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Miami shut out, swept away by Michigan

RedHawks scored one goal in two games

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Posted: 02/05/2012

By John Lachmann

On the first weekend of February last season, Miami dominated Michigan in Oxford, outscoring the Wolverines, 7-2 in a series sweep.

Michigan returned the favor in the RedHawks’ return to Ann Arbor, winning 3-0 in the series finale at Yost Arena on Saturday to cap off a two-game set in which the Wolverines outscored Miami, 7-1.

Miami drops into a tie for fourth place in the CCHA with Ohio State and Notre Dame, and the RedHawks are only one of three teams to have already played 24 games of their 28-game league schedule. The remaining eight teams have two conference games in hand.

And the news gets worse for the RedHawks, as freshman forward Jimmy Mullin was unable to go on Saturday and senior defenseman Will Weber was assessed a fighting major and disqualification penalty, meaning he is suspended for Miami’s game against Alabama-Huntsville on Feb. 10.

Miami allowed its first shorthanded goal since Oct. 21 when Michigan broke out for a 3-on-1 and Lee Moffie slammed home a one-time pass from Luke Glendening seven-plus minutes into the game.

Three minutes into the second period, Moffie scored again when he ripped a shot past Miami senior goalie Connor Knapp off a short pass from A.J. Treais six seconds after a Michigan power play had expired.

UM’s Chris Brown put the game away with 6:16 left in the third when he skated around Weber and went in alone, beating Knapp to make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, Miami was unable to solve Wolverines goalie Shawn Hunwick. He stopped 29 shots to earn the shutout.

Four minutes before the third Michigan goal, a blast by Miami senior forward Matt Tomassoni slipped through Hunwick’s legs, and Moffie knocked it out right as it was crossing the goal line.

Miami coach Enrico Blasi was livid on the bench, citing a CBS Sports Network replay shown on the big screen that the officials apparently did not have access to (the network showed the monitor that referee Brian Hill was looking at, and he only had an inconclusive look from the front of the net).

Because of the subsequent Michigan goal, the non-goal call ended up being a pivotal moment in the game.

The game was chippy throughout, but the animosity cranked up with a minute remaining. Weber and Michigan’s Chris Brown were assessed fighting majors, making them ineligible to play in their teams’ next game.

All seven skaters on the ice (that happened during a 4-on-3 for Michigan) were given two-minute penalties.

Forty penalty minutes were handed out for that skirmish, bringing the game total for both teams to 98.

Miami takes a break from league action for a weekend as the RedHawks will host Alabama-Huntsville next Friday and Saturday.

ANALYSIS: Michigan was the faster team all weekend and had excellent goaltending, and deserved to come away with six points.

Miami’s offense was non-existent, the RedHawks made several questionable defensive plays that resulted in goals and were anemic on the power play.

On the first goal, junior defenseman Stephen Spinell pinched into the play, and senior Alden Hirschfeld shifted back to cover him. When Michigan got the puck out of the zone, both were out of the play.

On the second goal: Senior forward Trent Vogelhuber took a bad boarding penalty, and six seconds after it expired, Moffie scored. Junior forward Curtis McKenzie kind of stood there and let the whole pass-and-shoot thing happen right around him without making much of an effort to prevent it.

On the third goal, Weber got flat-out beat. That’s the second time in as many weekends that’s happened. Not to make an excuse, but keep in mind he plays against opponents’ top offensive players every week. Still that was a bad play.

On the non-goal by Tomassoni: I really hate to admit this, but I watched the replay, frame by frame, at least six times. I don’t think it was a goal.

The puck is barely moving, but from the best angle available you can see blue and white, but not the red goal line. If you look at the goal line outside of the crease on either side, it gives one better perspective on where the puck needed to be to count as a goal, and the entire puck needs to clear the line to be considered a goal.

And I’m not one to defend CCHA officials, but Brian Hill was standing right on the net and got a better look than anyone watching on a monitor, even in slow-mo. And the ruling on the ice was no goal, so conclusive evidence would've been needed to overturn the original call.

On the late majors to Spinell and Pateryn: Spinell’s arms came up, but he shouldn’t have gotten more than a minor penalty.

If contact to the head is going to be called literally, from my seat at Cady Arena I could count at least a dozen times when someone’s hands or stick makes contact with a helmet or a facemask.

As a side note, the CBS Sports crew’s mics CLEARLY picked up Miami coach Enrico Blasi yelling, “Give me a $#@&ing break, Sergi (referee Keith Sergott). That’s a $#%@ing joke.”

Pateryn was given five and a game for contact to the head, and the contact was made with

an elbow. At the last second, he knew the contact with Miami junior forward Reilly Smith was coming, and he lifted his elbow. That was a good call.

On the Brown-Weber “fight”: Check out the sidebar on this incident on Sunday. This write-up is already long enough, and I want to comment on it extensively.

One more thing: I erred in saying that Blasi lifted Mullin from the first power play unit on Friday. Mullin was kneed in the second period (hard to believe a Michigan player would do that, I know) and I saw him return to the ice right after, so I assumed he was being taken off that unit.

When I went back and watched that period again Mullin took one more shift and his leg was clearly bothering him. He didn’t return.

My point was (and still is) that I didn’t think the right combinations of players were on the ice during power plays, and I stand by that, but I was incorrect about Mullin’s availability. It’s harder to keep track of such things when you’re not at a game live.

One more thing: Good for Blasi, benching freshman Ben Paulides and Coleman. Coleman’s a good player who has taken a lot of bad penalties, and Paulides struggled on Friday.

And junior defenseman Garrett Kennedy played well, blocking a couple of key shots and stopped a 3-on-1 shot after Knapp had gone to the bench for an extra attacker, or else the final would’ve been 4-0.

GRADES

FORWARDS: F. Yes, Hunwick played great and yes, Miami was somewhat unlucky but ultimately they didn’t score and when the object of the sport is to do that, it’s hard to give any other mark to those whose job it is to put the puck in the net. They combined for 17 shots.

Biggs was moved into Mullin’s spot, and he played well again. Freshman Cody Murphy was in the lineup and was outstanding. I’d like to see him play more.

DEFENSEMEN: C-. It’s unclear where the miscommunication happened on the shorthanded goal, but Weber clearly was beaten on the third one. Goal No. 2 wasn’t the defense’s fault, and it occurred just after a power play expired.

They combined for 12 shots and obviously no points, and Michigan put 32 shots on goal.

As noted above, Kennedy played pretty well no one else really struggled. Spinell’s penalty, which granted shouldn’t have been a major, wasn’t very smart.

GOALTENDING: B-. The first goal was a 3-on-1, the second was a blast from in close and the third was essentially a breakaway. Hard to fault Knapp for any of those.

Knapp also made a couple of excellent saves, including one on a 2-on-1 midway through the third period. He stopped 29-of-32 shots, a .906 percentage against a very good team.

LINEUP CHANGES: As mentioned, Murphy suited up for Coleman and was a ball of energy. He had four shots on goal, second on the team only to senior defenseman Chris Wideman.

The stat sheet says Paulides was dressed, but I think that’s incorrect. Kennedy played, as did the other five starters from Friday, and if Paulides was on the bench I don’t remember him taking a shift.

-- Contact John at Kypostsports@yahoo.com