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By Pete Conrad
| Saturday, March 20, 2010, 09:20 PM
The latest PairWise rankings seem to confirm the brightest hopes of Miami’s hockey team, that the RedHawks will indeed receive the overall No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
The rankings were updated following Miami’s 2-1 victory over Ferris State today, March 20 in the third-place game of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament and Denver’s 6-3 loss to Wisconsin in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association third-place game.
As of 10:45 p.m., PairWise ranked Miami No. 1 with a rating of .5793, followed by Denver at No. 2 (.5766) and Wisconsin at No. 3 (.5685).
The next three teams in the PairWise rankings are No. 4 Boston College (.5625), No. 5 North Dakota (.5623) and No. 6 St. Cloud State (.5504).
The PairWise rankings have been an accurate indicator of the NCAA seeds and selections.
In the CCHA championship game, Michigan defeated Northern Michigan 2-1 to claim an automatic NCAA berth. Louie Caporusso scored both goals for the Wolverines, who came into the conference playoffs as the No. 7 seed.
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By Pete Conrad
| Saturday, March 20, 2010, 03:54 PM
The Miami RedHawks defeated the Ferris State Bulldogs 2-1 in their third-place game in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament today, March 20 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
The victory by second-ranked Miami, coupled with top-ranked Denver’s 6-3 loss to Wisconsin earlier today, will likely give the RedHawks the overall No. 1 seed for next week’s NCAA Tournament.
Jarod Palmer scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 4:04 left in the the third period.
Freshman forward Steve Mason scored Miami’s first goal with 15:16 to go in the second period. It was his first career goal.
Ferris State’s Casey Haines tied the game with 5:11 remaining in the period.
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By Pete Conrad
| Saturday, March 20, 2010, 10:40 AM
Miami University’s second-ranked hockey team did not necessarily play its way out of consideration for the No. 1 overall seed for next week’s NCAA Tournament with their 5-2 loss to Michigan on Friday night in the CCHA semifinals.
In the Western Collegiate Hockey Association semifinals, top-ranked Denver lost 4-3 to No. 5 North Dakota, and No. 3 Wisconsin lost 2-0 to No. 6/7 St. Cloud State.
All three teams are back in action today in consolation contests. Miami faces eighth-ranked Ferris State, and Denver will collide with Wisconsin.
In the current PairWise power rankings, which is an excellent indicator of how teams will be seeded in the NCAA, Denver (27-8-40) is No. 1 with a rating of .5810, Miami (26-7-7) is close behind at .5771, and Wisconsin (24-10-4) is third at .5657.
If Miami beats Ferris State and Denver loses to Wisconsin, the best guess is that the RedHawks would vault over Denver and grab the top overall seed.
On the other hand, if the RedHawks lose today and Wisconsin wins, Miami could drop far enough in the PairWise rankings to put a much-hoped-for berth in the Midwest in Fort Wayne, Ind. regionals in jeopardy.
The RedHawks want to play in Fort Wayne because it’s much closer than the other three sites, giving Miami fans a better opportunity to travel, and the RedHawks tend to be energized when playing in front of their vocal fans.
The Northeast Regional will be held in Worchester, Mass., the East Regional is in Albany, N.Y. and the West Regional is in St. Paul, Minn.
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By Pete Conrad
| Friday, March 19, 2010, 10:36 PM
By Pete Conrad
The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Miami RedHawks 5-2 in the semifinals of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tonight, March 19 at Joe Louis Arena.
Tommy Wingels and Trent Vogelhuber scored for the top-seeded RedHawks, the regular-season champions who had hoped to win their first-ever CCHA tourney title but now must settle for an appearance in today’s third-place game against Ferris State. The starting time will be 3:35 p.m.
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By Pete Conrad
| Friday, March 19, 2010, 09:20 PM
By Pete Conrad
The seventh-seeded Michigan Wolverines lead the top-seeded Miami RedHawks 2-0 with 10:34 left in the second period of their Central Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament semifinal game tonight, March 19 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Michigan took a 1-0 lead on a goal by junior defenseman Tristin Llewellyn 9:50 into the first period, and freshman defenseman Lee Moffie made it 2-0 with a goal 5:13 into the second period.
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By Pete Conrad
| Thursday, March 18, 2010, 04:52 AM
By Pete Conrad
Listen to Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson talk about the Miami RedHawks and you might think he’s their No. 1 fan.
