Hockey Heads to Ice Breaker

Friday, October 12

Erie, Pa.

4:00 p.m. ET

Miami University

No. 4/5 Providence

10/10/2018 10:50:00 AM | Hockey

Game Notes Live Stats Live Video Listen

The RedHawks play in the Ice Breaker Tournament for the first time since 2006.

2018 Ice Breaker Tournament
Games 3-4
Friday, Oct. 12 • 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 13 • 4:00/7:30 p.m.
Erie Insurance Arena (6,716) • Erie, Pa.

Miami RedHawks (2-0) vs. No. 4/5 Providence Friars (1-0)
TV/Stream: Mercyhurst Athletics (stream)
Radio: Miami IMG Network/Tune In Radio (Greg Waddell-pbp)

MATCHUP
Miami plays in the touted Ice Breaker Tournament for the first time since opening Steve 'Coach' Cady Arena in 2006 as it faces a familiar Providence foe on Friday. MU finishes the tournament against either No. 2/4 Notre Dame or tournament host Mercyhurst on Saturday.
THE SERIES: The Friars swept last season's series in Oxford and hold a 9-5-2 lead in the all-time series. MU is 1-6-2 in its last nine meetings with PC.

PUCK POINTS
•   Grant Hutton's 13 goals last season led all NCAA defensemen and were the most by a Miami blue liner since Dan Boyle netted 14 in 1997-98. The senior's 23 career goals are the sixth most all-time among Miami defensemen.

•   Nine of Miami's 10 newcomers suited up at least once during opening weekend with Jordan Uhelski picking up a win in goal and five more notching their first Miami points.

•   Gordie Green has notched 51 points (23g, 28a) in his last 58 games dating back to midway through his 2016-17 freshman campaign.

•   The RedHawks return 13 letter winners and have 10 newcomers on the roster, including a draft pick (Jonathan Gruden) and a pair of graduate transfers in goaltender Jordan Uhelski (Alabama Huntsville) and defenseman River Rymsha (Dartmouth).

•   Fourteen RedHawks chipped in at least one point on opening weekend, with nine posting two or more points and five players putting up a multi-point game.

•   The RedHawks are off to their first 2-0 start since sweeping Ohio State in a home-and-home series to start the 2013-14 season. MU has not started 3-0 since the 2009-10 campaign.

•   Senior forward Josh Melnick is 17 points shy of becoming Miami's 52nd player to hit 100 career points.

LAST SEASON
The RedHawks secured their first opening weekend sweep since the 2013-14 season with a pair of wins over Alabama Huntsville. Saturday saw 11 RedHawks put up at least one point with Karch Bachman, Derek Daschke, Gordie Green and Grant Hutton all posting a goal and an assist. Jordan Uhelski picked up a win in his Miami debut against his former team with 18 saves in a 5-1 win. Ryan Larkin finished the weekend with an 11-save shutout while River Rymsha netted the game-winning goal and an assist in a 4-0 win.

COACH BLASI
Enrico Blasi (Miami '94) begins his 20th season behind the RedHawk bench. He is a five-time CCHA Coach of the Year and was named National Coach of the Year in 2005-06. He is the RedHawks' all-time winningest coach with a 389-288-72 record at his alma mater, which he has taken to 10 NCAA Tournaments, including two Frozen Four berths, a National Championship game appearance, a trio of CCHA regular-season titles and two conference tournament titles.

ABOUT PROVIDENCE: The Friars topped American International 3-1 in their lone game of opening weekend. PC was tabbed to finish second in Hockey East and has made the NCAA Tournament each of the past five seasons, including winning a national title in 2015. Among Providence's 17 returners is junior defenseman Jacob Bryson, a Second-Team All-American who put up 25 points from the blue line a year ago. Senior Hayden Hawkey played all 40 of Providence's contests last year with a 2.04 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.

THE REST OF THE ICE BREAKER: Notre Dame and Mercyhurst represent varying degrees of hockey history as it pertains to Miami. Notre Dame was a former conference foe of Miami's during the days of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (MU is 39-18-10 all-time against UND), but the teams' only meeting since the 2013-14 realignment was at the 2014 Florida College Hockey Classic, where Notre Dame came back from a 2-0 third period deficit to top Miami 3-2 in overtime. The Fighting Irish dropped their exhibition to the USA National Team Development Program last weekend, but were the national runner up last season.

Miami has never faced Mercyhurst head to head. The Lakers lost their lone contest against Bowling Green, 8-2, last Saturday. MU finished last season 21-12-4 and won the Atlantic Hockey regular season title. The Lakers were pegged fourth in the Atlantic Hockey preseason poll.

OFFENSE FROM THE DEFENSE: Senior defenseman Grant Hutton provided Miami with a boon on defense thanks to his return. A year ago, Hutton led all NCAA defensemen with 13 goals, a total that was one off Miami's overall team lead. All 23 of Hutton's goals have come since his sophomore season and his career total ranks sixth all-time among Miami blue liners. Hutton put up three points on a goal and two assists on opening weekend.

