OMAHA, Neb. – A three-goal second period lifted the Miami hockey team to a 4-1 win at No. 18 Omaha on Saturday night.
Gordie Green netted the RedHawks' (4-6-3, 2-3-1-1 National Collegiate Hockey) first two goals and
Ben Kraws stopped 32 of 33 shots to pick up his first career win to lift them to their first road NCHC conference win since January of 2016.
The Mavericks' (6-4-2, 1-2-1-0 NCHC) top-10 ranked power play unit got a crack just 10 seconds into the contest. Miami got a couple stops by
Ben Kraws to get him in rhythm and successfully killed off the man advantage.
About five and a half minutes in, Miami's power play got a chance to get going and it made it five-straight games with a goal when
Gordie Green finished a backdoor feed from
Ryan Savage at the 6:32 mark.
Casey Gilling also drew an assist on Green's fifth goal of the year when his shot started the scoring play.
Omaha got another power play try a minute later, but Miami's penalty kill unit was again equal to the task, getting a strong pad stop from Kraws to maintain its lead at the midway point of the opening frame.
Territorial play favored UNO over the final 10 minutes of the frame and it finished the period with an 11-8 shots on goal advantage. Kraws stayed sharp throughout the frame and Green's power play marker was the only one to find the back of the net as MU maintained its 1-0 lead at the first intermission.
Miami was able to play more with the puck in the second period and was able to get some time in the offensive zone.
John Sladic nearly scored from an acute angle when he chipped a backhand off the post, but the score remained 1-0 until the 6:39 mark.
Jack Clement found Sladic in the slot for a shot that Austin Roden stopped, but Green was at the weak side and cleaned up the rebound for his second of the night.
The RedHawks got a crack on the power play with 10:40 to go, but couldn't get anything going on the man advantage as the two-goal lead stayed into the latter stages of the frame. Miami opened up a three-goal lead with 6:02 to go when
Karch Bachman skated in on a breakaway. While his shot was stopped by Roden, but he gathered the rebound behind the net and found Clement in the high slot, where he took advantage of the scrambling in front and wristed home his third goal of the year.
Omaha managed to get on the board late in the period when Taylor Ward got a loose puck in the left circle and fired one in up high with 2:50 left on the clock to cut the Miami lead to 3-1. MU had an answer 26 seconds later, however, as
Chase Pletzke poked a puck past a defender at the half wall, brought the puck in front all alone and slid one past Roden five-hole for his third goal of the season to make it a 4-1 game.
Noah Jordan and
Bray Crowder each dished out helpers as the Red & White took a three-goal lead into the dressing room.
The Mavericks started the third period with 57 seconds remaining on a carryover power play, but the RedHawks were able to kill it off. Omaha fired 17 shots in the third period, but Miami kept it to the outside for the most part and Kraws was sharp when called upon. UNO had one more crack on a power play with 7:25 remaining, but MU once again held it off the board to finish a perfect weekend for the penalty kill unit.
Omaha used a 17-5 third period shot advantage to outshoot Miami 33-24 for the night. MU connected on 1-of-2 power plays and killed off all four UNO man advantages. Green and Clement picked up multi-point games while Kraws' 32 saves represented a season high.
Miami jumps back out of conference next weekend when it travels to UConn for a two-game series. Friday's series opener begins at 4:05 p.m.
