Miami OT strike downs Air Force
A year after Miami of Ohio stunned top-seeded New Hampshire to win its first NCAA Tournament game, the RedHawks, the No. 1 seeds in the Northeast Regional, had to scramble late against an Air Force squad trying to reverse the roles.
"This should not be surprising," Miami coach Enrico Blasi said.
Freshman forward Carter Camper forced overtime with a power-play goal late in the third and Justin Mercier capped the come-from-behind win with a tally at 15:21 of overtime, giving the RedHawks a 3-2 victory. Miami (33-7-1) will play Boston College, a 5-2 winner over Minnesota in the other semifinal, in today's final.
"Any shift you step out there is desperation," Mercier said. "Definitely overtime, when it's one shot."
Fourth-seeded Air Force was riding a hot streak, scoring 27 goals in its last five games, and unbeaten in nine, while Miami was coming off a 2-1 overtime win over Notre Dame and a 2-1 loss to Michigan.
The thing with desperation, though, is knowing how to handle it. And despite being down to a team that typically keeps its opponents down, the RedHawks found a way out and into the final.
"There hasn't been any panic in this team all season," Blasi said. "You look at this team and they don't crack under pressure."
Miami came out guns blazing, scoring just 19 seconds into the game. Freshman forward Tommy Wingels skated almost freely down the left side and buzzed a puck past Andrew Volkening, one of his few vulnerable moments in a 30-save performance.
The plan, according to Air Force coach Frank Serratore, was to get off to a good start.
"That wasn't what I categorize as a good start," he said. "We had to go to plan B."
That plan got the Falcons (21-12-6) ahead, 2-1, on second-period goals by freshman Derrick Burnett and senior Josh Print.
But the plan started to backfire when Miami capitalized on a too-many-men penalty, tying the game on Camper's score with 6:16 left in regulation.
"You have to be careful in those situations," Serratore said. "If you do things like that, you give the linesman an opportunity to get in the game, and you can't do that."
Serratore watched his team give away an advantage for the second straight season (Minnesota knocked Air Force out of the tournament last year with a come-from-behind win).
"I will take this to my grave," he said. "As proud as I am of my players, you just don't know when you're going to get that opportunity again, and if you do, what are the chances of having a No. 1 seed, a top-two team in the country, down?"
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.
