Games 10-11
Friday, Nov. 15 • 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 16 • 7:05 p.m.
Steve 'Coach' Cady Arena (3,019) • Oxford, Ohio

Miami RedHawks (2-5-2, 0-2-0-0 NCHC) vs. No. 6/6 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (4-3-1, 1-0-1-0 NCHC)
TV/Stream: NCHC.tv
Radio: 1490 AM-WKBV/1450 AM-WMOH (Greg Waddell-pbp; Drew Davis-analyst)

MATCHUP
Miami hosts the two-time defending national champion Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in its first home NCHC series this weekend. This series is the team's Celebration Miami: Tribe & University series as members of the Myaamia Tribe along with Myaamia students will be participating in a variety of events surrounding both games.
THE SERIES: The Bulldogs won all four meetings between the teams last year, including outscoring the RedHawks 7-0 in a two-game set in Oxford in January. UMD leads the all-time series 19-4-2 and is 15-1-2 against MU since the 2015-16 season.

PUCK POINTS
• Miami's line of Gordie Green, Karch Bachman and Casey Gilling has combined for 25 points through nine games. Green himself leads the team with 10 points (4g, 6a) while Gilling (1g, 7a) has eight and Bachman (4g, 3a) seven. Those three were separated in last Saturday's tilt at North Dakota.

• Senior goaltender Ryan Larkin has started 105 of Miami's 120 games since his freshman season in 2016-17. He is 123 saves away from moving into second on the school's career list and needs 242 to become the all-time record holder in that category.

• Senior forward Gordie Green has begun the season with 10 points in nine games and he's 11 points away from becoming the 53rd player in program history to post 100 career points.

• After going scoreless the first two games, Derek Daschke leads the defense core with seven points on two goals and five assists.

• Twelve different players have scored MU's 19 goals over the past seven games.

• The RedHawks' defense is tied for 14th in the country with 21 points on five goals and 16 assists.

LAST WEEKEND
Miami suffered its first sweep of the season after opening NCHC play at North Dakota. After playing 14 scoreless minutes on Friday, UND blew the game open with six goals in an 11:44 span to go up 6-0 just 6:08 into the second period to post a 7-1 win. The RedHawks battled on Saturday, answering early first period goals twice to leave the score tied 2-2 late in the first before the Fighting Hawks scored twice in 11 seconds to go up 4-2. Down 5-2 in the second, the Red & White battled to within 5-4 with over seven minutes left in the third, but could not find a tying goal. Ryan Savage, Phil Knies, Chaz Switzer and Derek Daschke scored in the defeat.

COACH BERGERON
Chris Bergeron (Miami '93) returns to his alma mater for his first season as head coach. Before returning to Oxford, Bergeron went 171-154-44 in nine seasons as Bowling Green's head coach, leading the Falcons to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1990 in his final season in 2018-19. BGSU posted 20 or more victories in Bergeron's final five seasons at the helm. Prior to going to Bowling Green, Bergeron spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Miami and helped the Red & White go an astounding 226-139-37 during his tenure. The RedHawks qualified for six NCAA Tournaments and reached the Frozen Four in Bergeron's last two seasons as an assistant, including a national runner-up finish in 2009. As a player, Bergeron spent two years as team captain and helped Miami capture its first CCHA title in 1992-93, posting 61 of his 120 career points that season.
ABOUT MINNESOTA DULUTH: After a 1-3 start to the season, the Bulldogs have picked things up the past two weeks, going an unblemished 3-0-1 and picking up a win and a tie in their first NCHC weekend against previously 8-0 and top-ranked Denver. Defenseman Scott Perunovich leads the UMD attack with nine points (t-7th among all NCAA defensemen) on two goals and seven assists. Minnesota Duluth has allowed just seven goals in its last four games after yielding 13 in the first four and gives up the ninth-fewest shots per game (25.25) in the country. Six UMD skaters have six or more points while all the minutes in the crease have been manned by Hunter Shepard (2.36 GAA, .906 SV%).

STOP DIGGING: If Miami's results are to improve, one thing that has to get better is its starts to contests. MU has trailed by three or more goals in five of its nine outings and been down two goals on two more occasions. The RedHawks have managed to battle back in some of those contests, clawing back from 3-0 down to tie New Hampshire on Oct. 12 and erasing a 3-1 deficit to tie Colgate on Oct. 25. Miami has only been ahead by multiple goals in two games, both of which it won.

GROWING UP FAST: Miami's freshman class has been getting seasoned in the early going. All five of the team's freshman skaters have seen the ice for at least five games with two of them playing in all nine contests. That group broke out in a tie with New Hampshire on Oct. 12, combining for six points on three goals and three assists. Overall this season, MU's freshmen have totaled 14 points on seven goals and seven assists as all five have recorded at least one point thus far. Jack Clement (2g, 3a) leads all newcomers with five points.