Of course he is anything but. Berenson is playing the game, and so is Miami coach Enrico Blasi. The game of doing everything within their power to take the blunt the other team’s emotional edge.
Blasi, for instance, instructed his players following practice on Tuesday not to say anything to reporters about Michigan. Not a peep. In fact, reporters were allowed to interview players that day only on the condition that we not ask the players any question about the Wolverines.
I smiled and said, “Can I ask you about Michigan?” Blasi smiled and said, emphatically, no. I’m still trying to decide if he was kidding. (It didn’t really matter one way or the other, because he already had talked about the Wolverines during a CCHA conference call that morning.)
Earlier that day, Berenson had plenty to say about the RedHawks.
“They have arguably the best team in the country, let’s face it, and have had from Game 1 this year,” Berenson said.
“I can’t remember anyone who’s dominated the league as they’ve done this year,” he went on. They have as good of a defense as anybody in the CCHA and they have as good of a forward nucleus as anyone. They’ve done a great job of building that program and I can’t remember a team that has dominated this conference the way they have this year.”
But make no mistake. Michigan has been a sleeping giant this year, and now this giant is wide awake. The Wolverines never won more than three games in a row during the regular season. Since the start of the CCHA Tournament, they have won four straight, beating Lake Superior State 5-2 and 6-0 and Michigan State 5-1 and 5-3.
One big reason is the Wolverines’ line of junior Louie Caporusso and sophomores David Wolhberg and Luke Glendening. Over the past five games they have combined for 11 goals and 13 assists.
If Miami can get past Michigan to Saturday’s championship game, it will be a good indication that everything Berenson said about the RedHawks was true, especially the “best team in the country” part. Whether he wants it to be or not.
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By Pete Conrad
| Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 01:49 PM
Miami University senior guard Kenny Hayes has been named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 14 first team, the organization announced today, March 16.
Hayes joins Jarrod Jones of Ball State, David Kool of Western Michigan, Rodney Pierce of Buffalo and Chris Singletary of Kent State) on the first team for District 14, which is comprised of Mid-American Conference schools. That makes him eligible for All-America consideration.
Hayes, a graduate of Northmont High School who also played at Cincinnati State before coming to Miami, earned first-team All-MAC honors this season, marking the seventh consecutive year a RedHawk has earned first-team distinction — the longest active string of any MAC school.
He is a two-time All-MAC selection, earning honorable mention accolades in 2007-08. Last season, Hayes suffered a season-ending injury in early December 2008 and persevered through a nearly eight-month recovery process to return to the hardwood this season.
Hayes finished the season averaging a team-leading 14.9 ppg, which ranked eighth among MAC statistical leaders, while averaging a league-best 35.7 minutes of play. Seven times in 2009-10, Hayes reached or surpassed the 20-point scoring plateau and did so 14 times in his career. He scored a season-high 27 points against Buffalo in the MAC Tournament quarterfinal, the most points scored by a RedHawk this season.
Hayes also ranked among MAC statistical leaders in free-throw percentage, assists and assist/turnover ratio. He played and started in all 32 games this season, tying for fourth on Miami’s single-season games started chart. Playing 1,143 minutes in 2009-10, Hayes moved into eighth on Miami’s single-season minutes played list.
This year, Hayes was a Preseason MAC All-East Division selection and was tabbed the MAC East Division Co-Player of the Week on Feb. 8.
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By Rick Cassano
| Sunday, March 14, 2010, 09:07 PM
Miami survives a late flurry of shots by Ohio State and wins 2-1 here at Steve Cady Arena in Oxford, taking the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament quarterfinal series 2-1.
The RedHawks outshoot OSU 24-23.
Top-seeded Miami (26-6-7) advances to the CCHA Championship at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. MU will meet No. 7 Michigan on Friday at either 4:35 or 8:05 p.m., likely the latter.
Eighth-seeded Ohio State finishes 15-18-6.
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By Rick Cassano
| Sunday, March 14, 2010, 09:07 PM
Ohio State gets a penalty with 1:11 left, both teams have one man in the penalty box
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By Rick Cassano
| Sunday, March 14, 2010, 09:05 PM
Ohio State will be on the power play for the final 1:33 here at Steve Cady Arena, Miami leads 2-1.
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