During the course of the Midwest Regional two weeks ago, Bemidji State kept themselves in games with an extremely aggressive forechecking and backchecking strategy, not leaving a lot of room for creativity, making an extremely frustrating weekend for Notre Dame and Cornell. And once they gained control of the game, it was the Beavers’ top line of Tyler Scofield, Matt Read and Matt Francis who were there to capitalize on any mistakes that the pressure created by their system caused.

Scofield, Read and Francis — whose line was responsible for six of Bemidji State’s nine goals in Grand Rapids — got a taste of their own medicine Thursday, when Miami’s aggressive team defense held them to just one goal in a win that sent the Redhawks to the title game.

Happy and they know it: The RedHawks celebrate Alden Hirshfeld's second-period goal.

“You never really have a definite answer when your line is not going like you expect it to,” Scofield said. “They did a good job taking away our speed through the neutral zone. I don’t remember too many times where we had great speed coming into their zone, and we were just having a tough time hitting each other tonight.”

The Beavers started off with a strong performance in the first period, matching Miami shot for shot and establishing a level of control that resembled the regional win over Cornell. But the Redhawks took control of the game in the second period, using their depth and size advantage to gain the upper hand.

Miamie coach Enrico Blasi said that there weren’t any grand adjustments that they talked about in the locker room during the first intermission. Instead, it was the team — which often talks of the “Brotherhood” that Blasi has worked to establish in Oxford — that re-bonded and collectively put their physical nature to work.

“We’re a physical team,” Blasi said. “And when we’re on, we’re finishing checks and we’re doing a good job defensively and we’re getting pucks deep. We’re a good puck possession team, which, again, if we’re on, we’re wearing teams down because we’re playing well. That happened tonight.”

The re-focused RedHawks quickly found the change to their advantage, when forward Tommy Wingels scored just under four minutes into the period. Finding himself in open space, Wingels shot the puck to Bemidji State goaltender Matt Dalton’s stick side from the left wing, showing a flash of offensive flair that reminded onlookers that Miami game beat opponents in many different ways.

“You know, we like to play both,” Wingels said. “I thought it was something we did real well today, absorbing their speed in the neutral zone, which led to our good transitional game. Our defense made plays up the middle, off the boards, whoever is open. It all stems off forwards backchecking and our D not jumping on the puck right away, backing off.”

— James V. Dowd

DALTON SHINES IN LOSS

Bemidji State goalie Matt Dalton stopped 33 shots in the Beavers' 4-1 loss to Miami Thursday.

After a regular season in which he led College Hockey America in goals against and minutes played and held Notre Dame and Cornell to a combined two goals in the NCAA Midwest Regional, Bemidji State sophomore goaltender Matt Dalton couldn’t hold off the RedHawks in the Frozen Four semi-finals.

After being stopped on three key glove saves in the later stages of the first period, the RedHawks tallied one even-strength and power-play goal five minutes apart over the first half of the second.

Both teams were No. 4 seeds and making their first appearance in the Frozen Four, but the Clinton, Ontario, native shrugged off nerves being a factor. “I think we were ready,” said Dalton, who was ranked the top goaltender recruit prior to the 2007-08 season by INCH. “I don’t think we came in any different than we did last weekend; the bounces just didn’t go our way and they played well.

“Once I got a few shots I felt fine. I remember coming out for the second period and I was thinking I’m playing in the Verizon Center and on ESPN, but other than that I tried to stay focused and not hype it up any more than any other game. I was seeing the puck well and those (the glove saves) are saves I should make.”

From the beginning, the crowd seemed pro-Beavers, which could have largely been due to the media frenzy of the tournament’s 16th-seeded team winning two games in the NCAA playoffs.

“We don’t think we’re a Cinderella story,” Dalton said outside the Beavers locker room. “We think we’re good enough to be here and deserve to be here. We beat Notre Dame and Cornell — two pretty good hockey teams and have been playing well the last few months of the season.

“I thought I had a pretty good year, but there are always a few goals I would have liked to have back especially at the start of the year where it took a while to get into a rhythm. It’s an emotional time —it’s the last time we’re going to play with some of these guys and we’ve been through a lot this year.

“It’s great for a small town and the community. It’s great for our team tradition and recruiting. Right now it hasn’t really sunk in, but I’m sure a couple of weeks we’ll sit back and look at it all and see that it was a helluva season. But right now we felt we were just as good as the other teams here. I’m sure when we get back we’ll have a meeting and by that time it will have soaked in and we’ll be in better spirits.”

— Warren Kozireski

ADAMS FROM NOWHERE TO FROZEN IN 13 MONTHS

In early March of last season, Bemidji State defenseman Ryan Adams was finishing up the regular season with Wayne State … literally, as the Warriors closed their program after the 2007-09 campaign.

That left Wayne State’s underclassmen searching for new homes to ply their trades and for Adams, the green and white came calling.

Advance to April 2009 and Adams has gone from the roster of a team closing its locker room forever to a sister-CHA squad that became the first from the fledging conference to win two NCAA playoff games.