TOPPING OUT: Miami's top line has been carrying the mail for the RedHawks through the first nine games. After an eight-point opening night, the trio of Gordie Green (4g, 6a), Karch Bachman (4g, 3a) and Casey Gilling (1g, 7a) have totaled 25 points. All three of them notched a multi-point game on opening night against Bowling Green, paced by Green's four, and the trio has five of the team's 12 multi-point games this season.

BALANCING IT OUT: Head coach Chris Bergeron mentioned needing to do some scoring by committee this season and that has been bearing out of late. The RedHawks have netted 19 goals in the past seven games and 12 different players have found the net in that span. Overall, 13 players have scored goals for the Red & White and only Gordie Green and Karch Bachman (four each) have netted more than two.

QUITE A DEBUT: Sophomore defenseman Derek Daschke enjoyed quite the debut season on the RedHawks' blue line. His 22 points (6g, 16a) led all Miami defensemen while ranking third on the team overall. Daschke was the first MU freshman blue liner to record at least 20 points in a season since 2012-13 season and his point total was the highest for a Miami freshman defenseman since Chris Wideman had 26 in 2008-09. After going scoreless in the first two games, Daschke has two goals and five assists in his past seven outings.

MAKING SPECIAL TEAMS, SPECIAL: Special teams have been a sore spot for Miami this season with both the power play (50th) and penalty kill (53rd) ranking 50th or below nationally. MU's penalty kill had shown life entering NCHC play as it killed off 14-of-15 (93.3 percent) power plays over in the four games prior after allowing seven power play goals in 18 chances (61.1 percent kill rate) in the first three games of the season. Against North Dakota, however, Miami allowed three goals in nine power play chances.

GOING GREEN: Senior forward Gordie Green is once again back in the mix to help anchor Miami's attack. The RedHawks' leading goal scorer the past two seasons opened the year with a bang, scoring twice and notching four points on opening night against Bowling Green. Green also added a three-assist game on Oct. 25 at Colgate, his seventh career game of three or more points. In his last 103 games dating back to December of 2016, Green has 84 points on 37 goals and 47 assists. He needs 11 points to become the 53rd member of Miami's 100-point club.

HE'S SEEN A LOT: Senior goaltender Ryan Larkin has been kept busy over his time in Oxford. Larkin's started 105 of the RedHawks' 120 games since his 2016-17 freshman campaign. The Clarkston, Mich., native debuted with a strong .910 save percentage as a freshman and despite seeing a lot of pucks come his way a year ago, recorded a respectable .907 save percentage in 2018-19. In his career, Larkin has 34 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). His 2,733 career saves rank third in school history. He needs 242 saves this season to catch David Burleigh's school record of 2,975 saves.

SHAKING SOPHOMORE SLUMPS: If Miami is to put more pucks in the net this year, two players who could go a long way towards helping that are junior forwards Casey Gilling and Phil Knies. As freshmen, the duo helped lengthen MU's attack by combining for 37 points on 20 goals and 17 assists. Gilling contributed nine goals and 19 points while Knies chipped in 11 goals and 18 points in 2017-18. However, both had tougher sledding in their second go round through college as Gilling's production dropped to 12 points (4g, 8a) while Knies dipped to nine (6g, 3a). So far this season Gilling has eight points (1g, 7a) in nine games while Knies has four (2g, 2a).

CAUSING HAVOC: Entering his senior season, Karch Bachman has never lacked for generating scoring opportunities in his career. The Florida Panthers' draft choice netted a career-best 10 goals in 2018-19 and his ability to create shots makes further strides in the goal column possible. Bachman led the RedHawks with 120 shots on goal last season after putting 97 shots on net in 2017-18 and he finished third on the team in shots on goal as a freshmen with 72 in 2016-17. This year, Bachman leads the Red & White with 39 shots and he has seven points on four goals and three assists, posting at least one point in six of nine games.

SHOTS FIRED?: One spot that Miami hopes to improve on is its shot prevention. Last season, MU allowed 32.21 shots per game, a total that ranked 47th nationally. As the season wore on, the trend got worse with the RedHawks allowing at least 30 shots on goal in 25 of their last 29 games and ranking 56th nationally in shots on goal allowed per game (34.97) in that span. While the RedHawks allowed 76 combined shots in their first two games, they have allowed fewer than 30 shots in six of their last seven contests, allowing 27.1 shots per game in that stretch.

COMING THIS WINTER: While it will take awhile to pay dividends, Miami is looking towards sophomore forward Matt Barry for some additional offense this season. As a mid-year transfer during the 2018-19 season, Barry has to wait until the first semester ends to be eligible to play. Barry spent the first half of 2018-19 with Holy Cross and tied for the team lead with 11 points at the time of his departure. In his final USHL season in 2017-18, Barry notched 54 points in 57 games to help Youngstown reach the Clark Cup finals and he put up 59 points in 59 NAHL games with Bismarck the year before that.