Men's Ice Hockey | March 07, 2019
THIS WEEK
Western Michigan wraps up the 2018-19 regular season on the road at National Collegiate Hockey Conference rival Miami on Friday at 7:35p.m. and Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
BROADCAST INFO
Both games can be seen live on NCHC.tv. A watch party for Friday's game will be hosted at Niskers' Char-Grill and Slap Shot Hockey Bar. Due to a conflict with WMU men's basketball, Friday's broadcast on the Bronco Radio Network has been moved to WKZO 590 AM and 106.9 FM in the Kalamazoo area. Saturday's radio broadcast will move back to Jack FM 96.5.
LAST WEEK
Western Michigan had a rough weekend against No. 1 St. Cloud State, getting swept by the Huskies after losses of 5-4 and 8-2.
WMU had a 3-1 lead early in the third period but SCSU twice scored under a minute later to cut its deficit to 3-2 and 4-3. Robby Jackson scored his first of two goals in the final minutes of the third period, first to tie the game at 4-4 with 2:52 remaining. He tallied again with just 14.2 seconds left to give St. Cloud State the win. WMU picked up goals by
Paul Washe,
Dawson DiPietro,
Austin Rueschhoff and
Drew Worrad on the night.
On Saturday the Broncos outshot the Huskies 40-28 but SCSU had a seven-goal lead after two periods of play. St. Cloud State scored three in the first and fourth in the second. DiPietro and
Wade Allison sandwiched goals around a tally by Patrick Newell to set the final. Senior goalie
Will Massey made his collegiate debut in the third period, stopping eight of the nine shots he saw.
THE MIAMI REDHAWKS || 11-19-4, 5-15-2-1 NCHC
THE SERIES: Miami leads the all-time series at 68-65-11. The Broncos are 6-14-1 at Steve Cady Arena since it opened up in 2006, with all six wins coming under head coach
Andy Murray. The Broncos are 6-10-0 under Murray on the road at Miami.
Corey Schueneman is WMU's top scorer against the RedHawks with 11 points in 14 games on three goals and eight assists.
Wade Allison has been the Broncos' most efficient scorer with eight points on four goals and four assists in just six games.
Colt Conrad also has eight points on two goals and six assists in 12 career games against MU. Senior goalie
Trevor Gorsuch is 6-0-0 in seven career games played against Miami, with a 2.02 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
IN THE PREVIOUS MEETING: Miami came to Kalamazoo back on Jan. 11-12 and the Broncos swept the RedHawks in a pair of one-goal wins.
In the series opener, WMU jumped out to a 3-1 lead on goals by
Colt Conrad,
Ethen Frank and
Hugh McGing. Miami cut the lead to 3-2 before
Josh Passolt tallied the game-winner on the power play midway through the third period. Brian Hawkinson made it close with a goal just minute later but the Broncos held on for the victory.
The following night Passolt traded goals with the RedHawks until it was 2-2 entering the third period.
Mattias Samuelsson netted the game-winner through traffic just 5:25 into the third period and WMU, once again, shut down Miami the rest of the way. Miami was without its leading scorer, Josh Melnik, on the weekend.
SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS, AGAIN: Miami currently sits tied for last place in the NCHC with Omaha and can finish no higher than seventh place. After splitting series with UNO and Denver, the RedHawks suffered a sweep on the road at Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. MU is just 2-13-1 in 2019.
Josh Melnik leads the team at nearly a point per game with 26 on 10 goals and 16 assists in 28 games this season. Despite missing six games his 16 assists lead the team. Junior Gordie Green is second on the team with 25 points on a team-high 11 goals and 14 assists. The RedHawks generate a lot of goals from their defensemen with freshman Derek Daschke and senior Grant Hutton combining for 13 goals on the season. Dashke has six goals and 15 assists and is the top point man from the blue line with 21 points. Hutton sits just behind him with seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points. Karch Bachman and Ryan Siroky are tied for third on the team with eight goals. The RedHawks rank 50th in scoring offense at 2.35 goals per game.
Junior Ryan Larkin has seen the majority of the time in net, starting in 25 of the 34 games this season. Larkin holds a 10-12-2 record with three shutouts, a 2.71 goals against average and a .917 save percentage. Senior Jordan Uhelski has made nine starts on the season with a 1-7-2 record, a 2.96 goals against average and a .902 save percentage. Each started in the previous series against WMU this season. Miami ranks 36th overall in scoring defense, allowing 2.94 goals per game.
MU's power play ranks 35th in the nation at 17.3 percent (22-for-127). Melnik has a team-high five power play goals, while Hutton is just behind him with four. Siroky also has three tallies with the man advantage, while four others have two. Miami's penalty kill ranks 57th at 74.8 percent (95-for-127).
PLAYOFF POSSIBLITIES
Western Michigan sits in fourth place in the NCHC standings with a four-point lead on fifth-place North Dakota, and hold the tie-breaker on the Fighting Hawks after going 3-1-0 against them this season. The Broncos can finish no higher than third and no lower than fifth.
To host in the NCHC Quarterfinals, March 15-17, just one of the following needs to happen.
- A WMU win
- A UND loss
- Two points gained by WMU
- One point gained by UND
Any of those four events will result in WMU hosting North Dakota in the NCHC Quarterfinals. Should the Broncos host, all three games will be at 7:05 p.m.
