it 2-0 with 6:39 left in the opening frame.
Canisius (0-1) cut its deficit to one four minutes later when Randy Hernandez blew past Miami defenseman Jack Clement, went in alone and pounded a forehander past RedHawks goalie Logan Neaton high to the glove side.
Turansky made it 3-1 when he threw a pass toward the net from the slot that hit a defenseman’s stick and snuck inside the glove-side post 9:31 into the middle stanza on the power play.
P.J. Fletcher ripped a one-timer home from the inside edge of the faceoff circle off a highlight-reel centering feed by Dukovac on the man advantage 2:25 into the final frame.
Canisius’ final goal came when the RedHawks’ Zane Demsey tried to clear a loose puck near the net on his backhand, but Matteo Giampa intercepted it cleanly, fired a forehander that was denied and somehow corralled the long rebound on his backhand, shoveling it through traffic and past Neaton on the stick side.
STATS: Turansky’s multi-goal effort was the first of his career and just the fourth by a Miamian since the start of 2022-23 (Joey Cassetti, Red Savage and Waldron, who hat a hat trick).
It was his second all-time multi-point game, with the other coming on New Year’s Eve vs. Niagara (1-1-2).
— Neaton stopped 31 of 33 shots en route to his third career victory, with two coming this season. His save percentage rose to .914.
— Vitolins, a Vermont transfer, scored his first goal as a RedHawk, and Fletcher picked up his first of the season and his second point of 2023-24.
— Dukovac finished with two assists, his third-ever multi-point game. He has points in five of six games dating back to last season (1-5-6).
— Hallen racked up his third helper of the season, tied with Turansky for the team lead.
— Cox, Waldron, Matthew Barbolini and Hampus Rydqvist all ended the night with assist No. 2 on the season. Axel Kumlin picked up his first.
— It was a good night on special teams: Miami finished 2-for-6 on the power play and perfect in three penalty kill opportunities.
MU is now 23.1 percent on the man advantage and has a PK clip of 91.7.
— The RedHawks have outscored opponents, 6-1 in the first period this season. The second period is 2-2, the third period 5-5 and they have allowed one overtime goal.
THOUGHTS: It’s just Game 3, but an emerging story from this team is the evolution of the sophomore class.
The second line of Turansky-Dukovac-Hallen (Tur-Duk-én line?) — all second-year starters — was easily the best of the 3 1/2 (more on that later).
Waldron is exceling on the top line with Vitolins and Barbolini.
Then there’s tonight’s third line, with sophomores Frankie Carogioiello and Blake Mesenburg providing tons of energy and aggressive forechecking. UMass transfer Ryan Sullivan has meshed well with that duo that thrived together at times as fourth liners in 2022-23.
On defense, Michael Feenstra earns the most-improved player of the first eight days award, as he has been an absolute pest to opposing forwards. Demsey appears fully recovered from his shoulder injury that cut short his rookie campaign.
Kumlin, the other member of the Dubuque Three class of 2022, picked up an assist and is a solid two-way threat.
It’s a long season, but at least at the three-thirty-fourths mark, this group gives hope that this program is finally on the right track.
— Freshman goalie Bruno Bruveris hit an eligibility snag, but he should be available next weekend. In the interim, Neaton has held his own in net, and hopefully this duo works well as a tandem between the pipes.
— It seems like half the home games Miami plays are without a student section, and fall break crushed attendance in that part of the rink. That said, the ones that made it to the rink were loud and energetic.
— Coach Chris Bergeron dressed eight defensemen and 11 forwards, which goes against the standard 12/7 or 13/6 split.
— The beer era at Cady Arena has officially begun. The old Starbucks spot in the east concourse is now selling a variety of domestic and local craft beers, as is the symmetrical spot in the west concourse. Not surprisingly, foot traffic increased significantly in those areas.
— Hate to end this segment on a down note, but closing out games has been an issue for this program since, well, the 2009 national title game, and Miami wasn’t great in the third period.
The RedHawks were outshot, 15-8 in the final 20 minutes, and a better team might’ve made this an even closer game late or even tied the score.
It appeared Miami had the game clinched the win with 1:27 left when Griffin Griffin Loughran took a major penalty, but Fletcher was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct minor, making it a 4-on-4.
That gave Canisius a major advantage because it’s a lot easier to scored 5-on-4 with an extra attacker than 6-on-5, but fortunately Miami survived the late onslaught.
Then the RedHawks took a too many men penalty in the closing seconds to set up what was essentially a 5-on-3.
(Sullivan blocked a blistering shot in the closing seconds to seal it — liking his play a lot so far)
MU didn’t pay a price for those miscues in this game but can’t afford those types of unforced errors against higher-quality opponents.
GRADES
FORWARDS: B. It was weird not having a true fourth line, but the three fluid lines all played well and seemed to mesh. Vitolins has fit in just fine with Barbolini and Waldron, the Tur-Duk-En line was outstanding and the third line played well also. Barbolini was the best physical threat up front, laying out multiple punishing hits.
DEFENSEMEN: B-. This corps combined for three assists and while Canisius finished with 33 shots, most were from the outside. Clement definitely misplayed the first goal, and the second was partly bad luck and solid execution by the Griffins. Overall, a decent night.
GOALTENDING: A-. Neaton was 31 of 33 and denied a breakaway in the first period. He made a couple difficult saves as well and was solid overall. The goals against were on a breakaway and a rebound backhander through traffic, neither at all egregious.
LINEUP CHANGES: Cox and fellow defenseman Robby Drazner were back in the lineup after sitting last Sunday. Out from Game 2 were forward Brayden Morrison and blueliner Rihards Simanovics.
SCHEDULE/STANDINGS: With back-to-back wins Miami is actually ranked No. 16 in the way-way-too-early edition of the PairWise rankings.
The RedHawks joined Denver as the only NCHC teams with two wins. Seven conference teams are .500 or better.
FINAL THOUGHTS: While it was great to see improvement on this team, and the opening night win obviously had to help team morale, it didn’t feel like this effort would’ve been enough to take down a Duluth, a North Dakota or a Denver, and even odds against an Arizona State or Colorado College.
It’s early of course, and at this point of the season all teams are raw, but it didn’t feel like this win moved the proverbial needle.
The shot total is slightly deceiving but Canisius still led in that department, 33-26 and spent way too much time in Miami’s offensive zone.
And once again it was painful to watch this team close out a win.
There were lots of positive takeaways from this game but also a number of things Miami hopefully won’t take away from Friday.
View From the Glass 