Duluth hammers Miami

Briefly it appeared Miami had jumped ahead on a long-shot wrister that found the back of the net.

But that potential go-ahead shot – initially ruled a goal – was overturned, and No. 5 Minn.-Duluth went on to score five unanswered goals in the next 18 minutes en route to a 8-1 win over the RedHawks at Amsoil Arena on Friday.

Jack Clement’s snipe from the blue line was waived off after it was determined Miami (4-13-2) forward Michael Holland interfered with UMD goalie Ryan Fanti.

The Bulldogs (11-5-2) responded by netting four goals the balance of the opening stanza and another in the first minute of the second period.

Miami has lost five straight, is 0-6-1 in its last seven and 0-13-1 in Duluth since the past seven seasons.

UMD’s Jackson Cates ended the night with five assists.

RECAP: Minutes after the RedHawks’ overturned goal, Cates stole a clearing attempt along the boards and slid one to Blake Biondi in the slot for a wrister that found twine.

On a 2-on-2 with 8:12 left in the opening frame, Cates fed a pass through from the right wing to Kobe Roth in the slot, and he skated the side of the net and whipped it in short side.

Cole Koepke made it 3-0 with 4:21 to play in the period when he drove along the left wing boards and lifted a wrist shot through MU goalie Ludvig Persson, ending the freshman netminder’s night.

Two minutes later, Kobe Bender extended the Bulldogs’ lead to four when he snuck a wrister through replacement goalie Ben Kraws.

Less than a minute into the second period, a Hampus Rydqvist neutral-zone pass was intercepted, resulting in a 2-on-1 for Minn.-Duluth, and Noah Cates fed Nick Swaney through the top of the crease for an easy tap-in.

With 8:11 remaining in the middle stanza, Roth fed one through the slot to a wide-open Koepke at the center of the faceoff dot, and he beat Kraws on the short side to make it 6-0.

Koepke completed a hat trick with three minutes left in the second when he tapped home a rebound at the side of the net on a shot from Tanner Laderoute.

Three minutes into the final frame, the RedHawks’ Casey Gilling wound up from the top of the faceoff circle and ripped one past Fanti to make it 7-1.

Roth capped the scoring on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle on a feed from Bender behind cage.

STATS: Gilling, who had not recorded a goal the first 17 games this season, has scored in back-to-back contests.

— Miami defenseman Derek Daschke earned the primary assist, giving him three points in two games. Forward Phil Knies picked up the other helper, his first point in seven games.

THOUGHTS: This is essentially three times in the last four games Miami has been blown out, with the RedHawks fighting late to cut last Saturday’s final deficit to three and the team falling by six and seven goals in the other contests.

It’s disturbing that MU isn’t even competitive now that series have been quasi-normalized, with a return to somewhat traditional weekend series.

— Turnovers, poor coverage and inadequate goaltending keyed Miami’s seven-goal loss.

Both Persson and Kraws allowed multiple goals that should’ve been stopped.

Miami’s top defensive pairing of Daschke and Clement was not nearly good enough, as both finished minus-4.

Multiple UMD goals came from even-man rushes that somehow turned into high-quality chances and goals.

LINEUP CHANGES: Fortunately for Miami, two players who have injured the past couple of weeks returned: Forwards Joey Cassetti and Scott Corbett.

Ryan Savage and Ben Lown remain out. Savage was hit high last weekend and Lown was banged up prior to that series and will hopefully return for Miami’s next series.

Bray Crowder remained at forward, and Caleb Rule was scratched as Miami returned to a seven-defensemen lineup.

Dylan Moulton dressed in place of Alec Mahalak on defense.

STANDINGS: Miami remains tied with idle Colorado College, which is shifting its schedule due to COVID issues.

The Tigers have three games in hand over the RedHawks, who are now locked out of the top half of the standings and will play their first-round conference tournament series on the road.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This was a pretty embarrassing loss.

All three facets of Miami’s game were sub-par, and for the second time in four games, a team hung dog balls on the RedHawks.

Yeah, the schedule is brutal and injuries and rebuilding, but…

…Miami’s winning percentage is .263. As in the RedHawks are winning a quarter of their games.

Some perspective: Long Island University, which turned D-1 last spring – arguably the worst time in the past century for a college hockey to make that call – didn’t have a coach, a single player, a schedule or even a home rink last April.

LIU has a higher winner percentage than the RedHawks.

The hope was that Miami would be better than this by the end of the second season after cleaning house.

That does not appear to be the case.