Silver not quite so precious as gold, but what a game

That gold medal hockey game between the U.S. and Canada was a thing of beauty. I've never been a very big hockey fan (except for Miami RedHawks hockey), but I sat transfixed on the TV watching that game yesterday. The Americans came this close to scoring a goal in the first period, but the puck stopped just short of the line, and the Canadians were able to take a 2-0 lead.

But there was no quit in the Red, White and Blue. Playing against the nation that invented ice hockey, on its own soil, the Americans got within a goal in the second period on Ryan Kesler's rebound shot, then pulled off the nearly unbelievable when Zach Parise scored with 24.4 seconds left in regulation, with goalie Ryan Miller pulled in favor of an extra skater, to send it into overtime.

The star-laden Canadians controlled the puck for most of that overtime period, and it came as no surprise when 22-year-old phenom Sidney Crosby finally broke through for the gold medal-winning goal 7:40 into the extra session. But it was a fantastic performance by the young Americans, who should hold their heads high after coming away with the silver.

Incidentally, that silver medal was the 37th for the USA in the Vancouver games, setting a new record for total medals by any nation in any Winter Olympics. But Canada's was the 14th gold medal for that nation, which was also a record. It was a very enjoyable Olympics, and I'm just a little bit sad that it's over.

Love and honor to Miami!

Yes, this is a Cleveland sports blog, but I'm all abuzz about my alma mater, Miami University, having its first chance ever to play for a national championship in any sport. The RedHawks (known as the Redskins during my college days) dispatched the Bemidji State Beavers yesterday, 4-1, in a game that probably wasn't as close as the final score. One more win, and we're champs. I can hardly contain my excitement. The Hawks will be underdogs against the Boston U. Terriers of Hockey East, but our boys have proven they can hang with the big dogs.

The biggest moment in last night's game came right after Bemidji cut Miami's lead to 2-1 on a power play goal in the second period. Will Weber took a shot that hit Bill Loupee’s stick in the crease, and the puck ricocheted off Bemidji goalie Matt Dalton and back into the net. Miami, 3-1. They'd score their last goal on an empty-netter in the third. And in their first-ever trip to the Frozen Four, the RedHawks (23-12-5) have reached the title game.

The Terriers (34-6-4) come in after a hard-fought come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Vermont in the other national semifinal, and have won their last six and 11 of their last 12. They rattled off a nine-game winning streak earlier this season, which was followed by a rather bizarre three-game tying streak, then a five-game winning streak. So at one point, they won 14 games between losses. Since January 1, they're 23-2-3. This is a tough opponent for anyone. Our guys will have their hands full, but once the puck drops at 7 p.m. Saturday, the score will be zero-zero.

I can hardly wait.

So anyway ...

Miami lost to Boston College on Sunday. Those of you who care already know that, I'm sure; and you may also know that the RedHawks lost because they fell asleep for two minutes in the second period. BC scored three goals in that two-minute span. Considering the final score was 4-3 in overtime, that gives you some idea what an uncharacteristic lapse that was for Miami. The Hawks really dominated the overtime too, but they couldn't get any shots through. This was the third year in a row that Miami has fallen to Boston College in the NCAA Tournament. That's like the Browns and Broncos in the late '80s, only worse.

And so ends the season for senior Ryan Jones, the nation's leading goal scorer; junior Jeff Zatkoff, the nation's second-leading goaltender in terms of save percentage and goals against average; freshman Carter Camper, junior Justin Mercier and junior Brian Kaufman, all among the nation's leading scorers; fine senior defenseman Mitch Ganzak; senior forward Nathan Davis, who was among the team's best players, but missed a lot of time due to injury (including the Boston College game); and the nation's leading overall team offense.

With Jones and Davis among the players we're losing, it's going to be hard to make up that much offense next year. I'm not saying it can't be done, but we're talking about the best finisher in the nation, in Jones. If Zatkoff returns with the kind of year he had in '07-08, however, the RedHawks have a chance to make another run at a national title.

But I wanted to see them do it this year. I still think they could have. But they didn't.

