The Miami University RedHawks broke a scoreless tie by scoring three goals in a span of 5:36 in the second period, including a pair of power-play goals by junior defenseman Louie Belpedio, and freshman Ryan Larkin made 33 saves as the RedHawks coasted to a 5-0 victory over the University of Maine at Steve Cady Arena Saturday night.
Miami, which plays in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, improved to 2-1-2 while Maine fell to 3-2-1.
Maine was without senior captain Cam Brown. Maine coach Red Gendron wouldn’t comment on speculation that Brown was injured.
Miami senior left wing Anthony Louis, who had a pair of goals in Friday night’s 3-3 tie, opened the scoring 3:42 into the middle period before Belpedio scored his goals 4:11 apart.
Maine sophomore defenseman Rob Michel was in the penalty box for each of Belpedio’s goals.
Scott Dornbrock expanded the lead 6:41 into the third period and Kiefer Sherwood capped the scoring 2:33 later.
Louis gave the RedHawks a lead they would never relinquish when he worked a give-and-go with Josh Melnick before beating Maine goalie Rob McGovern with a short wrister.
Belpedio expanded the lead just 25 seconds later when his screened shot from the point slipped past McGovern.
Louis and Carson Meyer assisted on the goal.
Belpedio made it 3-0 on another shot from the point with Sherwood and Meyer picking up the assists.
Dornbrock converted a two-on-two in a four-on-four situation. Sherwood made the pass over to him and he tapped it into the empty net.
McGovern was then replaced by 6-foot-8 freshman Stephen Mundinger, who made his college debut. He wound up stopping seven of the eight shots after McGovern had made 28 saves on 32 shots.
“We played a pretty good first period but then we got into penalty trouble again,” Gendron said. “We have to be better when it comes to [not] taking penalties.”
“We need to figure that out. It keeps biting us,” UMaine senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Schurhamer said.
“We generated enough offense five-on-five but we didn’t score,” Gendron said. “Their goalie played well.
“We made a bunch of mistakes and they cost us, including penalties,” added Gendron whose team gave the RedHawks eight power-play chances for the second straight night.
Maine went 0-for-6 on the power play and 0-for-9 on the weekend, while Miami went 3-for-16 and now has nine power play goals through its first five games.
Maine has now failed to score on its last 13 power-play chances.
Miami has killed off 29 consecutive power plays.
“There was an accumulation of little mistakes that piled up for us,” Schurhamer said. “We gave them odd-man rushes. We were five seconds too late picking up guys [on the backcheck]. There was a domino effect.”
Schurhamer and Byron said the Black Bears have to establish more of a net-front presence and screen the goalie.
“[Larkin] saw a lot of our shots,” Schurhamer said. “We’ve got to do a better job [screening] in front. We made him look good.”
Larkin made 17 Grade-A (high-percentage) saves among his 33. He made nice saves off Malcolm Hayes and Nolan Vesey to preserve his shutout.
Hayes took the puck to the net after coming out of the corner with it and Vesey used a burst of speed to maneuver in on Larkin only to have him make the stop.
McGovern had 13 Grade-A saves among his 28 and Mundinger made four.
Sherwood had two assists to go with his goal and Meyer finished with three assists.
Maine will visit 0-3-2 Colgate University in New York for a pair of games next weekend.