Follow: @MiamiOH_Hockey | @MiamiRedHawks
TROY, N.Y. – Riley Barber scored two goals and the No. 6 Miami hockey team withstood a late Rensselaer rally to win 3-2 on Friday night.
Friday’s road win is the RedHawks’ (13-6) second in a row and marks their sixth-straight Friday night series-opening win.
“I thought the guys played hard tonight,” Miami head coach Enrico Blasi said. “We executed when we needed to, but there are a few things we can clean up. Overall I thought the guys played well.”
After weathering a couple sustained RPI (6-14-1) shifts in its end, MU got its cycle going with the line of Blake Coleman, Cody Murphy and Devin Loe generating a couple quality shots and forcing an offensive zone faceoff. Austin Czarnik won the ensuing faceoff and Conor Lemirande worked the puck to the stick of Barber, who dragged the puck through the slot to the right circle, before slipping a shot through Jason Kasdorf’s five-hole at the 4:40 mark to put the RedHawks on top 1-0.
Miami got an opportunity on the power play to add to its lead at the 11:25 mark. The RedHawks got one good look early in the man advantage when the puck found Louie Belpedio at the right circle, where he fired a shot that Kasdorf waffle boarded aside to keep it a one-goal contest. Miami held an 8-3 edge in shots over the first 18 minutes and change, but an offensive zone penalty with 1:22 to go in the period gave the Engineers a chance to go on the attack with a power play. RPI sent three shots through traffic late in the period, but Ryan McKay tracked down all of them to allow MU to skate into the dressing room with a 1-0 lead.
RPI converted on its power play just 22 seconds into the second period when Chris Bradley held in a Miami clearing attempt and fired a point shot that redirected into the net to even the score at 1-1.
Less than two minutes later, Czarnik picked off an Engineer pass and was pulled down as he tried to finish in close, leading to another RedHawk power play. RPI managed to escape that power play unscathed as MU got just one shot on net during a scoreless two minutes.
The Engineers got another power play opportunity at the 7:07 mark. Despite holding possession in the Miami zone for the vast majority of the man advantage, RPI was unable to get anything to the net as MU killed off the penalty.
Miami’s depth up front shined again midway through the middle stanza as Andrew Schmit gathered a bouncing puck in the slot and wristed a shot past Kasdorf for his first goal as a RedHawk (second career) at the 10:15 mark to put the Red and White back in front by a 2-1 count. Kevin Morris also picked up an assist on the go-ahead tally. Schmit is the fourth different Miami skater to score his first goal of the season on its six-game road swing.
“I think everyone is playing within our system,” Blasi said. “Different guys are getting it done every night and that’s something we need to continue doing.”
Another RPI penalty with 6:03 left gave Miami another man advantage. The third power play was the charm at the 14:36 mark when Belpedio got in front of an Engineer clearing attempt and fed Riley Barber for a one-timer at the left circle. The junior forward didn’t miss as his blast found the net for his second of the night to hand the Red and White a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.
Play went back and forth for the early stages of the third period, with both goaltenders being forced to make quality saves. Miami got a power play just 2:10 into the final regulation frame, but Kasdorf turned aside both shots he faced to keep it a 3-1 contest.
The Engineers’ cycling game hemmed the RedHawks in their own end for a couple shifts midway through the period and it finally led to a goal when Drew Melanson finished a centering feed in the slot to cut the Red and White lead to 3-2 with 8:36 to go. That goal rejuvenated RPI as it started to pepper McKay with shots down the stretch.
Miami’s backs were against the wall in the closing minutes as two penalties 55 seconds apart left MU facing a two-man advantage with just 2:31 remaining. The Red and White’s defense stood the test, getting several clears and not allowing a single shot on goal during either power play. An interference penalty by RPI with 30.8 seconds left allowed the Red and White an offensive zone faceoff and they were able to salt away the game without allowing a single shot on goal over the final two and a half minutes.
“That was a huge 5-on-3 kill,” Blasi said. “Anytime you can kill a 5-on-3, you will usually find yourself on the winning side. I thought Austin did a good job as our forward and Ben Paulides and Matthew Caito did a nice job on defense during that stretch.”
The RedHawks owned a 27-23 edge in shots and went 1-for-5 on the power play. The Engineers finished the game 1-for-4 with the man advantage. Barber recorded his second multi-goal game of the season and his two goals give him a team-high tying 10 on the season. McKay picked up his first win of the year after turning aside 21 of 23 shots while his counterpart Kasdorf made 24 saves on 27 shots.
Miami eyes a series sweep on Saturday night. Opening faceoff is at 7 p.m.
