Each week during the NCHC season MagnessMayhem.com will take a look at No. 11 Denver’s upcoming opponent. This week it’s Miami.

This weekend’s games

Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. at Magness Arena

Records

Miami 2-7-1, 2-6-1 NCHC (28 GF, 37 GA); Denver 6-4, 2-2 NCHC (42 GF, 30 GA)

Overview

Home is where the heart is, and it’s also where the goals are for Denver, which has scored 30 of its 44 in five home matches inside Magness Arena. Miami hasn’t been bad on the road, tallying 21 in seven road contests thus far. … The Red Hawks have road splits with Ferris State and Omaha, but are coming off a sweep at North Dakota. Miami managed five goals in the two losses at Grand Forks (Denver had a total of two in back-to-back defeats), so it’s capable of staying in games against the Pioneers’ again rising scoring supernova. … Seven players, led by senior defenseman Derek Daschke, have five or more points for the Red Hawks. … Denver has 10 players with at least that many points, headed by reigning NCHC forward of the week Carter Savoie, who rung up for more goals and an assist against No. 9 Western Michigan last weekend. Savoie has 17 points and 10 goals in 10 games. Sophomore goaltender Ludvig Persson gets most of the action in net and is 2-6-1 with a .889 saves percentage and a 3.47 goals-against average. He shut out the Pioneers in the second of two meeting at the Omaha Bubble last December. DU hung five goals on him in the first meeting. … This is Denver’s final series at home until it plays host to Alaska Fairbanks on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

DU trends

Our line starts? The popular thinking is Denver’s top line of Bobby Brink, Cole Guttman and Savoie does all the heavy lifting on the stat sheet. Not true. While that trio has 17 goals already, the second line of freshmen Massimo Rizzo and Carter Mazur and graduate transfer Cameron Wright has 15. Rizzo’s six goals are second only to Savoie, Wright has five, including three in the past four games, and Mazur also struck twice last weekend and was selected the NCHC’s rookie of the week.

Send in the offensemen: DU favors defensemen who can push the play, and they have plenty of them this season. Not only does freshman Sean Behrens have a team-high 10 assists, but sophomore Mike Benning has four goals among his seven points. Three others have four points. And the presumptive top six has 32 points combined.

Meanwhile in net: Goaltender Magnus Chrona has allowed more than three goals just once in nine starts, and two or fewer in four of those. He’s also gone long stretches without seeing much action. He’s faced as many as 30 shots just once, and he’s faced 22 or fewer five times. Denver’s puck possession game is … well … obviously possessing the puck a lot.

©First Line Editorial 2021