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OXFORD — Miami University hockey coach Enrico Blasi said his RedHawks "are capable of anything."

And he's right.

That includes kicking holes in conventional wisdom, the kind that says it's easier to win at home than on the road, or that you're more likely to win against unranked teams than against ranked teams.

Miami has been nothing if not unpredictable this season, which means anything can — and probably will — happen Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21-22, when the seventh-ranked RedHawks collide with the ninth-ranked Michigan Wolverines at Steve Cady Arena.

Miami's last eight games have been, well, unusual. During that span the RedHawks are 4-0-0 on the road against ranked teams (Notre Dame and Michigan State) and 1-2-1 at home against unranked teams (Alaska and Ferris State).

"We have a young team and it's not shocking to me," Blasi said of the team's up-and-down fortunes, which have been mainly on the rise.

"If you say in two of the eight games we didn't play well, that's not so bad," he added. "We're extremely happy with the way this team has grown in the last six weeks, yet we're still a work in progress."

The same might be said of the Wolverines, who hold a 66-18-3 advantage in their series with the RedHawks, including a 2-1 victory in last season's Central Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament championship game.

Michigan was defeated 2-1 last Friday, Nov. 14, by a Western Michigan team that had won only one previous contest.

On the other hand, the Wolverines do have the nation's second-leading scorer in sophomore Aaron Palushaj, who has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists).

Miami, meanwhile, has been a dominant team on the special teams phase of the game. The RedHawks lead the nation in penalty killing (96.1 percent) and rank second in the power play, having scored 22.9 percent of the time.

The RedHawks are in first place in the CCHA standings, five points ahead of Michigan and Ferris State, and could open some serious ground between themselves and the Wolverines with a sweep of the series.

Miami last swept Michigan at home in December of 2005, when the RedHawks won 4-2 and 4-3.

Sophomore Pat Cannone, who already has matched last season's goal total of six, is Miami's leading scorer with 16 points. Sophomore Carter Camper leads the CCHA in power-play points, and freshman goalies Connor Knapp and Cody Reichard have a combined goals-against average of 1.88.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.