2008 Woodie Awards
MU sweeps Vermont in opening series
USCHO.com, USA Today polls rank 'Hawks 2nd in country after weekend victories
Kevin Jacobs
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Sports
Miami University hockey started off its 2007-08 season with back-to-back wins in the Steve Cady Arena against the University of Vermont this weekend. The RedHawks held the Catamounts to only one goal in each of the series' two games, winning game one Friday 2-1, followed by a 4-1 win Saturday.
One downside to the successful weekend was an injury to assistant captain and team standout Nathan Davis during the first period of Friday's game. Davis suffered a separated shoulder, and it is unsure how long he will be out.
Even though the team lost its leading point scorer from last season, the RedHawks made sure they continued to play strong.
"It'd be nice to say that we didn't think about it, but anytime a guy goes down, especially Nate who's one of our key players, you kind of think about it and I thought the guys did a really god job of picking up the slack," senior captain Ryan Jones said. "We were down a guy on the forwards, so a couple guys were double shifting and like I said, he's a great player so he was missed, but the guys did a great job."
The first two periods of Friday's game were scoreless, despite a high number of penalties for both teams. Miami finally lit the lamp less than five minutes into the third period as junior forward Justin Mercier scored the game's first goal by redirecting a shot from junior defenseman Ray Eichenlaub past Vermont goaltender Joe Fallon.
"We were pretty comfortable going into the third period," junior
goaltender Jeff Zatkoff said. "You know, it's where you want to be, we felt we were outplaying them and we were at home. It came down to 20 minutes in our own rink and we knew if we worked hard we would get bounces eventually, and that's what happened."
Jones added Miami's second goal just seven minutes later, after knocking in the puck off a Kevin Roeder shot.
"I think we just kept working that was the main thing," Jones said. "We knew that the goals would come, we got in front of Fallon-he's a great goalie-and we just had to get the puck down low and keep working and we tipped a couple pucks past him. We know that those are the kind of goals we're going to score against him."
One downside to the successful weekend was an injury to assistant captain and team standout Nathan Davis during the first period of Friday's game. Davis suffered a separated shoulder, and it is unsure how long he will be out.
Even though the team lost its leading point scorer from last season, the RedHawks made sure they continued to play strong.
"It'd be nice to say that we didn't think about it, but anytime a guy goes down, especially Nate who's one of our key players, you kind of think about it and I thought the guys did a really god job of picking up the slack," senior captain Ryan Jones said. "We were down a guy on the forwards, so a couple guys were double shifting and like I said, he's a great player so he was missed, but the guys did a great job."
The first two periods of Friday's game were scoreless, despite a high number of penalties for both teams. Miami finally lit the lamp less than five minutes into the third period as junior forward Justin Mercier scored the game's first goal by redirecting a shot from junior defenseman Ray Eichenlaub past Vermont goaltender Joe Fallon.
"We were pretty comfortable going into the third period," junior
goaltender Jeff Zatkoff said. "You know, it's where you want to be, we felt we were outplaying them and we were at home. It came down to 20 minutes in our own rink and we knew if we worked hard we would get bounces eventually, and that's what happened."
Jones added Miami's second goal just seven minutes later, after knocking in the puck off a Kevin Roeder shot.
"I think we just kept working that was the main thing," Jones said. "We knew that the goals would come, we got in front of Fallon-he's a great goalie-and we just had to get the puck down low and keep working and we tipped a couple pucks past him. We know that those are the kind of goals we're going to score against him."
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