From Miami to Florida: two RedHawks’ paths to Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning

AMES RADWAN

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Despite these last few years, which can only be described as rocky, Miami University’s men’s hockey team has a long and rich history of turning out amazing players.

In the history of Miami’s hockey program, six former RedHawks have gone on to win Stanley Cups. They include Dan Boyle in 2004, Kevyn Adams in 2006, Alec Martinez in 2012 and 2014, Jeff Zatkoff in 2016, Mitch Korn (who coached, rather than played, at Miami) in 2018 and Blake Coleman in 2020 and 2021.

Of these six Cup winners, allow your attention to be drawn to the first and sixth: Dan Boyle (2004) and Blake Coleman (2020/2021). Despite the years between their graduations and their Stanley Cups, Miami’s least and most recent Stanley Cup winners have something in common other than the fact that they’ve both been talented and fortunate enough to hoist hockey’s most prestigious trophy.

Both Boyle and Coleman won all of their Stanley Cups (three, combined) with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Beyond that, these are the only three Stanley Cups ever won by the Lightning in their 32 years of franchise history.

The team has never won a Stanley Cup without a Miami RedHawk alumnus playing for it.

“It is a team sport, but I like to think I was a pretty important part of winning that Cup,” Boyle said of his experience winning the Cup with the Lightning in 2004. “I think the reason why we won is that we were a tightknit group off the ice. You can be a good player, but you have to be a good person, too.”

The Lightning appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015 and 2022, where they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Colorado Avalanche, respectively. Neither the 2015 team nor the 2022 team had a RedHawk alum on the roster.

In fact, Boyle and Coleman are the only two RedHawks to have ever played with the Lightning.

This means that the RedHawks and the Lightning have a stellar record when paired together — when it comes to Stanley Cups, at least. The only other team with such a record is the Carolina Hurricanes (with Kevyn Adams, the only RedHawk alum to have ever played on that team).

What makes the connection between the RedHawks and the Lightning so infallible (up to this point, at least)? Goggin Ice Arena, the RedHawks’ home base, and Amalie Arena, where the Lightning play, are a 959mile drive apart — so how do two separate Miami alumni end up winning Stanley Cups with the same team?

Part of this connection is simply the players themselves.

Boyle, for instance, was always known as the underdog — or, quite literally, the smaller one. A man standing at 5-foot-11 may not be seen as short off the ice, but in hockey, size is sometimes seen as everything — a stereotype that Boyle worked tirelessly to shatter both during his time at Miami (1994-1998) and after.

“I’d hoped [to go pro], but it was never something that I truly thought about or could see myself doing,” Boyle said. “I was told I was going to be too small to make it, so I wasn’t overly anxious on the idea that I was going to get drafted.”

Sure enough, Boyle went undrafted after his graduation from Miami.

On the other hand, Coleman’s journey to the Cup began with a draft before he even became a RedHawk.

Drafted into the New Jersey Devils as a prospect in the 2011 draft — much like current RedHawks Logan Neaton and Red Savage are prospects for the Winnipeg Jets and the Detroit Red Wings, respectively — Coleman played for Miami from 2011 to 2015.

Coleman’s coach during his time at Miami, former RedHawk coach Enrico Blasi, is still one of his biggest fans.

“[Coleman was] very competitive, skilled, [a] very good skater and hardnosed to play against,” Blasi wrote in an email to The Miami Student. “Blake always had a very competitive spirit and wanted to do well. [The] value to play for something bigger than yourself allowed guys like Blake [to] move on to the NHL being prepared not only physically but emotionally and intellectually.”

Coleman also had the opportunity to play in the new Goggin Ice Center, which was built in 2006 — an experience that Boyle, playing in the old Goggin Ice Arena, never got. But there were other similarities and differences between the two. Despite both standing at 5-foot-11, Coleman was drafted — and Boyle wasn’t.

But that didn’t stop Boyle from pursuing his dream. After playing three seasons with the Florida Panthers organization — two in the American Hockey League and one in the NHL — the defenseman was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he eventually won the Cup just one season later, his second with the Bolts.

“[The Lightning] was the last-place team in the League when I got there,” Boyle said, “but we won the Cup in two years. I’m proud of the turnaround. We all accomplished something that you don’t see in professional sports very often.”

This turnaround was, in part, thanks to Boyle. Hockey is a team sport, of course, but Boyle led the Lightning’s defensemen in points with 39 (nine goals and 30 assists) in the 2004 season.

This is an abridged version. To read the full story visit miamistudent. net