What a game what a game what a game!

Miami (Ohio) and Air Force played an instant classic today in the NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament. I honestly don't think I've ever seen a better college hockey game, and while there are undoubtedly people who have watched a lot more college hockey than I have, I've watched more than my share.

Miami scored just 19 seconds into the game, on a Tommy Wingels wrist shot into the upper corner (where momma keeps the cookies, I believe is the term). After that, Air Force goaltender Andrew Volkening put on one heck of a show. Miami had shot after shot denied, including one that ESPNU play-by-play announcer John Buccigross said may have been the save of the year in college hockey. Color commentator Barry Melrose agreed it had to be in the top five. Volkening shut out the RedHawks for 50-plus minutes of game action, while his teammates managed to score twice on rebound shots to give them a 2-1 lead. The way Volkening was playing, it looked like the Falcons were going to pull off the upset.

But with 7:50 left in regulation, Air Force got hit with a penalty for having too many men on the ice. It was Miami's fourth power-play opportunity of the game, and they failed to take advantage of the first three. But this time, freshman Carter Camper made the Falcons pay, putting it in off a rebound with 6:16 to go.

Miami controlled the overtime period, but Volkening was almost unbreachable. It should be noted that Miami goalie Jeff Zatkoff, the nation's leading goaltender in terms of save percentage, made some great saves in that time too. But something had to give, and that something turned out to be Volkening. As Justin Mercier took the puck down to the right side of the goal, Volkening gambled that he would take it behind the net. But he didn't. He veered in front of the net and put it in the far upper corner. And Miami moves on to the round of eight.

Taken from the USCHO.com story:

“The puck came loose in the neutral zone; I was able to pick it up,” Mercier said. “I knew I could take advantage of their ‘D’ if I got him turning, pivoting. It was almost a fake shot, got him to freeze up for a second, took the puck around him and made a play on net to get it past their goalie.”

Miami won despite getting no goals from Ryan Jones, the nation's leading goal scorer. Jones had some chances, including a breakaway opportunity, but Volkening stopped him. But as Melrose pointed out, Miami's got a lot of weapons.

At 4:30 p.m. Sunday, the RedHawks play the winner of the Boston College-Minnesota game, which Boston College currently leads 2-1 in the second. The winner of tomorrow's game moves on to the Frozen Four in Denver. I can hardly wait.

March Madness -- on the ice

The NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament opens today, and there is one Ohio school in the 16-team field. And it happens to be my alma mater, Miami (Ohio). The RedHawks (32-7-1) are the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Region, and open at 4 p.m. today against Air Force (21-11-6). You can see it on ESPNU.

Miami is the No. 2 overall seed, behind someone I hope we can all agree to hate, the Michigan Wolverines. Miami and Michigan spent most of the season ranked No. 1 and 2, and Michigan wound up on top by virtue of a 2-0-1 record against our Hawks, including the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament championship.

Some notes cribbed from the USCHO.com story:

The RedHawks are the No. 2 seed overall in the tournament after losing their bid for a CCHA championship title to the No. 1 seed Michigan Wolverines. Miami played a cautious semifinal game against Notre Dame last weekend before a looser display against the Wolverines, but each contest had something glaring in common; the RedHawks failed to score until the final minute of each game.

In the 2-1 overtime win over the Irish, defenseman Mitch Ganzak scored the equalizer at 19:56 in the third, while fellow blueliner Alec Martinez scored at 19:21 in the 2-1 loss to Michigan the following night — and both goals were scored with Jeff Zatkoff pulled from the net in favor of the extra attacker.

That is a little bit worrisome, and we'll have to play better if we want to advance through this field to the Frozen Four.

Air Force won the Atlantic Hockey tournament for the second straight year, and will surely give the RedHawks a tough game. I'm looking forward to it.

