Miami Stuns ASU With 4 Late Goals

OXFORD, Ohio — If Game 1 was indicative of the type of contests we can expect between future conference rivals No. 13 Arizona State and Miami, pass the popcorn and prepare for some exciting hockey on the south side of campus in the coming years.

The RedHawks scored three unanswered goals in the final 12:09 of regulation to force overtime in the first-ever meeting between these teams, then John Waldron hammered home a one-timer from Axel Kumlin 21 seconds into the 3-on-3 extra session in Miami’s 5-4 win over the Sun Devils at Cady Arena on Friday.

MU won its fourth straight game, equaling its longest victory streak in five years.

RECAP: Arizona State (4-1) took the lead 1:10 into the game when a Miami clearing attempt hit the skate of Ty Jackson and kicked to twin brother Dylan Jackson, who slid a drop pass to a streaking Ty Jackson, who buried a shot on the stick side from the slot.

In one of the stranger goals recently seen at the rink, the RedHawks (4-1) tied it with 9:50 left in the opening frame when Kumlin ripped a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that generated such a long rebound that it rolled back to him deeper in the zone.

Kumlin didn’t catch the puck cleanly when he stepped in to shoot the loose puck, but it popped up and eluded Arizona State goalie T.J. Semptimphelter on the short side.

The Sun Devils’ Lukas Sillinger broke the tie 4:30 into the second period on a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Neaton.

Kyle Smolen wired a wrist shot just under the crossbar from the right faceoff dot to give Arizona State a 3-1 lead nine minutes later, and Alex Young extended the Sun Devils’ lead to three 6:27 into the third period, skating the puck from the blue line to the left side of net and jamming in a forehander.

But Miami answered 84 seconds later, as Michael Feenstra batted down an ASU clearing attempt that found the stick of teammate Teddy Lagerback, who threw the puck at the net, finding a wide-open P.J. Fletcher, who skated across the top of the crease and backhanded it past Septimphelter to cut the deficit to two.

With 5:22 left in regulation, the RedHawks’ Raimonds Vitolins made it a one-goal game with his one-time blast from the top of the left faceoff circle off a feed from Matthew Barbolini on the power play.

Miami tied it with 56 seconds remaining and Neaton pulled, as Barbolini sent a shot on net that generated a juicy rebound that Vitlolins collected and slid a pass through the slot to William Hallen, who buried the one-timer.

Seconds into overtime off a defensive zone faceoff, Waldron seized the loose puck, skated it all the way into the offensive zone and played give-and-go with a streaking Kumlin, whose return feed found Waldron at the inside edge of the left faceoff circle for a one-time rip into the vacated side of the net to win it.

STATS: Miami has won four straight games for just the fifth time in the past 10 years, and this is the first such streak under coach Chris Bergeron.

The last time the RedHawks reeled off four consecutive W’s was Oct. 20-Nov. 2, 2018.

— Waldron and Barbolini led Miami in points with three apiece.

Barbolini, who picked up three assists, set career highs in points and helpers.

Waldron (1-2-3) tied his career points high which he set Dec. 9, 2022 with his hat trick at St. Cloud State.

Both extended their season-opening points streaks to five games, tied with 2015 graduate and Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman for the fourth-longest span to open a campaign in the 17-year Cady Arena era.

Barbolini is also tied for the second spot on that list, as he recorded points in six straight contests to open 2022-23, going 3-4-7. He leads the team with nine points this season (3-6-9), and Waldron is one behind him, second on the RedHawks (3-5-8).

Both have also registered back-to-back multi-point games, as has Vitolins, who is 1-1-2 in each of his last two contests.

— Hallen extended his points streak to four games and Fletcher three.

— Kumlin finished 1-1-2, his second career multi-point game. He also finished with that line Dec. 10, 2022 in a 5-0 win over St. Cloud State.

— Feenstra and Lagerback also earned assists, their first in RedHawks sweaters, and both came on the same play.

ANALYSIS: Bergeron has said aloud that confidence has been a major obstacle for Miami since he took over behind the bench.

If this win doesn’t give this team a much-needed major morale boost, it’s hard to fathom anything else resonating.

On Friday, Miami came back from three goals down in the final 12:09 in regulation, tying the score and forcing free hockey, during which the RedHawks have earned zero wins in 59 months.

Then Miami completed the comeback with a picturesque 2-on-1 goal.

