Miami's Miele is a dangerous offensive weapon

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Andy Miele (17) of Miami, shown celebrating with teammate Justin Vaive (22), has 9 goals and 24 total points with eight regular-season games to go.

Photo by Robert Leifheit/Contributing Photographer Andy Miele (17) of Miami, shown celebrating with teammate Justin Vaive (22), has 9 goals and 24 total points with eight regular-season games to go.

Andy Miele small in stature at 5-foot-8, but his production is big for RedHawks.

By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 8:44 AM Friday, February 5, 2010

OXFORD — It didn’t take long for 5-foot-8, 175-pound Andy Miele to figure out he wouldn’t be able to bully opponents.

Miami University’s junior forward relies on finesse, and that has helped him become one of the most dangerous offensive threats in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Miele enters this weekend’s home series against Lake Superior State with nine goals and 24 total points, and with eight regular-season games to go, the native of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich., already has tied a career high with 15 assists.

Linemate Jarod Palmer has said he enjoys playing with Miele because he does such an outstanding job of keeping the puck alive on the offensive end.

“I take pride in my ability to control the puck,” Miele said, “to keep possession of it, keep the other team away from it, break them down and get the puck to one of our D-men or Palmer or Reilly (Smith), who’s on our line now.

“As I got to playing with guys who were a little bit stronger, I really worked on my cutbacks and protecting the puck with my legs,” he explained. “Playing against bigger and stronger guys ... they can take control of your body and they can throw you right off the puck.”

Miele is one of four RedHawks bearing down on the 30-point mark, a list which also includes Tommy Wingels (29), Carter Camper (28) and Palmer (25), and four other players have scored game-winning goals.

“Our depth this year is unbelievable,” Miele said. “We can roll all four lines and count on every line to score. That’s something we’ve taken a lot of pride in. We don’t have like one line that’s all skill. We have lines that have a little bit of everything, some grinding, some skills. That makes a complete team.”

It’s a team that has taken the CCHA completely by storm.

The top-ranked RedHawks, who have not lost a league contest since Oct. 24, lead the second-place Michigan State Spartans by a whopping 10 points even though Miami has played two fewer league games than MSU and was not picked to finish first, or even second, in the CCHA preseason poll.

“They thought we’d be third,” Miele said. “But we were very confident of the players we had and that if we played the way we could, we’d come out on top.

“We really took it to Michigan and Notre Dame, the two teams they said were going to be the top teams in the league,” he noted. In four games the RedHawks outscored the Wolverines and Fighting Irish 13-2.

“I hope we can keep it up and really take it to Lake (Superior) State this weekend,” Miele said.

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