RedHawks icers conclude regular season

Miami (Ohio)'s hockey team completed a five-game season sweep over Ohio State (of which school I'm a fan in every sport but hockey) last night in Oxford to finish its regular season at 29-6-1, second in the CCHA, behind Michigan. The RedHawks were ranked No. 1 at one point, but after a tie and a loss against Michigan (which school I root against in every sport, including hockey), followed by an inexplicable 0-2 weekend against Ferris State, they fell to No. 5, which is where they've been the last few weeks.

They finished strong, though, winning their last four, and will host a three-game series starting March 14 in the second round of the CCHA playoffs. And Miami's a lock for the NCAA tournament, where we'll likely get a No. 2 seed. So let's hope that little blip is behind us. I mean, come on. Ferris State?

Today in sports history

Twenty years ago today, Wayne Gretzky, in his last season with the Edmonton Oilers, got his 1,050th career assist, which put him past Gordie Howe to become the NHL's all-time leader in that department.

Since then, six other players have passed Howe, but with 1,963 assists, Gretzky retains a huge lead over second-place Ron Francis, who has 1,249.

I wrote more about Gretzky here. He was one of a kind.

Today in sports history

Happy 35th birthday, retired hockey superstar Eric Lindros.

Lindros, taken by the Quebec Nordiques (R.I.P.) as the first overall pick in the 1991 NHL draft, played 13 years in the league, but he never quite lived up to his potential, due in large part to repeated injuries.

As a junior hockey player from London, Ontario, Lindros was nicknamed "The Next One," implying that he could be as good as Wayne Gretzky, a.k.a. "The Great One." That kind of nickname is unfair to any young player; nobody can be expected, in his late teens, to eventually be as good as the greatest player in the history of his sport.

Lindros refused to play for the Nordiques, who traded him to Philadelphia, and he wore No. 88 for the Flyers from 1992 to 2000. The Nordiques, who became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, made out pretty well in the deal. Among the pieces they got were Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Chris Simon and a first-round pick they used to select Jocelyn Thibault. Those are all names even I recognize, even though I barely follow the NHL. The Avalanche went on to win eight division titles and two Stanley Cup championships with those players.

The Flyers, with Lindros as their leading playmaker, would reach the Stanley Cup finals in 1997, losing to the Red Wings. After that, the injuries started taking their toll. Lindros had his first concussion in 1998, followed by a collapsed lung that was initially misdiagnosed as a rib injury. A trainer reported the injury to team officials, who told him to put Lindros on a plane to Philadelphia (the team was in Nashville at the time). The trainer thought better of it and took him to a local hospital, where it was discovered he'd lost nearly half his blood. That trainer probably saved his life.

Lindros publicly criticized team doctors (and I can't say I blame him), and his relationship with Flyers management deteriorated from there. He sat out the 2000-01 season in an attempt to force a trade, which he eventually got before the 01-02 season. He spent the next three years with the New York Rangers, then one year each with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars. He struggled with various injuries throughout his last three seasons, and announced his retirement Nov. 8, 2007. Three days later, the NHL Players' Association named him to the newly created position of ombudsman.

This blogger suspects "he'll be known as the guy who had about 50 concussions and a collapsed lung. In a league full of indestructible robots, Lindros had the misfortune of actually getting hurt. That'll do ya in."

Today in sports history

In the early-morning hours of this date 10 years ago, the U.S. Olympic hockey team embarrassed its nation and its sport by destroying their rooms at the Olympic Village in Nagano, Japan.

The Brett Hull-led team had been one of the favorites to win the gold medal, but didn't come close, and took out their frustrations on their hotel rooms.

RedHawks hold tough

Sure, we Miami fans (and other Michigan-haters from the Buckeye State) might have preferred that the RedHawks get a win last night at Cady Arena. But the 5-5 tie leaves us in pretty good shape.

I did not watch Saturday's game, as much as I would have liked to, because I have to catch a plane early this morning to San Francisco, and I realize it's a lot more important that the pilot be awake than it is that I be, I've got a long drive to the airport. But the game reports I've read, here and here and here, and a Michigan-centric story here, tell me it was quite an exciting game. One story calls it "arguably the most exciting game of the year," which I suppose is what can usually be expected of a matchup between No. 1 and No. 2.

