Wolverines post 4-2 win in latest edition of budding rivalry

By Michael Caples –

ANN ARBOR – A.J. Treais said that the match-up between the Wolverines and the RedHawks is becoming a rivalry because the players have made it that way.

Chalk up a win over a rival for the University of Michigan, then.

The Wolverines kicked off the CCHA regular season with a 4-2 win over Miami University Friday night in a game that featured plenty of hits, hacks, and pushing and shoving after whistles.

“We’ve built Miami-Michigan into a rivalry,” Treais said. “So you kind of expect that it is going to be a chippy game, you just have to accept it and play that way.”

The physical play didn’t bother the Wolverines’ captain, either. He scored his team’s first two goals – back-to-back tallies that took the game from 1-0 Miami to 2-1 Wolverines.

Mike Chiasson and Alex Guptill added third-period goals for the Wolverines after Treais jump-started the offense, and freshman goaltender Steve Racine made 30 saves to guide the No. 6 Wolverines to a win over the No. 3 team in the country.

“Well, it was a better game overall,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said after the game. “I thought we started well and finished well. The middle period was probably their period – we were lucky to come out of it tied. For the most part, we knew this was the kind of hockey we would see. It’s a hard-nosed, hard-fought game. We got the goals that we needed in the third period and (Steve) Racine made some big saves.”

Racine was perfect on all plays that originated in front of his crease; both of the Miami goals were results of turnovers below the Michigan goal line.

The RedHawks’ Cody Murphy started the scoring when Racine misplayed the puck behind his own goal, giving Jimmy Mullin an easy feed to Murphy for an empty-net goal at the 3:14 mark of the first period.

Treais’ first goal of the night came 14 minutes later, when he fired a one-timer from the middle of the blue line on a Wolverines power play that got through traffic and into the back of the net.

The Wolverines’ captain added his second goal in the second period, picking up the puck just outside the opposition’s zone, racing over the blue line, and firing a wrist shot through the defense from the left of the slot. It was Treais’ fifth goal of the season – in only four games played.

“I’ve kind of taken it upon myself the last few games (to score) and gotten lucky on a few shots,” Treais said. “But as a captain, you want to step up for your team. Everyone would want to score that goal.”

Washington, Mich., native Austin Czarnik, a sophomore forward for the RedHawks, capitalized on another miscue behind the Wolverines’ goal later in the second period. Fellow Michigan native Riley Barber – a Livonia product and National Team Development Program alum – stole the puck during an attempted pass, and nudged it to Czarnik, who came flying around the net to beat Racine to the goal.

It was one of a variety of plays that Berenson was not pleased with in the middle period.

“I thought we were in a rush to leave our zone, and a lot of times we were leaving it without the puck and expecting the puck to come,” the Wolverines’ bench boss said. “And maybe our D wasn’t making as good of plays, and maybe our forwards weren’t giving them good targets and good plays to make. So it was a combination of errors and it was really sloppy hockey. And then we came out in the third period, and it was like the hockey game started again.”

Chiasson ended up recording the game-winner for the Wolverines in the final period, capitalizing on a broken play.

“It was just kind of one of those plays where I was trying to dump the puck in, bounce back, got caught in my paraphernalia, dropped it down, chipped at Gupps, hit off his skate, ended up finding me and I just kind of chipped it in and just ended up beating him, heck of a play by Gupps,” Chiasson said in a long-winded explanation of the play.

Guptill recorded a goal of his own four minutes later, burying a rebound after an initial shot by Trouba.

From that point on, the Wolverines were able to preserve the two-goal lead.

“It’s something we’ve been priding ourselves on all year,” Chiasson said of his team’s defensive play in the third period. “We know our goalies are going to give us a chance every single night, and our defense has to make sure we’re not giving up second opportunities, and our forwards have been doing a great job getting pucks out. So it was definitely a good thing for us knowing we can keep coming up in big games like that.”