Miami RedHawks Get Down to Business

WASHINGTON -- Enrico Blasi believes in mission statements to the point that he probably doesn't eat breakfast without figuring out how that bowl of cereal fits into his 10-year plan.

And while Miami University is just the second No. 4 seed to advance to college hockey's national title game, the coach has no room for Cinderella in his mission statement.

So don't even mention that fictional princess. Heck, don't mention any princess. Don't hand him any lines about glass skates or being happy to be here. He'll smash everyone of them like he's taking a baseball bat to that famous slipper.

Enrico Blasi's mission statement is only about being the best. Every moment. Every breath. Every day. Cinderella had a night. Blasi wants a program.

"We approached this week in preparation to play our best," Blasi said after his RedHawks thumped sentimental favorite Bemidji State, 4-1, in the opening game of the Frozen Four, a tilt tabbed The Battle of Two Cinderellas. "That's what our program stands for. That's our culture. We want to be the best we can be every day. We're responsible and accountable to each other. It's as simple as that."

If anything stands out about this Miami hockey team, it's how professionally it dissected the Beavers, less like it was playing a fluid hockey game and more like it was step by step solving a less-than-complex equation.

You had to look no further than the dais after the game to realize these Hawks run like a business, at least, back in a time when running like a business was something to aspire to.

Hockey players are known for overgrown beards, missing teeth and, generally speaking, personal hygiene somewhere just to the unkempt side of a grizzly bear, but about half an hour after they finished disposing of Bemidji State, the three RedHawks seniors at the dais looked like they were ready for a board meeting, already groomed and decked out in suits.

There were smiles in the locker room and pats on the back amid the snazzy suits and ties, but nothing resembling the wild celebration of a team headed to its first national championship game in any sport in school history.

Maybe because their 37 year-old coach, who looks boyish enough to strap on skates and hop on the top line, realizes that the future of his program lies in all the championship banners the NCAA hung over the Verizon Center ice and not the rows of sweaters lining the hallway to the locker room, one for every participant in Division I.

For Blasi, celebrating now would be like planting a flag halfway up Everest.


The RedHawks have twice advanced as far as the regional final and will likely have little deference for finals opponent Boston University, a four-time national champion hockey behemoth that would check Goliath into the boards and then drop the gloves on the big boy without thinking twice.

But if the RedHawks' all-business approach against Bemidji State is any indication, the Terriers could be a chew toy for this motivated squad.

"Our team has always had a personality that we can be as good as anybody in the country," said senior Bill Loupee, who tipped in the pivotal third goal on Thursday night. "[Coach Blasi] has instilled that in all of us."

Belief took a backseat to talent and planning in the win over Bemidji. When the Beavers wanted to run, the RedHawks might as well have turned the water to ice and left them without a set of flippers. When the Beavers hit, the RedHawks took it and served it back even harder. When the first period ended scoreless, Blasi put more traffic in front of the net than nearby car-clogged Constitution Avenue. The RedHawks kept coming and coming and coming, and that was just in the pregame skate.

So, shortly into the second period came one goal, then two goals, then a third. And the victory celebration was already starting, at least in the Miami corner of the stands.

On the ice, it was strictly business until the sound of the final horn bounced around the Verizon center the way ever so many pucks had in front of Bemidji's State's pipes. Miami outshot the Beavers 21-12 over the final two periods and played the third all but hemmed in the offensive zone.

"Once we scored that first goal, you could see that everybody got loose and started to play our game a little bit and then we scored our second one," Blasi said. "Even when they made it 2-1 our guys were focused. And then obviously the third goal was huge."

And, should you ask them, the RedHawks will tell you they owe it all to a series of losses -- the two in the regional finals the past two seasons, and most importantly, the three-game series loss to Northern Michigan in the CCHA quarterfinals.

"Who would have ever thought that losing to Northern in the CCHA playoffs would have been good for our team?" Loupee asked. "But, I mean, it's really helped us experience what the loss and the season end would mean and now we're trying to avoid it. We're playing for something huge now and its' great."

For the moment, the fans at least will enjoy a historic moment for the university. The school's president, David C. Hodge stood draped in a pristine white Miami University jersey. He couldn't have been beaming with more pride if every kid out there was his grandson.

"It's just a great tournament," he said to a group of reporters. "But all I did was cheer."

So now the RedHawks prepare for the Terriers, a team Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon called the best in the nation all year, after the Terriers dumped his Catamounts 5-4.

But don't expect upstart Miami to be intimidated. Like all the Cinderella fawning, stage fright just isn't part of the mission statement.