The MU game-winning celebratory shots that this site will publish on Monday (sorry for the gratuitous self-promotion) will tell a much better story than this former minor-league beat writer ever could.

We said it a million times last season, and it’s true again in 2023-24: The talent is there. One of the biggest problems recently hampering this program has been fulfilling expectations, which comes back to confidence.

Hopefully coming back from a three-goal deficit against the 13th-ranked team in Division I is a pivot point for this program.

— Is this offense legitimate? Recall that Miami finished fourth-last in the NCAA in offense last season, when the RedHawks scored at a 2.03 clip.

MU has scored four or more goals in all five of its games this season after reaching the four-goal mark just eight times in all of 2022-23.

And Arizona State entered this weekend with Division I’s top save percentage at .952.

The top line (still in search of a tacky nickname for it) racked up eight more points in this game against a ranked opponent, and the Tur-Duk-en line has been a force each game. The bottom two lines have produced as well and appear far ahead of where they were last season.

Fletcher has two goals and an assist the past three games and can make a major impact when he’s going well and healthy.

Will Miami sustain its success up front? Unclear. But the first few weeks have shown much promise.

— Moving this from stats to here for emphasis: Blake Mesenburg finished 14-1 on faceoffs. Between his and Hallen’s emergences and the addition of Vitolins, this team has performed much better on draws.

Mesenburg was excellent in a gritty, grinding, won’t-appear-on-the-scoresheet way.

Also in that category was Ryan Sullivan. He battled in the corners, threw the body, killed penalties and was a factor offensively as well.

— Much to like from Spencer Cox running the power play point. Wanted to see how he’d perform against a quality opponent when he had less space to operate, and under duress he made quick decisions and identified defensive gaps, and when openings were presented he threw the puck at the net to create scoring chances.

— Hallen’s game-tying goal was incredible. It was even better in slow motion, as the pass from Vitolins was clearly airborne, yet Hallen was able to hammer it home as a one-timer. It’s hard to say which was the better play: The execution of that Vitolins pass, which also drew two defenders, or Hallen’s finish.

— Feels invigorating to walk out of the rink in a good mood after a Miami game goes to overtime. That was the first OT win for the RedHawks during the Bergeron era, snapping an 0-9-13 skid in extra sessions.

Three weeks ago, Ferris State beat Miami the same way, coming back from a 4-1 deficit, scoring three straight in the third period including one in the final minute and winning it in overtime.

Finishing on the winning side of a major comeback for a change was a nice feeling.

LINEUP CHANGES: Lagerback made his home debut and dressed for the second time this season, recording an assist against the Arizona State team he transferred from last spring.

He took the place of Frankie Carogioiello, who — like many of the RedHawks — are battling illness.

That was the only change from the 19 skaters Miami dressed in the Canisius finale.

SCHEDULE/STANDINGS: These teams wrap up their inaugural series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.

Miami actually slipped a spot to No. 5 in the Way-Too-Early-PairWise.

GRADES

FORWARDS: A. Really, very few skaters up front had off-nights. Artur Turansky did turn the puck over, resulting in the first ASU goal, and he was late defending on the Sun Devils’ third goal, but he’s been excellent so far this season. The top line was again the top line, and the makeshift Fletcher-Thomas Daskas-Lagerback third line seemed to work well together, accounting for a key goal.

DEFENSEMEN: C+. Kumlin found the net and set up the game-winning goal, and Feenstra picked up a helper. Overall after a sloppy start this corps did a pretty good job of shutting down high-quality scoring chances.

GOALTENDING: C-. None of the four Arizona State goals were soft, but Neaton should’ve been able to turn aside at least one. But his rebound control was solid and he kept Miami in the game while the RedHawks rallied.

FINAL THOUGHTS: When Arizona State went up three goals six-plus minutes into the third period, a small but noticeable percentage of the announced Cady Arena crowd of 1,818 packed up and darted for the exits.

Fan morale at this point — understandably — is at about 0.0.

From the eternally floating puck that beat Cody Reichard in the overtime of the NCAA title game 14 years ago, it’s been a slow torture death to Miami’s current state in the Division I doldrums.

Was this dramatic win finally the turning point the RedHawks needed to break out of their current years-long funk?

A Miami hockey fanbase that is at this point 90 percent scar tissue hopes so.