DULUTH, Minn. – The Miami hockey team pulled within a goal of No. 3 Minnesota Duluth on a couple occasions down the stretch, but ultimately dropped a 4-2 decision in Friday night's series opener.
Miami (11-18-4, 5-14-2-1 National Collegiate Hockey) answered with goals trailing at 2-0 and 3-1, but couldn't find the equalizer in the setback.
MU got an early look offensively when
Ben Lown gathered a puck in the high slot and flung a shot through traffic that beat Hunter Shepard. The shot hit the post however and stayed out after a scramble.
The puck stayed in the Miami zone for large stretches of the first period as Minnesota Duluth fired the final 10 shots on goal in the frame and took an 11-2 shot advantage into the locker room, but
Ryan Larkin was solid in turning each bid aside to leave the contest scoreless at intermission.
An early UMD penalty in the second allowed MU to go on the attack, but Shepard turned away both shots to keep it scoreless. With the game back at 5-on-5, the Bulldogs got to work offensively with a couple transition goals. Noah Cates scored on the rush at the 4:25 and 8:08 marks, respectively to grab a 2-0 lead.
Miami got back into it with a crisp rush up ice of its own. After a tipped pass by
Brian Hawkinson allowed
Jonathan Gruden to move into the zone in the middle, where he worked around a defender and backhanded a pass to
Phil Knies for a tap in atop the crease. Knies' fifth goal of the year pulled the Red & White within 2-1 with 10:22 to go in the frame. That's where the score would remain after 40 minutes of play.
The Bulldogs regained their two-goal lead just 55 seconds into the third when Peter Krieger finished a give-and-go feed at the back door to make it a 3-1 contest. MU was able to answer, however, with a power play tally as
Ryan Siroky tipped a
Derek Daschke shot for his eighth goal of the season, with
Alec Mahalak picking up the second assist as the gap was cut to 3-2 with 15:27 to go.
Miami began to turn up the heat at the offensive end for the next few shifts, forcing Shepard to work for some saves. Minnesota Duluth would get the goal back again as Cole Koepke struck in transition with 11:56 to play.
The RedHawks got some offensive pressure put together down the stretch and with time winding down and playing 6-on-5 with an empty net, appeared to pull within a goal when
Casey Gilling got one by off a nice feed from
Ben Lown with 1:32 left. Officials waved the tally off immediately due to a Miami player in the crease. MU would not get another chance to pull closer as UMD picked up its sixth-straight win in the head-to-head series.
Minnesota Duluth finished with a 32-21 shot advantage on the night. Miami went 1-for-2 on the power play while not having to kill off a single man advantage of its own. Larkin finished with 28 saves while Shepard stopped 19 shots at the other end.
These teams wrap up their series on Saturday with opening faceoff at 8:07 p.m.
