No. 8 Miami holds off Northern Michigan, 3-2
3/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Hockey
March 13, 2009
OXFORD, Ohio - No. 8 Miami held off Northern Michigan, 3-2, on Friday night in the first game of the best-of-three second-round matchup in the CCHA tournament in Steve Cady Arena.
Andy Miele (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) earned a goal and an assist and picked up his second-consecutive game-winning goal. Cody Reichard (Celina, Ohio) made the three goals stand up with 24 saves between the pipes for the RedHawks.
Miami grabbed the early lead in the first period with a goal by Justin Mercier (Erie, Pa.) at 7:37. Pat Cannone (Bayport, N.Y.) and Miele earned the assists. The RedHawks extended their lead in the first with a power-play goal by Carter Camper (Rocky River, Ohio). The goal was the 12th power-play goal of the season for the CCHA Player of the Year candidate. Northern Michigan battled back in the second with a power-play goal by Justin Florek. The scored remained 2-1 until the third period when Erik Gustafsson appeared the tie the game with a shot from the blue line, but the goal was disallowed due to a Wildcat penalty. Miele followed up with a power-play insurance goal 1:37 later to give Miami a two-goal lead. The Wildcats added an extra-attacker goal at 18:40 of the third period by Nick Sirota to close out the scoring.
The RedHawks and Northern Michigan will be back in action in action tomorrow night in Steve Cady Arena at 7:05 p.m. The game will be televised on the Ohio News Network.