The 0-1-1 weekend against that school up north leaves Michigan in first place by one point in the CCHA, and the two teams will probably trade places atop the polls for about the fourth or fifth time this year, but fear not, RedHawks backers. Each team has six games left in the regular season. Miami (25-4-1) has two each against Ferris State (11-12-5), Western Michigan (7-20-3) and Ohio State (9-20-3; and this is the only sport in which I don't feel any particular allegiance to the Buckeyes). Michigan (23-3-4) will end against Ferris, before which they've got two against Lake Superior State (6-16-6) and -- and this is the key to the point I'm about to make -- two against Michigan State (18-7-5). The Spartans are a good bet to split that series, or maybe come away with at least one tie. If the Hawks win out, as they should, they've got a pretty good chance to overtake Michigan for the conference title and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Stay tuned, Miami fans.

Bad first period

I watched last night's hockey game between No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Michigan at the Winking Lizard in Mentor because I couldn't get it on my cable at home. I ordered shrimp-crab quesadillas, and there were four of them. Now, I'm not one of those people who believes that my actions in a restaurant in Mentor can influence what happens on the ice in Oxford, some 280 miles away, but the fact is, when I started eating my quesadillas, the score was 0-0. The Wolverines scored their first goal while I ate my first quesadilla, their second goal while I ate my second, their third goal while I ate my third, and their fourth goal while I ate my fourth. So I suppose you could make the argument that I lost that game for Miami by eating some quesadillas. I apologize, Miami fans.

Our RedHawks really looked overmatched in that first period, and it hurts to say that. They weren't able to get any good shots off, and they did things like fumble the puck in front of their own goal and allow breakaways. They turned the puck over repeatedly in the neutral zone, and goaltender Jeff Zatkoff, who's been phenomenal all season, just didn't seem to have the stuff. Michigan scored all four goals within six minutes of game time. It was really hard to watch.

But once I finished my quesadillas, Miami started to settle in. Zatkoff made some fine saves in the second period, and the Hawks took some nice shots. But Michigan's goalie is pretty good too.

Finally, in the third, Miami managed to take advantage of some power-play opportunities. Ryan Jones broke through about five minutes into the period, and Jarod Palmer's goal with about seven minutes left cut it to 4-2; both were scored with a man advantage. It was starting to look like we had a chance. And we got some more power-play chances, including a brief 5-on-3, but give Michigan credit (boy, does THAT hurt to say). They held tough.

There is reason for optimism going into tonight's rematch. Michigan did not score over the last 45 minutes of game time. If our guys can keep that going, I like our chances to salvage the split.

One more thing: I'm fairly confident that this morning was the first time Miami hockey has ever appeared on SportsCenter. It would have been a lot better if they'd been talking about a win, but it felt good to see highlights from Oxford on ESPN. Anchor Robert Flores complimented Zatkoff on his goalie mask. And it is a beaut.

Today in sports history

Twenty-five years ago today, Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers set an NHL All-Star Game record by scoring four goals in one period, leading the Campbell Conference to a 9-3 win over the Wales Conference. So he scored more goals in one period than the other team did the whole game.

Gretzky, just 22 at the time, was already in his fifth NHL season, and was already considered the sport's best player. I'm not sure whether he was "The Great One" yet, but he had already made a mockery of some long-standing NHL records. He broke the league's record for scoring in just his second season, 1980-81, at age 19, with 164 points. He then went on to break his own record the following year, with 212. The previous record was 152; he topped it by 60.

That's Babe Ruth territory. Ruth first broke the home run record by hitting 29 in 1919, and the next year, he hit 54. Ruth would go on to break his own record two more times; Gretzky would break his own record one more time. Both men would spend a decade or so dominating the sport as no one ever had before. Gretzky won four Stanley Cups; Ruth won seven World Series (including three in the 19-teens with the Red Sox, when he was a pitcher).

As everybody knows, Gretzky would go on to be the all-time leader in all the major scoring categories, and is almost universally considered the greatest player ever to lace up the skates. It's too bad Cleveland never had a hockey team during his career, because he would have been fun to see in person.

