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OXFORD, Ohio – Cody Murphy’s first-career hat trick headlined a balanced and dominant 8-2 for the No. 4/5 Miami hockey team over No. 12/13 Omaha at Steve ‘Coach’ Cady Arena on Friday night.
The victory is the RedHawks’ (11-4, 7-2 National Collegiate Hockey) third straight and their sixth triumph in the past seven games.
Riley Barber had a good opportunity nearly three minutes in when he tried a wraparound, but Ryan Massa’s pad beat Barber to the post to keep the puck out of the net. UNO (7-4-2, 3-3-1-1 NCHC) got on the board at the 4:14 mark when David Pope pounced on a rebound from Austin Ortega’s shot and fired it into the net to put MU down 1-0.
The RedHawks killed off a Mavericks power play, they went on the offensive. A nifty give-and-go between Sean Kuraly and Alex Wideman created a Kuraly breakaway that Massa stopped midway through the period. Sustained pressure in the offensive zone forced a UNO penalty with 9:21 remaining in the frame. It took just nine seconds for Miami’s power play to take advantage as Austin Czarnik centered the puck from behind the net to Kevin Morris, who beat Massa for his first goal of the season. Louie Belpedio also drew an assist as the RedHawks evened the score at one apiece. Czarnik’s assist was the 100th of his career, passing Andy Miele for seventh all-time.
Murphy put Miami in front 1:44 later when finished a play on a rebound from Belpedio’s shot after Matthew Caito started a transition rush. His second goal of the year gave the RedHawks a 2-1 lead with 7:28 to go in the opening period. Defensively, the RedHawks killed off two more Maverick power plays down the stretch to skate to the locker room with a one-goal lead and a 12-8 edge in shots.
Miami’s offense erupted with a five-goal second period to seize control of the game. Murphy worked around the goal and into the slot before wristing home his second tally of the night with just 4:32 gone by in the frame. The senior forward finished the natural hat trick 5:10 later when he redirected Scott Dornbrock’s point shot for his first career three-goal game.
Caito got involved in the scoring just 1:09 later when Czarnik fed Barber for a transition chance. His shot was stopped by new goaltender Kirk Thompson, but Caito got to the rebound and tapped it into the open net for his first goal of the season, making it a 5-1 Miami lead.
The Red and White were not done there as Barber finished a brilliant cross-ice feed from Conor Lemirande atop the goal crease with 1:42 left in the frame before Blake Coleman tipped a Ben Paulides point shot after Alex Gacek worked the puck over to him with 39 seconds left in the period to cap the scoring. Lemirande's assist on Barber's goal was his first-collegiate point while Czarnik had a secondary helper on that tally.
Physical play marred the third period as both teams combined to commit 18 penalties for a total of 84 penalty minutes. A power play goal by Dominic Zombo with 12:58 remaining snapped Miami’s string of seven-unanswered goals and cut the MU lead to 7-2. Tempers flared midway through the period when three players on both teams got into a skirmish after a whistle. After the dust settled, matching roughing minors and 10-minute misconducts left both teams with 15 skaters on the bench for the remainder of the evening.
Omaha got a late power play and decided to pull Thompson for an extra attacker. That ended up backfiring as Barber swept a loose puck up ice and Czarnik fed Michael Mooney for his first-career goal on the empty net with 3:19 to go, capping the scoring at 8-2.
The 84-penalty minute third period accounted for the vast majority of the team’s combined 100 penalty minutes for the night. The RedHawks outshot the Mavericks 30-26 and went 1-for-5 on the power play while holding UNO to 1-for-7 with the man advantage.
Czarnik’s four points (all assists) led all skaters and moved him into sole possession of 13th on the RedHawks’ all-time scoring list with 140 career points. The four assists give him 103 helpers, tying Kevyn Adams and Kevin Beaton for fourth in school history. The senior captain joined Murphy (3 goals), Caito (1 goal, 2 assists), Barber (1 goal, 2 assists), Louis (2 assists) and Belpedio (2 assists) as the six RedHawks with multi-point outings. Caito’s three points also represented a career high. In net, Jay Williams stopped 24 of 26 Maverick shots while Massa and Thompson combined for 22 saves on 29 shots at the other end.
The teams conclude their weekend series on Saturday with the puck dropping at 7:05 p.m.
