With his team facing a 2-0 deficit after the first period, junior Danny Stewart scored his third and fourth goals of the season in the final 40 minutes to give Miami (5-2-1, 3-0-1 CCHA) an impressive 5-2 victory over visiting Western Michigan. During the weekend set Stewart paced the RedHawks with three goals, while senior Jason Deskins added four assists to his season total.
The Broncos (3-3-2, 2-3-1 CCHA) looked good early on with a two-goal first period, outshooting Miami 9-4. Senior Chad Kline poked Western Michigan’s first goal past Miami goalie David Burleigh just 3:03 into the game to give WMU a 1-0 lead.
With 3:31 showing on the clock, sophomore Dana Lattery upped WMU’s advantage to two after Nic Boileau and Anthony Battaglia found him open for his fifth goal of the season.
Stewart registered Miami’s first goal of the game at 10:18 in the second period to cut the WMU lead to one, 2-1. Just a little over two minutes later sophomore Greg Hogeboom tallied his first of two goals on the night to knot the game at two apiece. Both Stewart’s and Hogeboom’s goals were scored on wrist shots through the five-hole on Western Michigan goalkeeper Jeff Reynaert.
Providing the game-winner for the second straight Saturday, Stewart recorded his second goal of the game only 39 seconds into the final period. Miami logged two insurance goals before the final buzzer to improve its record to 3-0-1 in the conference with the 5-2 win.
Junior Nick Jardine scored the RedHawks’ fourth goal at 2:53 on the power play. Hogeboom, who has scored a point in each of Miami’s last five games, capped off the scoring with his team-leading eighth goal of the season at 10:38 in the period.
After allowing two goals in the first 20 minutes, Burleigh imitated a brick wall, stopping 20 Broncos’ shots in the final two periods. Burleigh ended the contest with 27 saves to improve his record to 5-1-1.
The victory improves head coach Enrico Blasi’s career record to .500, 38-38-6, over two and a half seasons.
