Nov. 10, 2009

Ferris State Weekly Release

THE WEEKEND
Miami takes a brief respite from the road this weekend when it welcomes Ferris State to Steve Cady Arena. The RedHawks have been away for the last two weekends, and face two more travel weekends after this. Face off with the Bulldogs takes place at 7:35 Friday and 7:05 on Saturday. Both games will be televised on ONN.

The RedHawks posted their second straight sweep over the weekend in historic fashion, 3-1 and 5-1 at Michigan. It marked just the fourth and fifth wins for Miami in 59 games at Yost Ice Arena. Cody Reichard was in net both nights, while Jarod Palmer scored a pair of goals on Friday. The following night, Miami scored five unanswered after falling behind 1-0 with freshman Reilly Smith finding the net for the first two times in his career.

Ferris State also earned a sweep last weekend, winning 5-1 and 3-2 over Bowling Green. The Bulldogs are 6-0 at home this year, but only 1-3 on the road.

THE COACHES
Enrico Blasi (Miami '94) is in his 11th season behind the RedHawk bench, holding a 218-152-34 career record. He is a three-time CCHA Coach of the Year selection and was named National Coach of the Year in 2005-06.

Bob Daniels is in his 18th collegiate season, all at Ferris State. He holds a 276-324-63 career record and has also earned National Coach of the Year honors (in 2002-03).

THE SERIES
Miami leads the all-time series with Ferris State by a slim 41-39-13 count and by only 21-20-5 in Oxford. The RedHawks are 0-3-1 in their last four meetings with the Bulldogs, including a tie (shootout win) last year at Steve Cady Arena. The recent slump for Miami followed six straight wins over FSU.

POLL NUMBERS
Miami retained its consensus No. 1 standing for the fourth straight week on Monday, topping all three major listings this week -- the USCHO.com/CBS College Sports and USA Today/USA Hockey polls, plus the INCH Power Ratings. The RedHawks have headed the USA Today poll all six weeks, while topping USCHO.com for five straight.

QUICK HITS

• Miami became the first team to sweep Michigan in a weekend series since Oct. 26-27, 2001, a span of 45 series. The RedHawks entered the contests with a 3-43-1 record all-time at Yost Arena. The weekend sweep was the third this year.
• Jarod Palmer and Reilly Smith each scored two goals during the weekend, with Palmer's coming on Friday and Smith's on Saturday. Palmer now has 104 career points, while Smith's goals were the first of his career.
• Miami scored three first-period goals at Michigan over the weekend, matching its total for the first eight games combined. The RedHawks are 6-0-1 when leading or tied after 20 minutes of play.

SERIES BREAKDOWN
Miami leads the all-time series with Ferris State by a slim 41-39-13 count and by only 21-20-5 in Oxford. The RedHawks are 0-3-1 in their last four meetings with the Bulldogs, including a tie (shootout win) last year at Steve Cady Arena. The recent slump for Miami followed six straight wins over FSU. The complete series history can be found on page 114-115 of the fan guide, but here are the last 10 meetings:

1-28-05	W, 4-3	(ot)	A
1-29-05	W, 5-3		A
1-27-06	W, 3-1		A
1-28-06	W, 5-0		A
12-1-06	W, 5-3		H
12-2-06	W, 7-2		H
2-15-08	L, 6-5		A
2-16-08	L, 3-1		A
11-7-08	T, 2-2	(SOW)	H
11-8-08	L, 2-1		H

BLASI vs. THE BULLDOGS
Enrico Blasi holds a 13-8-3 career record against Ferris State, including 5-4-3 in Oxford. Most recently, the RedHawks won six straight games before earning only a single tie in the last four meetings.

AN 8-1-1 START
Miami's quick start to the season is the third-best in school history and ranks second among Enrico Blasi's 11 seasons. The RedHawks opened 2006-07 with eight straight wins enroute to a 14-1 start.

Miami started the 1997-98 campaign under head coach Mark Mazzoleni with a 10-1 record..

IN THE MIDDLE
Miami has scored 19 of its 34 goals this year during the second period of play. The RedHawks have six goals in the first, eight in the third and one in overtime.

The by-period scoring line for the six road games shows a much bigger imbalance: 6-16-3-0.

Miami's three first-period goals in Ann Arbor over the weekend equaled its total over the first eight games combined.

CLOSE CALLS
Six of Miami's 10 games this season have either ended in a tie or with a one-goal differential. Three of the games have gone to overtime.

However, both games of the Michigan series had a higher margin of victory, including the largest of the season (four) on Saturday.

Miami stands 4-1-1 this year in games decided by a single goal, including 1-1-1 in overtime games . A year ago, the RedHawks were 0-2-5 in games that were tied after regulation and 6-7-0 in one-goal games.

PALMER PUSH
Senior Jarod Palmer became the 43rd member of Miami's 100-point club on Oct. 24 when he tied the game at 2-2 in the third period. He started the weekend with 98 points, but saw a four-game point streak end on Friday. Then, he assisted on the opening goal Saturday before putting a wrist shot past the MSU goaltender to reach the milestone.

Palmer leads the team in points with 12 and in goals with five. He also has three game-winners.

