Strong special teams and an offensive burst from Cody Murphy helped create some Miami University hockey history Friday night at Steve Cady Arena.

Murphy tallied a pair of power-play goals, ending a personal scoring drought that lasted nearly two months, as the RedHawks topped Bowling Green 2-1 and gave coach Enrico Blasi his 300th career win.

“I didn’t even think of it until I saw my picture up on the clock,” said Blasi, who is 300-190-53 in 14 seasons on the MU bench. “The guys surprised me with the game puck, and looking back, there’s a lot of good memories.

“I guess it’s just a number, but it represents a lot of things that have happened over the last 14 years. A lot of good people and great coaches and great support from not only our fans, but our administration. It really just boils down to the players, all the guys leading up to this, and then obviously this team is a special team, and I said that to them. We’ve had some pretty good players that have made me look good and made our program look good for sure.”

The historic win wasn’t easy. It was a tough, defensive-minded affair between Central Collegiate Hockey Association rivals, and the RedHawks had to rally from a 1-0 deficit.

Goaltender Jay Williams gave up a deflected goal by Mark Cooper with 3:24 left in the opening period, then Murphy scored twice in the first nine minutes of the second stanza.

Murphy hadn’t found the back of the net since Nov. 30. The sophomore came to Friday’s press conference wearing a Miami warrior shield, a recent addition to the program.

“Every game that we win in regulation, there’s a warrior award,” Murphy said. “It was originally passed out by the coach, but then whoever wins it passes it along. I won it tonight for the first time and I’m awfully proud of it, as you can already tell. I’ll probably sleep like this tonight. It’s pretty sweet.”

The Highwood, Ill., native admitted it’s been a frustrating stretch between goals.

“One of my responsibilities on the team is to do that,” Murphy said. “I don’t feel like I’m contributing if I’m not a game changer or if I’m not a difference maker, so I’m trying to be that guy. It feels really good to crack that and get a little confidence back in that area again.”

Miami was 2 of 3 on the power play, which heartened Blasi.

“We worked hard on it all week,” the MU coach said. “We worked hard on it last week, and we tinkered with it a little bit. It was nice to get a couple power-play goals just to give your team a big boost. They’re a stingy team. They’re not going to give you much.”

Andrew Hammond collected 24 saves in goal for the Falcons, who didn’t do a great job of pleasing their coach on this night.

“I didn’t think we were very good,” said BGSU coach Chris Bergeron, a former MU assistant. “They deserved to win tonight. They were better than us. It’s just disappointing because we’ve been down this road before, so we’ve got to find a way to stop going down it.”

Bowling Green was 0 for 5 in power-play situations and couldn’t score after Miami’s Curtis McKenzie drew a five-minute major penalty and game disqualification with 8:41 remaining.

“I thought their intensity was so much better than ours, in particular on the special teams,” Bergeron said. “They took it to us during that five-minute penalty. They played desperate hockey. We just kind of watched them.”

Cooper’s goal — off assists from Ryan Peltoma and Ryan Carpenter — may have given the visitors the lead, yet Bergeron never felt like his squad had the momentum.

Williams described the goal like this: “I saw the shot from the point, and I was going to my low blocker side. I kind of opened up, and it hit the guy’s stick and went right back through my legs. It’s tough. I’ll look at it on the video and see if there’s anything I could’ve done differently.”

MU dominated the second period, then did what it had to do down the stretch. The Falcons went 8-4-10 in shots per period.

“It’s something that I’ve kind of gotten used to a little bit,” Williams said of not facing a tremendous amount of shots — he made 21 saves. “You try to find little things like handling the puck or communicating with guys to keep your head in the game. But this game was a little bit different. They had a lot of time in our zone, especially late in the second and most of the third period, but they weren’t necessarily getting shots. When you’re moving around and stuff, it helps keep you in it.”

Matthew Caito had a pair of assists for the RedHawks, and McKenzie and Riley Barber added one apiece. Because of the DQ for hitting from behind, McKenzie will have to sit out tonight’s 7:05 series finale.

“It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of the game,” Blasi said. “As long as nobody got hurt, we’ll pay the price and put somebody else in there tomorrow night. You don’t tell a guy like Curtis McKenzie to change the way he plays. He plays on the edge, and he has to do that.”

MU improved to 14-6-5 overall and 9-4-4 in the CCHA. Bowling Green is 8-12-5, 5-9-3.