Miami seeks 2nd chance at title in Frozen 4
April 7, 2010
Miami of Ohio is looking for a second chance in the Frozen Four.
A year ago, Redhawks fans were chanting “Yes, we can! Yes, we can!” withtheir school ahead by two goals and on the verge of winning its first nationalchampionship in any team sport. Then Boston University cut the lead to one with59 seconds left, tied it with 17 seconds left, then stunned the RedHawks with afluke goal in overtime.
Miami coach Enrico Blasi concedes the loss could have been devastating.Instead, he said, the RedHawks used it as motivation. The team sat down a fewdays after the loss and talked out their frustrations. They then started talkingabout all that they accomplished, including advancing to the Frozen Four for thefirst time.
“We had a great run,” Blasi said. “We took a lot of good memories, a lotof experience out of what happened: How to compete at a high level, how toprepare at a high level. We got closer as a team. We know what it takes to getthere. We know what it takes to win the whole thing. I think those were allthings that were real positives throughout the season.”
Top-seeded Miami (29-7-7) will get to find out how well it learned when itplays fourth-seeded Boston College (27-10-3) in a semifinal game Thursday nightat Ford Field in Detroit. In the first game, Rochester Institute of Technology(28-11-1), which was seeded 15th in the 16-team field, faces third-seedWisconsin (27-10-4). The winners play 7 p.m. Saturday in the title game.
This season, Miami faced a far more difficult loss to overcome.
On Feb. 5, student manager Brendan Burke, the son of Toronto Maple Leafsgeneral manager Brian Burke, was killed in a car crash in Indiana.
“What we do on the ice is a game and we love it. But what happened toBrendan, that’s real life. It’s something you have to go through together,” hesaid.
Blasi said the team has a family atmosphere that he calls “thebrotherhood.”
“We just stayed together. If we needed to talk about it, we talked aboutit. If we needed to do the stuff we do on the ice, then we focused on that. Wetried to do what we could for each other. Basically that’s the way we gotthrough it,” he said. “There’s no easy way.”
Miami captain Tommy Wingels said the RedHawks dealt with the championshiploss in different ways.
“You can scream and pout about it for days and weeks and let it get to you,or you can start working again. I think we took the second route and it’s paidoff,” he said.
Before losing to BU last season, the RedHawks were knocked out of the NCAAtournament three straight years by Boston College. Wingels said it is amotivating factor heading into Thursday night.
“You remember those games and who beat you. But ultimately you’ve just gotto worry about how you’re team is going to play,” he said. “In the back of ourminds we’ll definitely know that we lost to Boston College my freshman year.”
Boston College coach Jerry York has led the Eagles to their fourth FrozenFour appearance in the last five years and a national title in 2008.
“The goal we seek lives with you the rest of your life, so all four teamswon’t lack motivation whatsoever,” he said.
Wisconsin is seeking its seventh NCAA hockey championship, it’s first since2006. It has won two national championships in Detroit before, beating Michigan6-5 in overtime at Olympia Stadium in 1977 and beating Colgate 7-3 at Joe LouisArena in 1990. Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves assisted on the game-winning goal in1977.
Eaves has other connections to Detroit. He went to high school across theriver in Windsor, Ontario, and his son, Patrick, is a right wing for the DetroitRed Wings.
“It could be very, very special,” he said.
RIT, in just its fifth year of Divison I hockey, is making its first FrozenFour appearance. Goalie Jared DeMichiel said the Tigers aren’t worried thatWisconsin is favored.
“You can call us underdog, overdog, you can call us Snoop Dogg if you want.We don’t really care,” he said.
