OXFORD, Ohio — A night after recording its first overtime win in five years, Miami was once again tied after 60 minutes vs. No. 13 Arizona State.
This time, however, the extra session ended in a stalemate as the teams skated to a 1-1 tie at Cady Arena on Saturday.
The RedHawks (4-1-1) rallied from three goals down in the third period in the opener, scoring in the final minute and winning 21 seconds into overtime.
The tie extends MU’s unbeaten streak to five games, its longest such stretch in nearly seven years.
Senior defenseman Robby Drazner scored the lone Miami goal, the sixth of his career. RedHawks graduate senior goalie Logan Neaton stopped 29 shots — including 17 in the third period and overtime.
RECAP: Miami took the lead with 9:24 left in the first period when defenseman Michael Feenstra slipped a drop pass to fellow D-man Drazner, who carried the puck to the left faceoff dot and whipped a wrist shot that beat goalie Gibson Homer on the short side.
Arizona State (4-1-1) tied it 2:11 into the middle stanza. Dylan Jackson carried the puck into the Miami zone and tried to put it on net, but the puck caromed off a skate to linemate Lukas Sillinger, who buried a shot from the slot.
The Sun Devils hit pair of posts in the third period and missed a wide-open net.
The RedHawks outshot ASU, 5-2 in overtime but were unable to beat Homer — a former MU commit — in the 3-on-3.
STATS: The last time a Miami unbeaten streak reached five games was Dec. 10, 2016-Jan. 13, 2017.
The RedHawks have outscored opponents, 19-10 during their recent hot stretch.
— This was Drazner’s first goal in 11 games. The shut-down blueliner’s last tally came Feb. 18 vs. Omaha.
— After recording his first career point on Friday, Feenstra notched his second in this game, picking up a primary assist.
— Matthew Barbolini and John Waldron saw their season-opening five-game points streaks end, but P.J. Fletcher earned a point for the fourth straight contest. He takes over the team lead in that category, going 2-2-4 the last four games.
— Miami has scored first-period goals in all six games this season, notching 10 goals. The RedHawks have netted markers in nine straight first periods dating back to 2022-23.
— Prior to Saturday, MU had scored at least four goals in each of its first five games.
ANALYSIS: This tie was a net positive for the team but obviously a low-scoring standoff can’t match the confidence enema Miami received on Friday.
At the simplest level, Arizona State entered play ranked No. 13, and the RedHawks — who haven’t been polling contenders in seven years — salvaged a tie against a team it should’ve lost to on paper. Which is good.
The Sun Devils have an impressive program and were frankly the better team overall in this finale. But thanks to solid team defense, quality goaltending and a horseshoe up its collective hind quarters, Miami was able to end up even with ASU on the scoreboard, the only metric that truly counts.
Of course the RedHawks would’ve preferred a sweep, but a 1-0-1 series vs. a ranked opponent with MU gutting out a tie in the finale is big net win for the program.
— The first period started slowly but got more intense and physical as it progressed.
Miami’s poorest period was the second, when it couldn’t seem to generate anything offensively.
The RedHawks were outplayed early in the third period but seemed rejuvenated by their 3-on-5 kill of nearly a minute midway through and were better down the stretch.
That said, ASU hit two solid posts in the third that could be heard uptown, and the Sun Devils weren’t able to bat in basically an empty netter after Neaton reacted to a scoring chance and the puck ended up at the opposite side of the cage.
— Segue to that: Back-to-back too-many-men penalties? That’s the hockey equivalent of a football team being whistled for five straight false starts. Miami got away with it this time but can’t let that happen again. Too many men has been a way-to-frequent theme for this season’s RedHawks.
— A scrum in the closing seconds of regulation saw Barbolini assessed a coincidental minor to match an ASU goaltender interference call. That kept arguably the team’s top offensive threat out of the first three minutes of overtime, since he had to wait for a whistle in OT to return to the ice in 3-on-3 play.
— On a humorous note: The whistle blew 10 seconds into overtime because the dueling centers locked face masks and were unable to free themselves.
LINEUP CHANGES: Miami went with 11 forwards and eight defensemen, as forward Braydon Morrison sat and defenseman Zane Demsey returned to the lineup.
STANDINGS: Miami holds the No. 4 spot in the way-too-early silly season that is October PairWise. Arizona State slipped to eighth.
GRADES
FORWARDS: D. Statistically, this corps recorded just one point — the Fletcher secondary assist. Miami was held to 24 shots, its lowest SOG output of the season, with a third of those coming from the defense. Overall this group played pretty well defensively, especially Ryan Sullivan — who blocked three straight shots on the PK then pasted the shooter into the boards.
DEFENSEMEN: B+. It was an unsexy but effective effort by this group. Offensively, Drazner’s goal wasn’t pretty but was well placed, and Feenstra’s point came on a well-executed drop pass. In their own end, this corps faced a 3-on-5 in the third period and played five minutes of 3-on-3 overtime without caving. Captain Jack Clement blocked five shots, and Feenstra also was excellent in his own end.
GOALTENDING: A-. Neaton gave up one goal on a well-placed shot from the slot and stopped the other 29 SOG he faced. He didn’t face a ton of Grade-A chances but was solid on the ones he did see and saw a couple of mad scrambles near his net but kept the puck out of the net each time. He may have moved into the top slot in the team’s way-too-early most-improved player award race.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Here we are, ready to enter NCHC play again.
Miami has thrived against non-conference opponents to start this season, but it had the same 4-1-1 record through six games last season and won once after Dec. 30.
Miami is off to a great start, no doubt, but the RedHawks have won seven of 48 NCHC games the past two seasons, and that needs to change drastically if Miami hopes to return to Division I respectability this season.
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