OXFORD, Ohio — The near-seven-month wait for hockey ended Saturday afternoon when Miami dominated throughout in beating Western Ontario 6-1 in an exhibition game.
The 4 p.m. puck drop yielded immediate results for each team, as both the Mustangs and the RedHawks scored in the first 10 minutes.
Junior forward Anthony Louis, Miami’s highest scoring returning player from last season, was the first to find twine at the 4:34 mark. Senior captain Sean Kuraly was the benefactor not just on Miami’s first-period goal, but on Western Ontario’s opening strike as well. He gifted one to first-year player Cole Benson in front of the friendly goalmouth not four minutes later for Benson to put away and even the score.
The second frame saw the ice tilt in the home team’s favor, bolstered by a lopsided, 22-2 shot count. The RedHawks established offensive zone control early, finally cracking the Mustangs defense on freshman Josh Melnick’s rebound goal at 3:15 of the frame.
Sophomore Louie Belpedio added another goal a few minutes later for Miami on the power play, assisted by this year’s 25th overall NHL draft pick, Jack Roslovic.
Senior Michael Mooney later got in on the action, deflecting a Matthew Caito wrist shot to build on the Miami lead.
“As a whole, we did most of the things we wanted to do,” Kuraly said. “We still have room for improvement, but everyone contributed and played hard. That’s the most important thing. It’s early in the year and sometimes the systems are off. As a whole, I thought we were pretty good.”
The Mustangs garnered a few shots in the early going of the third period but were slowed once again with penalty troubles.
“We knew we had to win the battle on special teams, which we saw didn’t happen,” Western Ontario coach Clarke Singer said. “They had two power-play goals and one at four-on-four.”
One such penalty led to a four-on-four opportunity for the RedHawks, who used the open space to their advantage and buried their fifth goal of the exhibition. It was Roslovic to Belpedio once again, a near-carbon copy of the third Miami tally.
A garbage-time rebound goal from sophomore Scott Dornbrock upped the RedHawks’ goal total to six.
Miami outshot its opponent 43-6 in the final 40 minutes of the contest, and 11 players finished with at least one point. Greg Dodds turned in a 45-save effort for the Mustangs, facing several breakaways and plenty of high-quality chances.
“We don’t get anything like that back in the CIS,” Dodds said. “It was good to experience that. Facing these kind of caliber of shots should help us moving forward.”
For the Mustangs, the loss is a valuable learning experience. They head to East Lansing, Mich., on Sunday to face Michigan State. Having spent the afternoon in the Goggin Ice Center and a large college atmosphere, Singer said his team is better prepared for the challenges ahead.
“I like the promise our young team shows,” Singer said of his squad, nine of which dressed for the exhibition as first-year players. “Hopefully we learned a little bit out of this. Give us another month or so and I think we’ll be where we want to be.”
The RedHawks were just happy to be able to simulate a game situation before hosting defending NCAA champion Providence next weekend. Coach Enrico Blasi knows how important logging minutes is for the younger guys on his roster.
“You can never simulate game time in practice,” Blasi said. “It just doesn’t happen. The energy is different. We accomplished what we needed to [against Western Ontario] and got some guys their first games and something to build on for next week versus a very, very good team.”
