Miami University
Lake Superior State
No. 11 Miami Ends Regular Season with Sweep of Lakers
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Hockey
Feb. 26, 2011
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - For the second straight night, the No. 11 Miami hockey team jumped on Lake Superior State early, scoring two goals in the opening five minutes, as the RedHawks completed the sweep of the Lakers with a 4-1 win Saturday night at Taffy Abel Arena in the regular-season finale. With the win, Miami (19-9-6, 16-7-5-2 CCHA) extended its unbeaten streak to a season-long nine games (6-0-3) while earning its second straight sweep at LSSU (10-15-9, 8-12-8-5 CCHA) after an 8-1 victory Friday and fifth sweep of the year.
Senior Andy Miele and sophomore Reilly Smith each scored a goal and assisted on the other's tally as Miele extended his point streak to a career-long 13 games, including now nine multi-point games, as he finished with his fifth five-point weekend in the last six weekends. Smith also ended with a five-point weekend while Miele continues to lead the country with 61 points and 42 helpers. He is the first RedHawk to top the 60-point plateau in a season since Randy Robitaille in 1996-97.
The RedHawks outshot LSSU 29-27 while junior goalie Connor Knapp made 26 saves to pick up his seventh win of the year. The Lakers' Kevin Kapalka took the loss despite stopping 25 shots. Miami also killed seven of eight Lake Superior power plays while going 0-for-3 with a man advantage themselves.
Just 1:05 into the contest, Miami grabbed a 1-0 lead as Smith tallied his third goal of the weekend and CCHA-best 24th of the year. After the Lakers fanned on a shot from the point, junior Cameron Schilling gathered the puck and pushed it ahead to Smith, who skated into the attacking zone. He then dished to Miele as Miami had a 4-on-1 when Miele passed back to Smith for the easy score.
Less than four minutes later, the 'Hawks doubled their advantage when sophomore Curtis McKenzie found the back of the net. He took a feed from senior Carter Camper, skated behind the net and circled around in front of the cage, using a back-handed shot through traffic for his sixth tally of the season.
Neither side managed to score in the second stanza despite the Lakers outshooting Miami 11-7 in the frame. Knapp made several big saves to keep LSSU off the board while Lake Superior also squandered a chance with a wide-open net that they were unable to put the puck in.
Early in the third period, Miami was whistled for a trip but not long into the Laker power play, the RedHawks made it 3-0 with a short-handed score. Smith intercepted an errant pass at the blue line and skated the other way with Miele alongside. With a 2-on-1 in the LSSU end, Smith left the puck for Miele who faked Kapalka with the forehand and beat him top-shelf on the backhand.
Lake Superior ended Knapp's shutout bid 10:13 into the third stanza, capitalizing on their seventh power play of the night. Matt Cowie centered a pass to Rick Schofield between the circles as he beat Knapp glove-side to make it 3-1.
The Lakers pulled Kapalka with a minute to play but 18 seconds later sophomore Steven Spinell blocked a shot and junior Matt Tomassoni picked up the puck and flung it toward the other end of the ice where it snuck inside the post for the empty-net goal, securing the 4-1 victory.
With the regular season in the books, the RedHawks, who had already secured third place in the CCHA and a first-round bye in the CCHA Playoffs, now await their opponent in the second round of the playoffs March 11-13. Miami will have home ice for the best-of-three second round with the March 11 game set for 7:35 p.m. while March 12 and March 13 (if necessary) are set for 7:05 p.m. at Steve Cady Arena.
--MURedHawks.com--
