OXFORD, Ohio — The puck was right there on the line.
Trevor Moore led a charge of Denver jerseys in crashing the net, but none of them could lift it past the outstretched stick of Miami goalie Jay Williams.
“You have to expect your big players to make big plays there,” Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery said. “That puck is laying there, somebody else has got to beat their man to the net and poke home that rebound.”
But Williams, and Miami’s defense, stacked the goal mouth and didn’t budge. An empty-net goal a few minutes later and the RedHawks had a 3-1 victory.
“I thought early, we had some good jump,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “Jay made some big saves. They’re such a good team, a dynamic team, so you’ve got to make sure you’re focused and paying attention to detail, and I thought our guys did that for the most part.”
It was actually Denver (12-8-5, 8-5-2-0) that set the tone with a goal at the 7:06 mark of the opening frame on a broken play. Danton Heinen, who tallied eight points in five games last year versus the RedHawks, put a nifty backhand move on Williams to open the scoring with his tenth tally of the year.
Miami (10-11-3, 5-8-2-2) responded a minute and a half later when Anthony Louis netted his fifth of the season on an innocent forecheck-turned-wraparound. The junior bested DU netminder Evan Cowley low to the far side to tie the game at 1-all.
“It was key that the first period we really got the puck behind them,” said Miami defenseman Scott Dornbrock, who assisted on the first two goals. “We really got on their bodies. We want to come back to the locker room at the end of every period and say we gave it our all.”
The RedHawks took the lead when Jack Roslovic ended a six-game pointless skid in the closing minutes of the second period. He trailed a Kevin Morris shot and put the rebound past an outstretched Cowley for the game-winning goal.
Despite a flurry of activity by the visiting squad in the latter portion of the third period – especially the aforementioned chance led by Moore in the final moments – the RedHawks ended the contest with a Kevin Morris empty-net tally to hold on for the win, their fourth in a row. It is the first time the RedHawks have accomplished such a streak since the 2014 NCHC ournament.
“Miami was really good tonight and there was no easy ice,” Montgomery explained. “They defended their net extremely hard, they forechecked real hard. And all the big hits were made by Miami. Our will needs to be better [Saturday night], because Miami played desperate and we didn’t play desperate enough.”
Williams’ 20 saves helped improve him to 5-0-1 in his last six appearances after starting the season 0-2. Cowley was effective at the other end of the ice, too, and allowed just two goals on 29 shots. His record drops to 6-5-0.
Troy Terry and Dylan Gambrell assisted on the lone Pioneer goal. Gambrell’s helper puts his January point total at 13, which leads all NCHC skaters.
