HARTFORD, Conn. – Despite building a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes, the Miami hockey team was unable to hold off UConn down the stretch in a 6-4 loss on Friday afternoon.
Friday's decision drops Miami to 4-7-3 on the season.
The RedHawks took two penalties a second apart to give the Huskies (4-6-3) an elongated 5-on-3 just 1:50 into the contest. The two-man advantage found the net as Ruslan Iskhakov netted one off a one-timer from the right circle at the 2:51 mark.
After the power plays allowed UConn to race out to a 7-2 shot advantage in addition to the 1-0 lead, Miami began to go to work in the offensive zone. One shift by the line of
Karch Bachman,
Ryan Savage and
Phil Knies spent extended time cycling in the zone, but Tomas Vomacka was able to fend off numerous shots to keep it a 1-0 game.
Miami went on a power play of its own at the 8:19 mark. UConn then took another penalty 1:05 later to give MU a two-man advantage of its own. While the first penalty was killed off, Bachman made sure the power play wasn't a waste as he redirected home a
Rourke Russell shot from the point to even it up with 9:17 left in the opening frame.
Chase Pletzke also assisted on Bachman's sixth goal of the season.
The Red and White surged in the offensive zone after the initial power play by the Huskies, at one point registering nine-straight shots on goal, though Bachman's tying tally was the only one to solve Vomacka in that stretch.
Miami's wave of pressure gave it a lead with 3:52 left in the opening frame. The puck bounced off Pletzke to
Casey Gilling down low for a shot that Vomacka stopped, but
Gordie Green jammed the rebound home for his seventh goal of the year to extend his point streak to a career-best six games.
Another UConn penalty gave Miami another chance to go to work up a man late in the frame. The RedHawks struck for the second time on the power play when
Casey Gilling collected a pass at the right point and sniped one from the right half wall to the far post for his third of the season.
Derek Daschke and Green both dished out helpers as MU went on top by a 3-1 count.
An eventful period saw UConn get another power play with just over two minutes left, but
Ryan Larkin was sharp and Miami emerged unscathed as it carried its 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
The Huskies capitalized on a turnover 19 seconds into the second as Ben Freeman found a loose puck after a strong sequence of saves by
Ryan Larkin, cutting the lead to 3-2. That early goal caused a lot of havoc for UConn as it took eight of the first nine shots in the middle stanza, though Larkin was able to keep Miami on top at that point. MU did nearly go back up by two when Daschke got fed in from the left point, but his shot rang off the crossbar to leave it a 3-2 contest.
UConn ultimately outshot Miami 18-7 in the second period and evened the score at 3-3 with 4:51 showing on the clock when Vladislav Firstov wired a shot from the slot in. It appeared the teams would remain tied entering the third, but a 3-on-2 rush by Miami ended with Daschke coming in late to the slot and wristing home his fourth goal of the year on assists from
Monte Graham and
Scott Corbett. That tally allowed Miami to skate into the third with a 4-3 lead.
For the third-straight period, UConn was able to get on the board early as Marc Gatcomb poked in a rebound just 1:21 into the third to tie things up.
UConn took the first seven shots on goal in the third and went on a power play with 10:40 to go and even got another 5-on-3. While MU killed off the first penalty, Firstov put the Huskies on top 5-4 with 8:14 remaining. The Huskies then scored 27 seconds later as they ultimately took 13 shots on goal before the RedHawks finally got one on the board in the final frame.
Miami got a power play chance with just over five minutes left, but was unable to capitalize and pulled Larkin for an extra skater shortly thereafter. While the Red and White pressured some during the 6-on-5, they were unable to get another by Vomacka as they dropped their first game when leading after two periods this season.
UConn outshot Miami 32-13 in the final two periods and 48-30 overall on the afternoon. MU connected on 2-of-4 power plays while the Huskies finished 2-for-5 on the man advantage. Larkin made 42 saves in his return to the net and the RedHawks got multi-point nights out of Daschke (1g, 1a), Gilling (1g, 1a), Green (1g, 1a) and Pletzke (2a) on the scoreboard.
These teams wrap up their weekend non-conference series on Saturday with opening faceoff coming at 4:05 p.m.