More on Miami ice hockey

Here's an interview with RedHawks Coach Enrico Blasi, from about a week ago. For whatever reason, my browser isn't showing the video, but I'm able to hear the interview. Blasi talks in some depth about the upcoming matchup with Michigan, and throws some accolades to Ryan Jones and Nate Davis.

Big hockey series

No. 1 Miami University (25-3-0) faces off Friday and Saturday against No. 2 Michigan (22-3-3) at the Goggin Ice Center in Oxford. This is a very exciting time to be a Redsk ..., er, RedHawk. (The team nickname is a blog entry for another time.)

I've been an Ohio State fan all my life, and I always will be (even though Bob Knight played there), but I never really considered it when I was looking at colleges. I wound up at Miami, a non-BCS Division I school (no, the BCS didn't exist in the late '80s and early '90s, but we all understood that the Mid-American Conference was not the Big 10), which meant that the best we could reasonably hope for on a year-to-year basis was winning MAC championships in the various sports. Our football team was second-tier at best, our basketball teams were second-tier at best, our baseball team, our swimming team, our field hockey team, and so on and so forth.

From a national standpoint, we've had a couple of good years in individual sports: Wally Szczerbiak's 1998-99 basketball team reached the Sweet 16 before losing a highly respectable 58-48 to Kentucky; and Ben Roethlisberger's 2003 football team went 12-1, its only loss in the season opener against Iowa, and ended the season No. 10 in the nation. The lesson? In order to be a superstar athlete at Miami University, you have to have a name that only people smart enough to get into Miami can spell.

But in ice hockey ― and only in ice hockey ― Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, is NOT a second-tier school. We are a member of the first-tier Central Collegiate Hockey Association. We are in the same league as Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State ― and even Notre Dame. Brian Savage, who would go on to play 12 years in the NHL, played at Miami while I was there.

The setup in college hockey is TOTALLY different from all the other sports. Several schools that are Division II or Division III in other sports are big-time powers in hockey. The last back-to-back national champion was the University of Denver. When's the last time you heard about the University of Denver's basketball or football team? Among other traditional Division I powers ― all of whom are currently in the top 20 ― are North Dakota, New Hampshire, Colorado College, Minnesota-Duluth and Clarkson.

Oh, yes. And Miami. In fact, if you check college hockey Web sites, you'll see that Miami University is not even referred to as "Miami (Ohio)." It's just "Miami." You know how, if you look at the national football pool and see the word "Miami" on the list? You don't have to ask which Miami. It's the one in Florida. Duh!

Well, Miami of Florida doesn't even have a hockey team, as far as I know. You never see "Miami (Ohio)" on a hockey poll. Of course it's the one in Ohio.

But even in ice hockey, Miami has never won a national championship. In fact, they were never really a national power until quite recently, after Savage's former teammate Enrico Blasi became the head coach in 1999. Blasi had cut his teeth as an assistant at Denver under his former Miami coach, George Gwozdecky. It took Blasi awhile to build up the program, but he's done a fantastic job. The RedHawks reached the Elite Eight last year before losing 4-0 to Boston College ― the same team that knocked them out 5-0 in the first round in 2006 (the tournament is only 16 teams to begin with in hockey, so the office pools are somewhat less exciting).

And this year, they've been ranked No. 1 for much of the season, trading back and forth with fellow CCHA power Michigan. I went to see them in Bowling Green (the BG Falcons, Miami and the Western Michigan Broncos are the only MAC schools in the CCHA) the Saturday of the first weekend of 2008, and the Hawks looked pretty darned good. They won 5-2 and almost made it 6-2 with an empty-netter. They skated faster and controlled the puck better than the Falcons. But one of Miami's three losses is to BG, and it was actually the previous night.

And now Miami and Michigan are the top two teams in the country, and they're playing this weekend. I've been led to believe Friday night's game, at least, is being shown on TV, but I don't seem to have it on my cable. I don't know who's carrying it, but apparently somebody is.