St. Cloud salvages split with Miami

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami held St. Cloud State without a 5-on-5 goal on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the RedHawks, SCSU found the net on a traditional power play, a 4-on-4, a two-man advantage and with an extra attacker in a 4-2 win at Cady Arena on Saturday.

The teams split the weekend set, but with Miami’s win coming in overtime, the RedHawks earned just two of six points for the series.

MU’s next games are at the Friendship Four next weekend in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

RECAP: Unlike Friday when the RedHawks never trailed, MU did not lead at any point in this contest.

With 6:55 left in the first period, Grant Ahcan scored on a 4-on-4 breakaway seconds after leaving the penalty box, tucking a forehander under Miami goalie Matteo Drobac, pinballing off his pads on its way in.

Barrett Hall gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead just 51 seconds into the middle frame, rifling a one-timer from the right faceoff dot with five seconds left in a 5-on-3.

St. Cloud State (7-7) went up by three with 13:10 left in that stanza on the power play, as Tyson Gross swatted a loose puck in the air off Drobac from the left side of the crease and batted his own rebound in.

Less than four minutes later, Miami (8-4) cut its deficit to two when Matteo Giampa took a feed from David Deputy at the left side of the crease, turned and shoveled a shot just under the far post.

The RedHawks pulled to within one with 4:54 remaining in the middle frame. Owen Lalonde intercepted a clearing attempt at the right point and threw a pass to Deputy, who controlled it and whipped it past SCSU goalie Patriks Berzins.

Ahcan tapped in an empty netter at the side of the net with 58 seconds left to seal it, his third goal of the season, with all coming this weekend.

STATS: Lalonde, playing in his first NCAA game, earned his first NCAA point on the feed to Deputy.

Deputy led all RedHawks with two points on a goal and an assist, and his eight shots on goal were a game high. He finished the weekend with four points and has six points in his last five games.

Giampa’s goal was his fifth of the season, and his 12 points tie him with Vladislav Lukashevich for the second on the team.

Kocha Delic, who also picked up an assist, is tops on the RedHawks in scoring, recording his 15th point.

— Miami has allowed at least four goals in seven of its last eight games.

— The second period was RedHawk kryptonite the last two weekends, as opponents scored nine times against Miami in the middle stanza of those four games.

But MU outshot SCSU, 19-9 in that frame.

ANALYSIS: In this tamer, less pugilistic, more civil era of hockey, scenarios other than 5-on-5, 5-on-4 or 4-on-4, are somewhat rare.

Apparently, that FAX didn’t reach the desk of this officiating crew.

Miami had a 4-on-3 for 52 seconds in the first period (and Ahcan, who committed the initial penalty, scored on a breakaway after coming out of the box).

St. Cloud State went 5-on-3 for 1:57 late in the first period bleeding into the second, with the second Miami penalty assessed for ‘handling the puck’. In other words, closing one’s hand on said puck.

The Huskies had a 4-on-3 advantage for exactly a minute following coincidental minors followed by a penalty to Delic a minute later early in the second period.

Then 1:14 after all of those penalties expired, Miami was awarded a two-man advantage for two full minutes.

Both 5-on-3s resulted in goals. And only 5 of 11 markers Friday were 5-on-5.

Editor’s note: This is a not a criticism of the officiating. Just stating that it significantly affected the cadence of the game(s), as most of the goals this weekend came during not 5-on-5 play. Just one of the six goals Saturday was at full, even strength (Deputy’s).

Coach Anthony Noreen made this comment after the game: “Obviously, there (were) without a doubt some frustrating moments, felt a little bit it was Miami against the world at points. That’s life.”

— In terms of game outline, St. Cloud State buzzed the whole first period and the early part of the second, and MU didn’t seem to match that intensity early. Defensive lapses cost Miami on the first goal, letting a guy coming out of the box go in for a breakaway, and the RedHawks got caught chasing the puck at the end of their 3-on-5 kill.

Then SCSU went up three, which would have been a death sentence in previous years, but Miami turned its game up several notches and got the deficit down to one (the shot counter on the board had the Huskies up 20-8 at one point in the second period, and it was 20-20 about six minutes later).

Miami just couldn’t get the equalizer, but not from a lack of effort.

— The RedHawks did kill a pair of third-period penalties in outstanding fashion. Again, SCSU leads Division I in power play percentage.

— Love Giampa and Delic, but they took a pair of minors apiece and have 41 combined PIMs this season, with many coming outside the defensive zone.

LINEUP CHANGES: Lalonde made his Division I debut, replacing forward John Emmons, as Noreen returned to a 12-forward, seven-defensemen structure.

STANDINGS: Miami slipped to last place in the NCHC, holding at five points. Colorado College is eighth with seven and SCSU — which earned three in this game — now has eight.

The RedHawks fell five spots to 29th in the NPI.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Obviously it would’ve been nice to sweep this series, but Miami heads to Belfast with an 8-4 record and will likely continue to receive votes for the top 20.

Keep in mind this team went 3-28-3 last season and didn’t win a game after Halloween.

It’s been a great two months for this program in spite of some key injuries and other issues.

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