It’s not uncommon for teams to hit a bye week at inopportune times, having been firing on all cylinders and perhaps viewing an extended break between games as a momentum-stopper.
Miami is now in its last bye week of the season, with six games remaining. The RedHawks have dropped eight straight and are all but mathematically locked into the bottom seed for the NCHC playoffs and are as much in need of a break as any team at this point.
But, although two losses at home last weekend to 16th-ranked St. Cloud State saw Miami remain 14 points clear at the bottom of the conference standings, there were some things that gave coach Chris Bergeron reason for optimism going forward.
Among them has been the recent play of freshman goaltender Bruno Bruveris. The Latvian stepped in when graduate student Logan Neaton, the lone NHL Draft pick on Miami’s roster this season, picked up an injury after starting 18 of the team’s first 20 games. That itself has been a theme for this RedHawks team, ever since projected top-line center Albin Nilsson suffered an injury on the first day of fall camp and would miss half the campaign.
Bruveris had a tough outing in Friday’s series opener with St. Cloud State, making just 14 saves in a 5-2 loss. He was far busier Saturday but also better, making 33 saves and keeping the RedHawks competitive until they fell 3-1, thanks in part to two third-period goals.
Through 11 appearances this season, Bruveris has gone 1-9-0 and has an .873 save percentage for a Miami team that is 7-19-2 overall and just 1-16-1 in the NCHC.
“Bruno, like anybody else, wants to win,” Bergeron said after Saturday’s game. “I think he has played better hockey than his record indicates over the last number of starts, since Neaton has been out, let’s just say, so I feel for him. I know there were some pucks he wanted back last night, but he really battled back last night, and I would’ve liked to have seen him get rewarded for that effort, because he deserved it.
“We’re still learning about Bruno, but that type of response is pretty serious. He did the same thing at Duluth. The Friday night game (a 6-2 loss Jan. 26), he got pulled and he had a great game on Saturday (in a 3-2 overtime loss). I thought he did great tonight, and I wish he could’ve got a better result.”
Those could be coming more regularly, with more players likely to become available for action starting next weekend at fifth-ranked Denver. Miami then hosts No. 18 Omaha and finishes the regular season away to No. 13 Western Michigan.
“I think we need to work on our conditioning a little bit for one more stretch,” Bergeron said. “We’ve only practiced with 11 forwards for a bit, and I think now we’re going to be at 13, hopefully potentially 14.
“We’ll get some rest here mentally and physically over the first few days of this week, then we’ll go back to work and prepare for Denver, which we know is a very long trip and a difficult team to play against in their rink.”
