March 22, 2015
Memorable Night For Coleman, Miami
Scores All 3 Goals as RedHawks Win Title; Gets Ejected
by Phil Ervin/CHN Reporter
(photo: Scott Pierson)
MINNEAPOLIS — Sometimes, punishment comes with a reward. Sometimes, humanity gets in the way of heroism.
Sometimes, the protagonist is also the villain.
Miami center Blake Coleman scored every goal in his team's 3-2, NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship game victory over St. Cloud State on Saturday night. Yet the only hat that came off afterward was his own.
The officials escorted Coleman off the ice following his vicious second-period hit that sent Huskies center Joe Rehkamp sprawling to the ground and earned Coleman a five-minute major for contact to the head, along with a game misconduct. The senior from Texas watched the final 25 minutes and 48 seconds alone in a makeshift coach's office on the Target Center's service level, glued to CBS Sports' broadcast before he was allowed to rejoin his teammates, dog-pile winning goalie Jay Williams, hear his named announced as the event's MVP and hoist the second-ever NCHC championship trophy.
"It was the most stressful game I think I've ever played in," a sweat-drenched, hoarse Coleman said after his team won college hockey's toughest conference -- a record-tying six teams advanced to next weekend's regionals, according to the Pairwise. "I don't ever want to be a coach, I don't think, because that was just absolutely terrible."
He'll be exiled again when the sixth-ranked RedHawks (25-13-1), who earned a No. 1 regional seed with their win, open NCAA tournament play.
Coleman's game misconduct was his third of the season. That comes with an automatic one-game suspension.
Miami forward Riley Barber was also hurt in the game, and was carried back on the ice with an ice pack on his ankle to join the celebration. That means Miami is facing the prospect of playing its first round NCAA tournament game without its top two goal scorers.
The folks in NCHC circles who regard Coleman -- who's been booked for contact to the head three times this winter and leads Miami with 99 penalty minutes, almost twice more than the average Division I collegiate player -- called it justice, both in the Target Center press box and on Twitter. RedHawks coach Enrico Blasi wouldn't call it anything, saying he only saw replays of Coleman's shove and that the team would move forward accordingly.
"It is what it is," Blasi, turning to the mother of all coachspeak utterances, said after his program's second-ever conference postseason crown.
Opinions aside, it's a matter of fact Coleman is a very good hockey player who has a future within the New Jersey Devils organization. It's just as true he possesses a mean streak that frequently gets the best of him.
But there's far more here than just a goal-scoring goon.
* * *
When Coleman first laced up skates at the age of 3, there was one ice rink within an hour of his family's home in Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb. By the time he joined the USHL's Indiana Ice, there were seven -- a result of the sport's burgeoning popularity following the Minnesota North Stars' relocation and rebranding as the Dallas Stars, who won a cup in 1999 and played for another in 2000.
Like NHL draftees Seth Jones, Austin Smith and Chris Brown before him, Coleman's a product of hockey's Texas two-step, too.
His grandmother, Marie Hoffman, grew up in New York and bought Stars season tickets. "No one else would go with her," Coleman said with a smile.
But little Blake would. And he became hooked.
Normally, blue-chip recruits that come out of the Metroplex end up in Austin, College Station, Lubbock or Waco, among other gridiron destinations. But unlike his father, who played football at Oklahoma State, Coleman never gravitated away from the ice.
Blasi coveted the raw skill and passion Coleman exerted during a season-plus with Indiana. In 2010-11, he finished with a plus-52 rating, the highest in USHL history since 2002, and earned league player of the year honors.
The Devils drafted him in the third round (75th overall) that year. Coleman also notched a scholarship to Miami -- 974 miles from Plano -- even though he initially had no idea where it was.
"I did not know Oxford was on a map," Coleman grinned. "I would've thrown a dart to try to find it. But I'm happy I ended up here, obviously."
So are the stakeholders in a program that's reached the NCAAs nine of the past 10 years but never won a national championship. The past four seasons, Coleman's morphed into a dynamite scoring threat who provides a grinder's edge from goal line to goal line.
Bouncing back from an injury that limited him to 27 games last season, he came into Saturday's bout tied for third on the team in scoring with 34 points.
"Since his injury last year," Blasi said, "he came back on a mission."
But somewhere along the way, Coleman picked up a propensity for less-than-reputable play. Oct. 25 against St. Lawrence, he was tossed for checking from behind. Oct. 7 at North Dakota, the same thing happened.
"I try to bring high energy and physical presence," Coleman said. "I think you've got to find a line, though. I think you're always kind of teetering on the line, but sometimes, you go over it, and that's just kind of comes with the game I play. But obviously trying to refrain from that and staying on the right side of that line has got to be a focus for me."
He glided right past it at the second period's 14:12 mark Saturday.
* * *
Fuming in front of the TV on Saturday night, at times wanting to pull his hair out, Coleman never shed his pads, jersey, socks or pants.
"I believe in those guys," Coleman said. "It's not the first time they've had my back."
The RedHawks did again, killing off Coleman's five-minute major and three more penalties as St. Cloud (19-18-1) sought to improve the national tournament standing it gained with a semifinal win Friday night against North Dakota.
The hit itself happened quickly. With Rehkamp coming up center ice into his attacking zone, Coleman sought to separate him from the puck but extended his arms into the Huskies senior's facemask.
"It was real bang-bang," Coleman said. "He was cutting to the middle. It was in a pretty good shooting area, and I just didn't want to give up an easy shot. I tried to make sure I kept my arms down and just use my shoulder and nothing else, but at the end of the day, I was in a vulnerable spot. It's on me to let up there."
Rehkamp lay on his front momentarily but was able to return to the game a few minutes later.
Like Blasi, St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko said he didn't get a good initial look at the play. He was more concerned with RedHawks right winger Andrew Schmit's hit on Tim Daly that drew a boarding call -- the most pronounced occurrence in a physical, gritty third period Coleman's ejection seemed to precipitate.
"At that time, he had a hat trick and was 14-2 on draws," Motzko said. "That's a senior. That was a big loss for them when he got knocked out of the game, because he was having an unbelievable night."
In addition to his faceoff prowess, Coleman netted his second career hat trick with a pair of one-timers -- the first out of the air on a toss from Riley Barber, the second on a power play setup by Austin Czarnik -- and a dirty-area deflection that made it 3-2 9:20 into the second period.
"It was a special (night), for sure, until he got that penalty," Czarnik, who like Coleman earned all-tournament accolades, said. "He was hot all night. After he scored his first one, I figured on the power play give it to him for another one. His third one, I don't know how that one went in."
When Coleman got back to the dressing room following the postgame festivities, the first person to call him was his grandmother -- the one who took him to the Reunion Arena to watch Brett Hull, Mike Modano and Derian Hatcher do their thing.
"She was glued to the TV," Coleman beamed. "She was more excited, I think, than me."
After he hung up the phone, still fully padded, Coleman stood outside in the Target Center hallway and faced the reality of his gallant but contentious night. The only way he'd wear the same threads again would be in a regional final game next weekend with a Frozen Four spot on the line.
Otherwise, it might've ended with him sitting watching that TV screen all by himself Saturday night. He'll evaluate his future with the Devils after the season, but that can wait, Coleman said.
First, 60 more minutes of penance.
"I believe in my teammates," Coleman reiterated, taking off his NCHC championship cap to agitatedly rub his fingers through his hair. "I know they're going to give it everything they've got. I've just got to hope that there's another game left for me in college."