“It was a bit of a tough issue last year trying to find a new place to play, but it gave me an opportunity to come a great hockey team with a great coaching staff and a great group of guys.

“I appreciate what Wayne State did for me last year. I was talking with Bemidji a bit all year and a few teams were in the mix, but I’m definitely glad I made the choice to come here. It was a little bit like junior hockey again last year trying to impress college teams.”

— Warren Kozireski

SEEN AND HEARD AT VERIZON

• Bemidji State junior defenseman Graham McManamin did not make the trip to D.C. for what a team spokesman called “personal reasons.” Graham’s mother, Mary Lynn, passed away March 12 in Anchorage. McManamin missed the College Hockey America tournament upon his mother’s passing, but was in the BSU lineup for both of the Beavers’ wins in the Midwest Regional.

• The Verizon Center’s video boards kept the Bemidji State bench entertained during one of the first-period television timeouts. As a national audience on ESPN2 watched commercials, fans in the arena were treated to a montage of BSU highlights, which caught the eye of most of the players on the Beaver bench. For the record, the Miami players were attentive viewers when their highlight package was played in house.

• Also caught on the video board during one of the TV timeouts: Denver coach George Gwozdecky, who was seated among a throng of cheering Miami fans. Gwozdecky, a former Miami bench boss, coached current RedHawk skipper Enrico Blasi when he skated in Oxford, and Blasi was a member of Gwozdecky’s staff in Denver.

• BSU goaltender Matt Dalton may be just a sophomore, but he’s the elder statesmen among Frozen Four netminders. Dalton made his 35th career start this evening against Miami - all but four of them coming this season. Boston University’s Kieran Millan made career start no. 34 tonight against Vermont. The Catamounts’ Rob Madore and Miami’s Cody Reichard have 29 and 19 career starts, respectively, to their credit.

• Credit Bemidji State sophomore forward Ryan Cramer for returning to the Beavers’ lineup this season after suffering a knee injury during Feb. 19 game at Niagara that put him on the shelf for seven games, including two exhibition matches against the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 team and the College Hockey America tournament. In NCAA Tournament games, the International Falls, Minn., product had one assist.

• The Colorado Avalanche has the most prospects competing in this year’s Frozen Four. Three Boston University skaters — Colby Cohen, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Brandon Yip — and Miami forward Justin Mercier are Avs property.

Four teams — Anaheim, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Toronto — each have two draft picks skating in the Frozen.

• Bemidji State entered the Frozen Four with a 20-15-1 record and a .569 winning percentage. That’s the lowest win percentage for a Frozen Four qualifier since 1980, when Cornell brought 16-13-0 (.552) mark to Providence.

• The 4-1 decision marked Bemidji State’s first loss on neutral ice this season. In addition to beating Notre Dame and Cornell in the Midwest Regional two weeks ago, the Beavers beat UMass at the Ledyard National Bank Classic in Hanover, N.H., on Dec. 28.

• With the win, Miami becomes the first Ohio-based school to advance to the title game since Jerry York coached Bowling Green to the 1984 national title. The last Ohio school to make a Frozen Four appearance was Ohio State in 1998.

• Speaking of Bowling Green, former Falcon George McPhee, now general manager of the Washington Capitals, was featured on the Verizon video board during one of the commercial break highlighting Hobey Baker Award winners from the past. McPhee, who won the Hobey in 1982, received a warm round of applause from the D.C. hockey fans in attendance.

PLUSSES AND MINUSES

Credit the George Mason pep band for not only stepping in for the Bemidji State pep band — which couldn’t make the trip to Washington D.C. because of a “prior commitment,” which is a pretty sketchy explanation in our opinion — but also embracing the opportunity.

The band, led by flamboyant director Dr. Michael “Doc Nix” Nickens, not only played the BSU fight song and other standards, but also led cheers for the Beaver faithful. Following the game, BSU fans gave the Green Machine a hearty salute, and some supporters even went out of their way to shake hands with Doc Nix.

There were a bunch of empty seats in the house when the puck dropped on the first semifinal, but those were mostly filled in by the time the second period in the Bemidji State-Miami game started. All things considered, it was a nice crowd in attendance.

It’s nice to have energy in the building, but the Verizon Center public address announcer could stand to tone down the shouting just a bit. Fans who heard his Ray Clay-esque stylings may have thought they were at a monster-truck show, not an NCAA event.

Bemidji State’s band couldn’t make the trip to Washington D.C., so the school had to summon the services of the George Mason pep band. Miami sent its pep band, which played songs fans know as Michigan and Michigan State pep band standards. Maybe develop your own repertoire?

WHAT’S NEXT

It’ll be a Hockey East opponent for the RedHawks when they face the winner of the second semifinal between Miami and Boston University. Miami has almost been anonymous through most of the tournament but will get the game’s biggest spotlight Saturday night at Verizon Center.

Bemidji State won’t be unknown any longer and return many key players next year, including standout goalie Matt Dalton. They’ll be in the news regarding league affiliation and will be long-remembered for the great run they had in the 2009 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.