Sharp-Dressed Miami Hurricanes Win Big at Nationals

WEST CHESTER, Pa.– Last year, the Miami Hurricanes hockey team entered a national jersey design contest.

Sunday night, the Hurricanes made their debut in the jerseys which won the contest — and they played as good as they looked. 

Miami took another step toward the medal round at the AAU College Hockey national championships with a 4-2 win over Rochester. 

The Hurricanes are the top seed in the Division III tournament. 

Despite the fresh look, the Hurricanes did not get off to a clean start.

It was a parade of penalties in the first, and just over four minutes in, Miami got called for having too many skaters.

Did not matter. The Hurricanes continued to score while shorthanded; Elian Estulin came in on a breakaway along the left side and got it past Jack Collings to make it 1-0. It was Estulin’s 11th goal in as many games this season.

In the second, it was Rochester getting tagged by the officials and Miami scored a pair of power-play goals. 

Just under two minutes in, Brenden Moore scored his first goal of the tournament to make it 2-0.

Miami gave up its first goal of the tournament when Aaron Maguyon scored at 14:48 of the second to make it 2-1. 

Only the Hurricanes got their two-goal lead back with 1:31 remaining in the second when Mathieu Schneider came in on the right side and received a beautiful pass through the crease from Raymond Owens on the left. 

That goal stood as the game-winner.

The two teams traded jabs in the third. Eric Morrell scored his third of the tournament to bring the teams back to 3-2 with 11:59 left in regulation, but with 9:10 left and a penalty forthcoming, Devon Mussio ripped a shot from the right point.

The Hurricanes look to make it a clean sweep of the opening round against Stony Brook Monday at 2 p.m.

AROUND THE RINK

Two champions were crowned, and both in new divisions on Sunday.

   – Paul Smith’s College, a small school in upstate New York, edged out Tampa 4-2 in the women’s final. 

Leah Coulombe scored the game-winner for Paul Smith’s.

  – South Carolina beat Buffalo 4-1 to win the DI title. 

After a scoreless first period, Buffalo’s Alec Dobinski scored 12:44 into the second to give them their only lead. 

It was short-lived, as Jake Puskar scored for the Gamecocks to even the score at 9:17, and just over two minutes later, John Riggins scored what would become the game-winner. They never looked back, with two third-period goals, while Tyler Temoyan stopped 24 of 25 shots he faced.

 – In a tournament shocker, Florida Southern fell Sunday night to Quincy College. The upstart Granite used four third-period goals to secure the win, with Aiden Flynn knocked home the GWG.

 – FAU survived yet another scare and will be the top seed going into Tuesday’s DII quarterfinals after defeating Penn State University-Harrisburg 4-2. 

Backed by pairs of goals by Myles Davidson and Matias Weir, the Owls mounted a comeback from down 2-1. They scored the game’s final three goals, including Weir’s two goals in succession with less than 6:00 to play in the final frame.

– Evan Edwards scored twice for the Florida Gators as they took care of Mass-Maritime Academy 5-0. 

Connor Lee pitched the shutout in net, and Evan Edwards scored twice. Florida finishes a perfect 3-0 in pool play and advances to the quarterfinals.

– Embry-Riddle will not be advancing to the knockout stage of the tournament, but they did get a feel-good win to end their run, defeating Ramapo College 10-1. They put up 47 shots in the rout, including 19 in the third period alone.

– UCF’s bold strategy of playing the final 18 minutes of the game with an empty net almost paid off, but they fell 5-3 to High Point University, and were eliminated from the knockout round. The Knights got two goals in the third, but Jack Slayton scored the GWG (in the second), and added an empty-net goal to ice the game for High Point, who improved to a perfect 3-0.

– Tampa’s run ended Sunday, as their men’s DII team was eliminated with a 6-3 loss to Tennessee. 

Mitchell Spranklin had a hat trick and now has eight goals in the tournament for the Vols.