DURHAM, N.H. – Trailing by a goal entering the third period, the No. 19 Miami hockey team scored two quick goals to go in front, but ended up settling for a 3-3 tie on Friday night.
The tie is Miami's (9-5-1) first of the season.
The Wildcats (1-6-4) fired the first three shots on goal before the RedHawks got play started at the opposite end. MU's first quality scoring chance came roughly three minutes in when
Brian Hawkinson fed
Ryan Siroky for a breakaway after gaining the blue line, but Ty Taylor stayed with him to make the save.
A Miami penalty 5:26 into the contest gave New Hampshire the first crack at a power play, but MU managed to kill that off without incident. UNH got on the board shortly thereafter when Eric Esposito flung a sharp angle shot that was redirected in by Matt Dawson to make it a 1-0 contest eight minutes in.
It took just 1:11 for Miami to answer that tally. After
Carter Johnson cycled the puck around the left wall, he fed
River Rymsha at the point and the senior defensemen used all of his reach to keep the play in the offensive zone. His wrister from the point went wide, but took a fortuitous carom out front to
Josh Melnick at the right post, where he finished from close range to tie it up.
The Wildcats regained the lead after getting their second power play of the opening frame. A sharp shot through traffic went off
Ryan Larkin's pad and right to Angus Crookshank in front, where he finished from above the crease to stake them to a 2-1 lead with 7:37 left in the opening frame. Miami continued to put pressure on the New Hampshire net, with
Bray Crowder firing a point shot past Taylor that went off the post and Melnick getting stopped in front by Taylor in a bid for his second. MU had a slight 11-10 shot advantage in the first, but went to the dressing room trailing by a goal.
New Hampshire kept Miami going 200 feet and prevented much speed from being generated up ice in a fairly nondescript second period. UNH had a 10-6 shot edge, but it appeared that MU had things tied up when
Karch Bachman drove the net and a loose puck in the slot was fired home by
Casey Gilling with 3:06 left on the clock. Officials took another look, however, and determined that Bachman made contact with Taylor in the crease, preventing him from making a stop and so the goal was called off. The Red & White got a power play with 1:45 left in the period, but did nothing with the man advantage as the score remained 2-1 in favor of the Wildcats at the break.
While the carryover power play did not connect for Miami, it was able to even the score on another man advantage later on as
Karch Bachman wired a shot through traffic and in to tie it up with just 2:34 gone by.
Derek Daschke and
Alec Mahalak both picked up helpers on Bachman's sixth goal of the year.
The Red & White continued to pressure offensively and eventually grabbed their first lead of the night when
Ben Lown found a bouncing puck off a Hawkinson shot that was blocked. The sophomore roofed the shot past Taylor for his second of the year. Graham also chipped in an assist on the go-ahead tally.
Trailing for the first time, New Hampshire looked to get that goal back, but Larkin was sharp in making 13 saves in the final frame. The Wildcats pulled Taylor for an extra skater with time winding down and eventually worked the puck loose behind the goal line and Liam Blackburn cashed in on a centered puck to tie it up with 33.2 seconds remaining to force overtime.
New Hampshire put on some pressure early on in overtime, but Larkin was sharp and made three stops to keep it tied. The RedHawks got the best opportunity of the OT when
Jonathan Gruden got fed in for a breakaway, but Taylor stood his ground to keep it tied at the end.
The Wildcats outshot the RedHawks 37-28 on the evening, with Larkin making 34 saves to Taylor's 25. MU went 1-for-2 on the power play while UNH was 1-for-3 with the man advantage.
These teams wrap up their weekend series on Saturday night. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
