ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Offense was tough to come by for the Miami hockey team as it suffered its first shutout of the season in dropping a 3-0 decision at St. Cloud State on Saturday.
With the result, the RedHawks (6-16-4, 3-11-2-1 National Collegiate Hockey) suffered their second-straight series sweep and see their winless streak hit seven games.
The Huskies (10-12-4, 7-9-0-0 NCHC) peppered
Ben Kraws early and often and the freshman netminder was up to the task. Early on he denied a seemingly backdoor look during a 2-on-1 rush by sliding his pad to the left. In a later transition rush, Kraws stood his ground on a partial breakaway by Jack Ahcan, along with a couple follow up chances to keep things scoreless.
Miami's best chance in the first came on an odd-man rush that saw
Derek Daschke wrist a puck from the left circle past David Hrenak, but off the post. The RedHawks appeared to be stabilizing their play after the opening 10 minutes, but with 4:45 left a minor penalty sent the Huskies to the power play. Nevertheless, MU was able to kill off the man advantage with little difficulty and drew a penalty shortly thereafter. Miami was unable to score on its power play as the teams remained scoreless thanks to 16 saves by Kraws as St. Cloud State had a 16-8 shot advantage.
Sustained offensive zone position in the opening minute of the second period put Miami on its second power play, but its lone shot on goal came shortly after the man advantage expired. That would be the only shot on goal for several minutes until a bench minor on MU put SCSU on the power play. The Huskies would put on tremendous pressure and eventually Nick Poehling would knock a puck out of mid-air from up close into the net to put them up 1-0 with 8:15 gone by. St. Cloud State would outshoot Miami 13-5 in the middle stanza, but that Poehling tally was the only one on the scoreboard either way through 40 minutes.
After some initial pressure to start the third period by Miami did not lead to a tying goal, St. Cloud State was able to extend its lead 5:06 into the final frame. Nick Poehling once again had a good chance in the slot that Kraws made a big stop on, but the rebound caromed off Micah Miller's skate and in to make it a 2-0 contest. Easton Brodzinski would make it 3-0 2:31 later when he finished an end-to-end rush with a breakaway goal to cap the scoring.
The Huskies ended up outshooting the RedHawks 38-18 and went 1-for-2 on the power play while Miami was 0-for-2 on the man advantage. Kraws was sharp throughout the night with 35 saves.
Miami is idle until it begins a Valentine's weekend series on One Miami Weekend against Western Michigan on Feb. 14. Opening faceoff for the series opener is at 7:05 p.m. ET.
