It took almost all 10 minutes of the two overtime sessions, but the Miami RedHawks earned the extra point in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) standings. Louie Belpedio forced a turnover deep in Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs territory and buried the three-on-three overtime winner with 48 seconds remaining in the contest. The “win” helps bring the RedHawks to 10 conference points and the Bulldogs’ lone point gives them 15 on the year, though the game will officially enter the NCAA books as a tie.
“We knew it was going to be intense,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said of the league matchup. “We played hard and I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. Hopefully we’ll continue to gain some confidence here … we need to continue to do the little things right moving forward.”
Both teams took longer than usual to feel each other out, registering a combined 14 shots in the first period with neither goalie giving an inch. Despite entering the game with an unsightly .830 save percentage, Miami netminder Jay Williams continued to stand on his head in just his fourth start of the year. It was UMD’s Kasimir Kaskisuo that flinched first — Chris Joyaux’s fourth tally of the year glanced off of a defender’s stick and dropped between his legs at 2:16 of the second period.
The physical aspect of the game ramped up at this point, as first Miami and then Minnesota-Duluth finished checks and opened up play in that regard. The chances started coming from higher-danger areas and the Bulldogs reaped most of the rewards, outshooting the RedHawks 15-7 and 15-8 in the final two regulation frames.
“I thought it was a really good game for us,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “I thought we got better as the game went on. It was a tight game all the way.”
It was alternate captain Tony Cameranesi that finally broke through for the Bulldogs at 14:22 of the third period. A turnover in the Miami zone gave the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect a one-on-one opportunity and he burned Williams with an impeccably-placed, glove side shot to tie things up and force overtime.
“Tony got a big goal for us,” Sandelin explained. “But we’ve got to capitalize on our opportunities, there’s no question. We only had one or two in the first period, but as the game went on, certainly, we had opportunities.”
Each team hesitated to make the first mistake in the initial overtime session. Five minutes of three-man lines followed and before the contest had a chance to reach the shootout, Belpedio, who returned in the wee hours of Thursday morning from representing the World Junior U.S. program’s bronze medal bid in Finland, lit the lamp.
“I might not wake up tomorrow,” an exhausted Belpedio joked in the post game press conference. “It’s like 6 a.m. over there [in Finland]. I’m tired, but it felt good.”
The Bulldogs actually beat the RedHawks in the shots column by a margin of seven, 39-32, and have yet to be outshot since the first game of the year versus Bemidji State. Kaskisuo finished the evening with 31 saves, while Williams turned aside 38 for Miami. Andrew Schmit and Jack Roslovic assisted Joyaux’s goal, while Belpedio’s was unassisted. Cameranesi’s lone strike was unassisted as well.
The Bulldogs (7-7-4, 4-5-2-1 NCHC) and RedHawks (6-10-3, 2-7-2-2 NCHC) will meet for the finale of the two-game series Saturday evening at the Goggin Ice Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