CHASING 100: Senior forward Josh Melnick comes into the season looking to build off last year's career-best 29 points (10g, 19a) as he nears a milestone. Melnick is 17 points shy of becoming Miami's 52nd member of the 100-point club with his career totals of 29 goals and 54 assists (83 points).

PLAYING IT TIGHT: The RedHawks were quite accustomed to playing tight contests as 21 of their 37 games last year (including ties) were decided by two goals or fewer. When Miami was able to keep contests manageable and low scoring, it had some success as evidenced by its collective 8-8-5 record in those situations. Games that opened up were more problematic as MU was 4-12 in games decided by three or more goals, but already picked up two victories on opening weekend by four goals (5-1, 4-0).

GOING GREEN: Junior forward Gordie Green enjoyed a breakout sophomore campaign and hopes to build on that after leading the RedHawks with 33 points on 15 goals and 18 assists a year ago. Green's status as a go-to scorer started midway through his freshman campaign as he adjusted to the college level. In his last 58 games dating back to December of 2016, Green has 51 points on 23 goals and 28 assists.

A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING: Another sophomore looking to make strides off a steady debut is forward Casey Gilling. The second year center led Miami in faceoff winning percentage (54.7 percent) while chipping in 19 points (9g, 10a). Against Alabama Huntsville, Gilling went 24-11 in the circle and chipped in an assist in a weekend sweep.

HE'S SEEN A LOT: Junior goaltender Ryan Larkin has been kept busy over his first two seasons in Oxford. Larkin's started 70 of the RedHawks' 75 games since his 2016-17 freshman campaign. The Clarkston, Mich., native debuted with a strong .910 save percentage as a freshman and has made 30 or more saves 12 times that year. In his career, Larkin has 19 games where he has recorded at least 30 stops. He already owns two of Miami's top eight seasons in total saves with 905 as a freshman (third) and 863 in 2017-18 (eighth). He earned NCHC Goaltender of the Week after the Alabama Huntsville series as he posted an 11-save shutout against the Chargers in the series finale.

CAUSING HAVOC: One player who has shown a knack for creating scoring chances with the potential to lengthen the Miami attack is junior forward Karch Bachman. Despite only scoring nine goals in his first two seasons, the Florida Panthers' 2015 draft pick has finished third in shots on goal each of his first two campaigns with his 97 shots leading all Miami forwards in 2017-18. Against Alabama Huntsville, Bachman netted a team-high two goals and fired a team-leading 11 shots on goal.

WE'RE STILL HERE: While much was made of Miami graduating defenseman Louie Belpedio and an early departure of Kiefer Sherwood to the prefessional ranks, the RedHawks bring a good amount of last season's production back to the ice this year. Seven of Miami's top nine scorers are on this year's roster, including top scorer Gordie Green and his 33 points. In fact, all four Miami players who netted at least 10 goals are back for another season. That also doesn't account for Ryan Larkin's 36 starts being set to man the crease again this year.

NEW FACES: The RedHawks have a lot of fresh blood breaking into the roster entering 2018-19. Ten of Miami's 27 players were not on campus a year ago. That group includes a member of the USA National Team Development Program in Ottawa draft pick Jonathan Gruden, six players who played in the USHL last season, two graduate transfers, one NAHL player and one OJHL player. Nine of the 10 newcomers suited up in at least one of Miami's opening weekend wins over Alabama Huntsville, with five putting up at least one point and four (Brian Hawkinson, River Rymsha, Derek Daschke and Jonathan Gruden) finishing the series with multiple

CHANGE OF VENUE: Among the newcomers to Miami this year are a pair of fifth-year transfers in defenseman River Rymsha (Dartmouth) and goaltender Jordan Uhelski (Alabama Huntsville). The duo are believed to be only the second and third postgraduate transfers in Miami hockey's history as they add another layer of experience to the roster. Uhelski was Alabama Huntsville's starting goaltender the past two years, logging 52 starts since 2016-17. Rymsha played a career-high 28 games at Dartmouth last year and brings 69 games of college hockey experience with the Big Green to the Miami blue line. The two have already acclimated themselves to Miami, with Uhelski picking up an opening night win with 18 saves against Alabama Huntsville and Rymsha earning NCHC Defenseman of the Week honors after posting three points (1g, 2a) in the sweep of the Chargers.

A LOOK INSIDE THE BROTHERHOOD: A partnership with the NCHC and Miami hockey's equipment provider, STX, has led to the creation of The Season (Miami Hockey). This six episode documentary series promises to take fans inside the RedHawks' preparation for the 2018-19 season. The first episode debuts on Oct. 4 and fans can check out the episodes throughout the season on TheSeason2018.com.