RedHawks dominate Lakers

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By Rick Cassano, Staff Writer 12:10 AM Sunday, February 7, 2010

OXFORD — There was a feeling that Miami University’s hockey team would either be great or terrible Saturday night, Feb. 6.

Ten goals later, the answer was obvious.

The top-ranked RedHawks, staggered by the death of student manager Brendan Burke on Friday, tallied seven goals in the first 27 minutes and buried visiting Lake Superior State 10-4 at Steve Cady Arena.

“It was going to be hit or miss, that’s for sure,” Lakers coach Jim Roque said. “If that’s the way it’s supposed to be based on what’s happened, I can live with that. I have no problem with that. That’s more important than anything right now.

“It’s just a tremendous loss of a young person,” he continued. “We’ve lost two young ladies in our town in the last six weeks. It puts things in perspective.”

MU’s season-best effort was six goals before Saturday’s contest, which featured two goals from Andy Miele and one apiece from Tommy Wingels, Joe Hartman, Will Weber, Trent Vogelhuber, Alden Hirschfeld, Vincent LoVerde, Carter Camper and Devin Mantha.

Miami improved to 20-4-6 overall and 17-1-4 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Lake Superior is 14-11-5, 9-10-3.

“It was a team effort, even the guys that didn’t play,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “We’re obviously in a bit of shock still (about Burke’s death). It’s just one of those things we had to go through as a family today, and we did that.”

The game included several skirmishes and was loaded with big and small penalties on both sides. MU’s Chris Wideman and the Lakers’ Ben Power were both ejected with game misconduct penalties.

“It was probably the right game for us,” Blasi said. “We got a little chippy out there, and it got a little emotional. When you’re defending your honor, if you will, it was probably a little bit easier for the guys to get into it.”

Said Wingels, “It seemed like there wasn’t much flow to the game. It seemed like we had to change something up every couple minutes.”

Roque, who used three goalies, thought the officials overreacted.

“I just didn’t see a lot of the stuff they saw,” Roque said. “Hockey is a hard, tough game. I didn’t think either team was out of control at all.”

Lake Superior got goals from Domenic Monardo (2), Chad Nehring and Nick McParland. Connor Knapp had 38 saves in goal and Jarod Palmer contributed three assists for MU, which visits Bowling Green next weekend.

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