An abbreviated listing of the 100-point club (full list is on page 127):

	      Player	Games	Points 	Year
       1.     Steve Morris	145	202	1979-83
       2.     Rick Kuraly	145	179	1979-83
       3.     Kevyn Adams	151	172	1992-96
       4.     Bill Bok	136 	169	1978-82
       5.     Vern Sketchley	131	158	1978-82
---------------------------------------------------------------------
       35.    Brian Savage	106	109	1990-93
       36.    Craig Fisher	76	108	1988-90
       37.    Randy Robitaille	75	106	1995-97
	      Greg Dornbach	110	106	1984-87
       39.    Jarod Palmer	133	104	2005-09
	      Andrew Miller	141	104	1991-95
	      Justin Mercier	157	104	2005-09

SHOOTING GALLERY
Miami has outshot its opponents in eight of the 10 contests this season, posting a 7-1-0 record in such outings. On Saturday, Miami held a 29-21 advantage in attempts, one night after registering 13 -- its lowest total since Jan. 15, 2000 at Michigan (10). MU also tallied 13 on Feb. 25, 2000 against Northern Michigan.

Miami has reached double figures for shots in 15 of the 30 periods this season.

BREAK OUT THE BROOM
Miami earned its third weekend sweep of the season with 3-1 and 5-1 wins over Michigan. The sweep at Yost Ice Arena was the first by an opponent since Oct. 26-27, 2001 and improved the RedHawks' all-time record there to 5-43-1.

A year ago, the RedHawks posted a 2-0 record on seven different weekends.

IN GOAL
Sophomore Cody Reichard has started the last four games in goal for the RedHawks as Miami coach Enrico Blasi went away from his typical Friday-Saturday rotation.

Reichard and Connor Knapp swapped starting assignments -- Friday and Saturday, repsectively -- through the first six games of the season.

PENALTY STOP
For the second time in three weeks, sophomore Cody Reichard was called up to stop a penalty shot this past weekend. He stuffed Chad Langlais at the post on Friday to keep the RedHawks' lead at 2-0. Against Michigan State he made a similar save in Friday night's victory. Miami was also on the defensive end of two penalty shots last year with Connor Knapp making both stops.

COMING BACK
For the second straight Saturday night, Miami fell behind 1-0 early in the contest only to rally for a victory. It marked the fourth time this season that RedHawks reversed the decision after the opponent scored the opening goal. Also, MU earned a tie at New Hampshire in that situation.

A year ago, Miami was 2-12-3 after falling behind 1-0.

SPECIAL TEAMS
After a rough patch of penalty kills, Miami returned to early-season form over the weekend. The RedHawks allowed Michigan just one power-play goal in 14 chances, including one-for-12 on Saturday night.

Miami opened the season with 19 straight kills of a man-advantage, but then allowed a seven-of-23 success rate over four games.

For the season, the RedHawks rank seventh in the CCHA with an 86.0 percent success rate (49 of 57).

CCHA AWARD WINNERS
Miami took home a pair of CCHA awards on Monday when Jarod Palmer and Cody Reichard were honored. Palmer was named Player of the Week after tallying two goals and an assist against the Wolverines, while Reichard won Goaltender of the Week honors after holding the Wolverines to just two goals over 120 minutes.

Sophomore Matt Tomassoni was the first RedHawk to gain a CCHA weekly award this year when he was named Defensive Player of the Week on October 19.

AND A NATIONAL AWARD
Cody Reichard was named National Player of the Week by Inside College Hockey on Tuesday.

He is the first RedHawk honored with a national award this season.

TOP TEAMS
Since 2005-06, Miami's ice hockey team has the best winning percentage among all 58 Division I teams. Over the last four-plus seasons, the RedHawks have compiled a record of 114-45-15 (.698), ahead of Michigan, which has a record of 113-51-10 (.678) since 2005-06.

FRESHMAN FEVER
Miami freshman Reilly Smith and Curtis McKenzie had big impacts on their first visits to the heralded Yost Ice Arena.

McKenzie tallied a goal and two assists for three points, while Smith earned the first two goals of his career on Saturday night. Two other rookies -- defensemen Steven Spinell and Joe Hartman -- also saw action at Yost, helping the defense shut down the Wolverine attack.

RETURN WITH GLORY
Senior Dane Hetland made qute a splash is his return to the RedHawk lineup on Friday. Playing his first game in over two years (since Nov. 3, 2007), the Pittsburgh, Pa., native made a steal in the corner and fed classmate Brandon Smith for a fourth-line insurance goal on Friday night.

The helper was the fourth of his career, but first since Feb. 17, 2007 against Robert Morris.

CAMPER FOR HOBEY
Junior Carter Camper is one of the leading candidates for the Hobey Baker Award, but has started the season with quiet success.

The Rocky River, Ohio, native is third on the team with nine points, while also standing tied for second at three goals. He did start this season with a bang, tallying the game-winning goal in the season opener, finding the net at 1:52 of overtime. It marked the sixth time in his career that he scored the game-winning goal.

Last year, Camper led the RedHawks with 42 points (20-22) on 122 shots. He also recorded a +5 rating.

QUICK STRIKES
Miami's two goals in the second St. Cloud State game came just 20 seconds apart at 5:22 and 5:42 of the third period. The school record for fastest pair of goals is 11 seconds.

A QUICK TURN
The weekend home series is the only one in a five-week span for Miami, which played its last four games in the state of Michigan. The RedHawks return to the Great Lakes State next weekend for a series in Kalamazoo against Western Michigan before jetting to North Dakota for the Subway Holiday Classic over Thanksgiving.

GOING FOR THREE
The CCHA announced in September that all conference games will count as three points in the standings. When a team wins in regulation or in overtime, it receives all three points.

When a game is tied after 65 minutes, each team gets a point, while the shootout winner gains an extra point.

200 AND COUNTING
Miami University is celebrating its Bicentennial this year as the school was founded in 1809. The year-long celebration started on charter day - Feb. 16, 2009 - but the 2009-10 hockey season will be featured. A reunion will take place during the weekend of the Notre Dame series (Dec. 4-5) and the team will wear a special fourth jersey for certain games.