59 Teams in 59 Days Miami

The 59 Teams in 59 Days tour continues with day number 30 as we head to Oxford, Ohio where the Miami Redhawks are featured.

Head Coach Enrico Blasi, last years National coach of the year, took the Redhawks from a middle of the pack CCHA team in 2004-2005, to a CCHA regular season championship in 2005-2006. This year the Redhawks will look to stay up their in the elite class with Michigan and Michigan State.

Miami only lost five Seniors from last year, which means they have a veteran team coming back. Ryan Jones, one of the assistant captains as a Sophomore last year, and will probably be the teams captain this year. Jones scored 22 goals last year after just eight in 2004-2005. He and linemate Nathan Jones (the teams leading scorer from last year) who also had 20 goals is one of the best one-two scoring duos in the country. Also look out for Defensmen Mitch Ganzak who lead the team in assists last year. He could be one of the sleepers to watch out for.

Defensively Miami looks strong. They return five players who saw varsity action last year including Ganzak, and classmate Brad Robbins, along with Sophomores, Raymond Eichenlaub, Alec Martinez, and Kevin Roeder.

Goaltending wise expect Junior Charlie Effinger, and Sophomore Jeff Zatkoff to split time once again. Combined the two went 28-9-4 and also combined for four shutouts (three for Zatkoff and one for Effinger). This is arguably the best one-two goaltending duos in the country.

Overall Miami not only looks like a CCHA championship competitor, but also could be a Frozen Four competitor come NCAA tournament time. This is probably the best team Blasi has had in his eighth season at Miami.

The predicted ceiling for the Redhawks is first in the CCHA, while their gutter is third.

The 59 Teams in 59 Days tour will continue a week from this coming Sunday. Why so? It's because I will be on vacation and the place im staying at is not wireless. But when we return with the tour, we will pick up with one of the most historic universities in college hockey and that is Michigan. Will this year be the year that Michigan gets their tenth National Title? Find out next Sunday as we make a stop to Ann Arbor on the 59 Teams in 59 Days tour as we hit day number 31.