Follow: @MiamiOH_Hockey | @MiamiRedHawks
DULUTH, Minn. – Sean Kuraly’s power play goal with 1:59 left in the third period gave the No. 10 Miami hockey team its first and only lead in a come-from-behind 3-2 win at No. 19 Minnesota Duluth on Friday.
The victory is the RedHawks’ (5-2, 1-0 National Collegiate Hockey) fifth in their last six outings as they won their first-ever game at Amsoil Arena.
“We did what we needed to win today,” head coach Enrico Blasi said. “Our special teams came through for us in a special teams dominated game. It was a tight game all the way through and we got a fortunate bounce at the end.”
The Bulldogs (3-4, 1-2 NCHC) took six of the first eight shots on goal in the first few minutes of the contest, but Jay Williams was sharp and stopped all of those attempts. After things settled down, Anthony Louis nearly put the Red and White on top when he brought the puck into the slot and beat Kasimir Kaskisuo with a wrist shot that ended up drawing iron.
A boarding penalty put Miami short-handed with 5:30 gone by, but the RedHawks’ four-man unit was sharp and yielded just one shot on goal during a successful kill. Miami got to go on a power play of its own at the 7:59 mark, but its man advantage likewise just fired one shot on goal during a scoreless two minutes.
In a period that UMD had a decisive edge in shots (13-6), the Bulldogs finally got on the board at the 15:37 mark when Cal Dekowski found Karson Kuhlman from behind the net with a centering feed, where Kuhlman one-timed a shot past Williams to make it 1-0. The RedHawks got another chance on the power play with 1:36 remaining in the frame, but were unable to find the net as they trailed by a goal after 20 minutes of play.
A pair of Bulldog penalties at the 2:29 and 3:26 marks, respectively, gave the RedHawks a 5-on-3 power play early in the second period. Miami took advantage at the 3:49 mark when Blake Coleman tipped a Louis shot for his fourth goal of the season to even the score at 1-1. Austin Czarnik picked up an assist on the play, which tied him with Boyd Sutton (130 career points) for 17th on the program’s all-time scoring list.
That tie was short lived as the Bulldogs capitalized on a power play of their own at the 6:24 mark when Andy Welinski wristed a shot through traffic from the point to give them another one-goal lead at 2-1. The Red and White were short-handed again just 29 seconds later, but they were able to kill off that penalty and even create a chance with Cody Murphy going on a breakaway fresh out of the box. Murphy’s chance was stopped on an unorthodox play by Kaskisuo where he reached behind him to catch the shot in his glove.
Miami swarmed the net for most of the second period and evened the score again when Alex Wideman found a loose puck near the crease and tapped it in for his third goal this season. Riley Barber and Matthew Caito both garnered assists on the play, which capped the scoring in the period after the RedHawks outshot the Bulldogs 18-5.
Barber had the first good Miami chance minutes into the third when he got the puck coming down the slot by himself, but his shot drew iron to keep the score tied 2-2.
The third period featured a slew of penalties on both sides that featured five combined power plays. Miami got the first crack of the frame at the 4:11 mark, but only created one shot during a scoreless two minutes. With eight and a half minutes gone by, UMD got a 2-on-1 that set up Carson Soucy in the slot that Williams made a big blocker save on to keep the score even.
Miami found itself short-handed at the 10:21 mark of the third, but Williams stood tall by making two important saves to help the Red and White kill the penalty off. The penalty killers were tested again on an incidental high stick at 12:40, but Bulldogs’ forward Dominic Toninato took a five-minute checking from behind penalty 45 seconds later that tossed him from the game.
After playing scoreless for 1:15 of 4-on-4 play, the RedHawks went back to work on a long power play to try and take their first lead of the night. Miami’s cause was aided by a high sticking penalty with 3:57 left, which left the RedHawks’ with a two-minute 5-on-3. UMD nearly got out unscathed thanks to five Kaskisuo saves, but Kuraly found a soft spot in the slot and fired a feed from Scott Dornbrock into the net with two seconds remaining on the two-man advantage to give MU its first lead of the night at 3-2 with 1:59 left.
Trailing for the first time, the Bulldogs aggressively tried to pin the RedHawks into their defensive zone as they pressured for a tying tally. Williams once again stood strong, but making two of his 10 third-period saves in the final two minutes to secure a series opening win.
The RedHawks outshot the Bulldogs 38-28 overall and 32-15 in the final two periods of play to pull out the win. Special teams played a big role in the win as Miami finished the night 2-for-8 on the power play while Minnesota Duluth was 1-for-6 with the man advantage. Williams turned aside 26 of UMD’s 28 shots while Kaskisuo stopped 35 of 38 MU attempts.
“Our first period wasn’t as good as it’s been in the past,” Blasi said. “We made a miscue in our zone and it cost us. We settled down after that and the game was pretty even along the way. Jay played well for us all night long. He made a couple really big saves on them late in the third to keep us in front and help us hold on.”
Miami finishes the weekend series on Saturday night at 8:07 p.m.
