Talk about an offensive breakout.
St. Cloud State scored six times in a 30-minute stretch in a 6-0 win to complete a weekend sweep of Miami at the Herb Brooks Center on Saturday.
The Huskies (4-4) were limited to 17 goals in their first seven games and were shut out by Miami (4-3-1) the first 28 minutes of this contest.
The RedHawks are now winless in their last 15 regular-season contests here (0-13-2).
RECAP: After a scoreless first period, St. Cloud State’s Joe Molenaar stole a loose puck in the slot, eluded a defender and roofed a forehander to give the Huskies the lead 8:34 into the second period.
Just 93 seconds later, SCSU’s Jake Luedtke skated through the right faceoff circle and beat Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris through the five hole to make it 2-0.
And 2:17 after that goal, the Huskies’ Veeti Miettinen took a drop pass from Adam Ingram at the blue line and whipped a wrister into the far corner of the net on the power play.
It was 3-0 after 40 minutes, and any hope Miami had for a comeback was dashed 21 seconds into the final stanza when Molenaar tried to center a puck into the slot from behind the RedHawks net, which hit off an MU skater and bounced into the net.
With 4:59 remaining in regulation, St. Cloud State’s Jack Peart beat Bruveris far post from the left faceoff dot to give the Huskies a five-goal lead.
Molenaar capped off a hat trick when he batted home a rebound at the top of the crease off a shot by Mason Salquist.
STATS: Trying to inject some positive here…John Waldron finished with four shots on goal? Yay?
— Miami’s last regular-season win in this building was Nov. 8, 2013.
— The RedHawks finished 12-for-50 on faceoffs (24.0 percent) after winning draws at a 32 percent clip on Friday.
— Six-goal losses should be exceedingly rare in hockey, but this was MU’s 11th defeat by six or more goals in the past three-plus seasons.
ANALYSIS: Miami played a respectable game in its 3-2 loss on Friday, but this series finale reeked of the past four years.
No jump, no sustained pressure, no puck security, no shut-down defense in the slot and then complete surrender once the deficit hit crooked numbers.
What team, when trailing in the third period and is trying to get back into a game, gets outshot, 17-4 the final 20 minutes?
This feels like a here-we-go-again moment, although to be fair, a bug has been kicking this team’s collective ass for multiple weeks, and missing underrated two-way forward Ryan Sullivan didn’t help, as he suffered an LBI on Friday. William Hallen was also playing hurt.
This was one bad game following a string of seven not-so-bad games, so we want to avoid overreaction, but this felt like a very regressive effort after this team had largely impressed the first month of the season.
— To its credit, St. Cloud State potted a number of goal-scorers’ goals in the game as well as Friday and deserves credit for its pinpoint shot accuracy.
— It’s a shame this was Bruveris’ first taste of collegiate action. Ideally it would’ve been nice if he could’ve debuted at home, but instead he was largely hung out to dry.
— As has become far too common in recent season, once the scoring onslaught began, Miami was helpless to stop the bleeding. And the RedHawks allowed another hat trick as they continue to lead the planet in three-goal-games-against since COVID.
— It’s hard to understand why Zane Demsey is the first defenseman voted off the island when the team is dressing eight blueliners. Miami D-men were skated around like pylons all weekend, and one of the more promising shut-down blueliners who can also lay out big-time hits was a healthy scratch for the fourth time this season.
Demsey was originally listed as a forward on Saturday’s line charts, as Hallen was a game-time decision, but when it was determined Hallen could play, Demsey was scratched on his 22nd birthday.
— Blake Mesenburg has been an excellent fourth-liner for the RedHawks, but I think we’ve seen enough of the rugby-scrum faceoff tactic in which he hits the hit on all fours in an attempt to win puck possession. He was 2-13 in the faceoff circle on Saturday.
— Bruveris got beat up high on a couple of heat-seeking shots, which was a concern since he’s on the short side for a goalie at six-feet even.
LINEUP CHANGES: First-liner Raimonds Vitolins returned to the lineup after missing Friday due to illness. Demsey was scratched.
Goalie Logan Neaton had logged every minute of the first seven games prior to Bruveris’ start in this contest.
STANDINGS: Six of eight NCHC teams started conference play this weekend, and Miami and Colorado College were the only teams that did not salvage a single point.
The RedHawks and Tigers meet at Cady Arena next weekend.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The worst take-away from this series was the third period of this game.
Eight days after rallying from three goals down to ultimately beat Arizona State in overtime, Miami had zero fight in the final 20 minutes.
Hopefully this is a one-off and this team rebounds next weekend.
View From the Glass 