aturday evening’s rematch certainly lived up to the hype. A power-play goal in the final period of play and change of regulation revived the flailing No. 6 Miami RedHawks before Blake Coleman put an exclamation mark on the comeback with the winner in the waning moments of overtime to top the No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, 4-3.
At least for a short while, however, it looked as if Miami’s weekend woes would continue. UMD struck first just 9:54 into the first frame, despite a rash of RedHawks offensive opportunities. The recipient of Willie Corrin and Karson Kuhlman passes, Kyle Osterberg buried a well-placed puck past the glove of Ryan McKay.
It seemed the healthy scratch of Riley Barber — his first healthy, coaches’ decision scratch in his career — was in the process of backfiring when Carson Soucy ripped a power-play goal past a screened McKay just a few minutes into the second, but the RedHawks responded, firing 25 shots on Bulldogs goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo, but the Finn remained a largely unsolved riddle for the RedHawks, though Anthony Louis was able to best him in the early going of the second period.
“Hats off to him [Kaskisuo]; he’s incredible,” Coleman said. “He’s an incredible goalie and he was really tough to solve, but you get enough pucks on any goalie and some are going to get through.”
Alex Iafallo added another power-play marker for the Bulldogs, but Miami didn’t go away. For all Kaskisuo’s spectacular saves, it was Matthew Caito’s innocent, 40-foot slap shot that made its way past the seemingly infallible freshman with just 86 seconds remaining in the second period.
The final session saw a decline in each team’s shots on goal, but an increase, if anything, in the frantic pacing of the contest. Both squads buzzed back and forth in short, dangerous bursts for a few minutes before a Cody Murphy wrister redirected off of Sean Kuraly’s skate and past Kaskisuo at the 2:18 mark. A flurry of chances for both benches couldn’t be converted the rest of the period, and so overtime was required.
A low-shooting affair, the extra ice time was decided with 62 seconds remaining on the clock on a quick-stick shot from Coleman. Anthony Louis assisted after forcing a turnover in the offensive zone and threading the needle with a perfect pass between the legs of Andy Welinski.
The RedHawks collected three points in the conference standings, which puts them three behind league-leading North Dakota’s 41.
“I thought we played well for the most part tonight,” RedHawk coach Enrico Blasi said. “I thought we were playing with a lot more intensity, a lot more determination tonight. In the end, we were able to solve them. It took overtime, too. Their goaltender played great, and their team’s a great team.”
UMD currently is in fifth place after Denver’s win over Colorado College, which means the points left on the table this evening are especially hard for the Bulldogs to take, and though his team played well, coach Scott Sandelin knew an opportunity was wasted on Saturday.
“Well, it was a battle,” Sandelin said. “There’s no question; we knew it would be. I thought they played very well.They kept coming and had us on our heels a couple times.”
Alternate captain Justin Crandall wasn’t disappointed with his team’s play, either, but lamented what could have been.
“I think they are very similar to us,” Crandall explained. “But they were the better hockey team tonight.”
