By John Lachmann
OXFORD, Ohio – Despite being outshot by a 2-to-1 ratio, Miami was the dominant team on Friday.
And it showed on the scoreboard, as the RedHawks blanked Notre Dame, 3-0 at Cady Arena despite being outshot, 31-16.
Senior goalie Connor Knapp stopped 31 shots to record the shutout, the 11th of his career and his third in his last eight starts. He is now one blanking away from tying teammate senior Cody Reichard and 2003 graduate David Burleigh for the all-time career mark of 12.
Miami wasted no time putting the puck in the net. Freshman Blake Coleman finished a check in the corner, stealing the puck in the process, skated toward the net and wristed a shot through the legs of Notre Dame goalie Mike Johnson.
The bad-angle goal was scored just 2:08 into the first period.
It appeared the RedHawks had extended the lead to two late in the opening frame when junior forward Reilly Smith batted a pass from freshman Tyler Biggs past Johnson, but it was ruled on the ice and confirmed by replay that he knocked the puck in with his glove.
But Smith would knock one in that counted early in the second frame.
Miami freshman defenseman Ben Paulides fired a wrister that pinballed off two Notre Dame defenders and finally Biggs, bouncing right to Smith. Smith kicked the puck to his backhand and swatted it past Johnson to make it 2-0 at 4:19.
Meanwhile, Knapp continued his amazing second half. He faced 15 shots in the middle stanza and nine more in the third, but Notre Dame was unable to get the puck past him.
In nine starts since Christmas break, Knapp has started nine games and allowed less than two goals in seven of those outings. Knapp has played in 10 games in that stretch (he relieved Reichard once) and has allowed 10 goals.
Biggs capped the scoring off by stealing a Fighting Irish cross-ice pass at their own blue line and firing the puck into the empty net with 2:09 remaining. With a goal and an assist, it was the first multi-point game of Biggs’ career.
With the win, Miami moves three points ahead of Notre Dame, leapfrogged Lake Superior State – which lost to Western Michigan – and is now tied with Ohio State for fifth place with 39 points.
ANALYSIS: Miami needed a big game and played one of its best of the season on Friday.
Notre Dame’s top two forwards – Anders Lee and T.J. Tynan – finished with seven shots, no points and a minus-3 rating.
The early goal by Coleman, which should have been stopped, was huge because both of Notre Dame’s goalies have struggled recently and that goal did nothing to instill faith in the Irish defense corps.
Smith’s goal was a thing of beauty. He was able to kick the puck to his still and backhand it into the net in one motion.
The shots were not a good indicator of the teams’ play. Miami was easily the better team, and most of Notre Dame’s shots were innocuous, coming from the outside and cleanly fielded by Knapp.
Miami has been a completely different third-period team in the second half, and did a great job of shutting down the Irish late in this game. The RedHawks were outscored, 21-16 in the third period and overtime in their first 20 games, but since the start of 2012 they have scored 17 goals to their opponents’ two after the second intermission.
How big are these games? Miami could move into fourth place in the conference with a win on Saturday or could drop into a tie for eighth with a loss.
The only certainties in the conference right now are Alaska will finish 10th and Bowling Green has clinched last. The dreaded ninth spot – that team would have to win two road series to advance to Detroit – is still in play for almost all of the remaining teams.
With the win, Miami moves into a tie for 11th in the all-important PairWise rankings. Notre Dame is now in a three-way tie for 20th and next week’s opponent, Ohio State, is now in a three-way tie of its own for 14th.
Atlantic Hockey will get an automatic bid, and Air Force, currently ranked 26th, leads that conference. No other team is ranked above Air Force, so that essentially eliminates one spot from the NCAA at-large field. So teams have to finish 15th or better to get in.
In addition to possibly dropping out of the PairWise field should Miami struggle in its final games, it would be harder for the RedHawks to bounce back since they could host a non-TUC (team under consideration), followed by a weekend series in hostile territory.
Miami still controls its own destiny to some degree, but odds are either Notre Dame or Ohio State will not go to the tournament, so the RedHawks absolutely cannot take even a shift off in the next three games.
Miami trails fourth place Michigan State by two points and third place Michigan by five, and ideally the RedHawks push past one of those teams.
If not, Miami would face the dreaded five seed, which would earn the RedHawks a bye but not only would they not host a series, they would likely play a best-of-3 at one of those schools.
Notre Dame is a good team that is struggling at a bad time,
PRINT
