Location is everything

Miami (Ohio) right up there

Miami's Mitch Ganzak (left) and Nino Musitelli will try to push aside Air Force in a Northeast Regional semifinal today. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

WORCESTER - There are no alligators at this Miami. No hurricanes, either. "You mean we're not in Florida?" coach Enrico Blasi says, in mock surprise.

Miami University, not to be confused with the University of Miami, is in Oxford, Ohio, 35 miles north of Cincinnati, and it's been there since 1809. "Miami was a University when Florida belonged to Spain," the campus T-shirt proclaims. Poet Robert Frost called it "the most beautiful college there is."

Miami is one of only four schools that has produced both a US president (Benjamin Harrison) and a winning Super Bowl quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger). It's had a varsity hockey team since 1978, and has been a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association since 1981. And this season, the RedHawks were ranked No. 1 in the land for 10 weeks.

"I think the people in the hockey world know exactly where we're located," says Blasi, whose second-ranked squad (32-7-1) takes on 20th-ranked Air Force (21-11-6) this afternoon in the NCAA Northeast Regional at DCU Center. "You talk to the people at any of the 59 Division 1 programs and they know where Miami is."

The RedHawks haven't been hard to find since October, when they won their first eight games to soar to the top spot and were 25-3 at winter break. Now, they're a regional top seed and one of the most respected raptors in the field.

"We watched a lot of their film, and that movie can be categorized as a nightmare," says Air Force coach Frank Serratore. "If they have some weaknesses, we didn't see them."

Miami boasts the nation's best offense (4.08 goals per game), second-best defense (1.80), and the best penalty killers (.896, with seven shorthanders), and captain Ryan Jones (47 points with 30 goals) is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. "Our philosophy all year has been to have fun," says Blasi, "with everyone living in the moment and playing each day as if it was our last."

Because from here on, it could be. The RedHawks dropped last weekend's CCHA tournament final to top-ranked Michigan after winning seven games in a row, but already had a top seed sewn up. If they lose today, to a Falcon team that has a nation's-longest nine-game unbeaten streak, the best season in their history pops like a red balloon.

"As a 1 seed, we can't look past Air Force," acknowledges Jones, "because we did the exact same thing to New Hampshire last year."

Last year Miami was the No. 4 seed, coming off three losses and playing the top-seeded Wildcats on their home ice in Manchester, where everyone was looking forward to a UNH-Boston College final. Instead, the RedHawks, who'd never won an NCAA Tournament game, scored on their first shot and went on to win, 2-1.

Miami ran into a BC buzz saw in the final, but it had opened eyes nationwide. "People are always questioning this team and this program and even this school," says Jones. "I think we proved to a lot of people last year that we can beat anybody."

The next milestone is getting to a Frozen Four, which BC and Minnesota, tonight's other regional pairing, do frequently. "Experience is everything," Blasi said after the Eagles tattooed his team last year. "We just have to keep getting here."

With 20 lettermen returning for this season, the odds of a regional reprise seemed terrific. The only question was whether Miami could hang on to its top people - Jones, fellow forward Nathan Davis, and goaltender Jeff Zatkoff. All of them were tempted to sign NHL contracts - Jones with the Wild, Davis with the Blackhawks, Zatkoff with the Kings. All of them decided to stick around.

"All three of them agonized about leaving the team," says Blasi. "It wasn't about money. It wasn't about the NHL. It was about leaving the team."

At Miami, the team is regarded as "The Brotherhood" and its fraternal bond runs deep. "It's about being the best in everything we do," says Jones. "In schoolwork, in community service, in the daily process of hockey. It keeps us tightly knit."

When the three players decided to stay, it was a huge emotional boost for their teammates, who came charging out of the gate and never looked back.

"Guys like that who could leave and don't," muses Blasi. "It says that it's OK to play your senior year and have fun doing it. The NHL will always be there. If you're a good player, you'll make it. But you can only have your college days once."

Except for a modest 0-3-1 dip in February, the RedHawks have had a dream season, including a sweep of defending national champion Michigan State at East Lansing. Yet they still finished second to Michigan (by a point) in the league standings and in the tournament (by a goal).

That's testimony to how competitive the CCHA, once considered the West's "other league" behind the WCHA, has become. "There are no easy games," says Blasi, whose squad was losing to Notre Dame with four seconds left in the tournament semifinals before surviving in overtime.

Nor are there from today forward. "Every team in this tournament can win the championship," says Blasi. BC, which won in 2001, has reached the last two finals and five in the past decade. Minnesota has claimed two of the last six titles. And Air Force led the Gophers by two goals with less than nine minutes to play last year. "I don't think we'll see Minnesota looking past us," says Serratore.

That's been Blasi's point to his players all week - Air Force is who we were last year. "Our guys know what they need to do," he says. "There's no need to warn them."

That's where familiarity helps.

"Just being here," says Zatkoff. "Being in this situation before."

After seven years of sitting home as the crocuses bloom, the RedHawks now have made the tournament four times in five years. Twice they've played here and once in Manchester, prompting Blasi to joke that Miami should open a satellite campus out East.

This is how what Serratore calls hockey's "BCS schools" do it. They point for April every year, they're always in the tournament, and they usually find a way to get to the Frozen Four. "It's like going to bowl games," BC coach Jerry York said last year, after the Eagles had advanced yet again. "It's a little bit self-perpetuating."

That's where the RedHawks want to be, and getting out of here and up to Denver is the next step. Winning an NCAA title would go a long way toward ending any remaining confusion about the two Miamis. The only ice at the Coral Gables version is found in a mojito.