DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — Maybe it was rust. Or maybe it was because they were facing a team with nothing to lose.

Whatever it was, it took a little while for the top-ranked Miami RedHawks' hockey team to get going.

Miami did finally heat up Friday night after 13 days off the ice to claim a 3-1 win over the visiting Alaska Nanooks at Steve Cady Arena. Ryan Jones scored three goals in the final two periods of play as Miami upped its record to 14-1-0 overall and 10-1-0 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

After a sluggish first period that saw the nation's No. 1 team get off just two shots on goal against squad that was 1-8-1 in its first 10 games, the RedHawks responded with more intensity in the final two periods.

"Even when you have a just a weekend off, it tends to slow things down a bit," Jones said of the near two-week hiatus. "But after the first two periods, we started getting to the pucks, and getting out in front of their goalkeeper. I'm really proud of our guys for sticking to it.

"And it always helps when you've got a guy like Zatkoff in the nets for you."

Senior goaltender Jeff Zatkoff drew praise from the 3,201 fans in Steve Cady Arena, making several acrobatic stops — including one save where the junior stopper was lying flat on his right side — to keep the RedHawks in the thick of things until the offense could get untracked.

Miami has now gone 16 straight games without allowing more than two goals.

"I thought we actually played pretty well in the first period," Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. "They scored on that 5-on-3 power play, but I thought we played pretty well when we were both 5-on-5. It was a good game all around."

The Nanooks jumped out to a surprising first-period lead shortly after Jones and RedHawks teammate Pat Cannone were each whistled for tripping penalties in a 26-second span. Alaska's Tyler Eckford scored from the right wing with 11:32 left in the period.

"We took advantage of the power play chance we had, and our goalie did a tremendous job for us," said Nanooks coach Doc Delcastillo. Chad Johnson stopped 31 of 34 shots in the loss. "We had plenty of opportunities to win, but we just didn't capitalize when we had the chances."

Instead, Miami regrouped.

Jones tied the game off an assist by Cannone 25 seconds into the second period. He then put Miami up 2-1 at 15:06 of the final period and added an insurance goal with 27 seconds to play. Brian Kaufman assisted on both third-period goals and Charley Fetzer added a helper on one of the tallies.

Jones moved up to fourth on the school's all-time goal-scoring list with 73 goals. He passed Ken House and Bill Bok on Friday.

"It's nice to get that, but it's always more important to get the win," Jones said of the hat trick. "My line just did a great job of getting me the opportunities."

Miami wraps up the series with Alaska at 7:05 tonight.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.