Miami falls to UMD, still winless in NCHC

OXFORD, Ohio — The second period bit Miami again.

Following a scoreless opening frame, Minn.-Duluth rode a pair of goals in the middle 20 minutes to a 3-1 win over the RedHawks at Cady Arena on Saturday.

Miami, which tied the Bulldogs on Friday but lost the shootout, earned just one of six possible league points in the series and remains winless through the first third of the 24-game NCHC slate (0-7-1).

The RedHawks finished the 2023 calendar year 1-18-3 (.114) in NCHC play.

RECAP: Minn.-Duluth (5-8-4) finally opened the scoring at the 3:58 mark of the second period when Blake Biondi hammered a one-timer past Miami goalie Logan Neaton on the stick side from the high slot off a feed by Quinn Olson.

Just 67 seconds later, the Bulldogs’ Ben Steeves skated to the top of the right faceoff circle and whipped a wrister just inside the far post to make it 2-0.

The RedHawks (5-9-2) cut the deficit to one 4:17 into the final stanza when John Waldron teed P.J. Fletcher up for a one-timer from the right faceoff dot that Fletcher buried.

Miami appeared to have tied the score with 6:58 left on a point-blank one-time blast by Hampus Rydqvist, but UMD challenged for off-side and the goal was overturned.

Luke Loheit tapped in the empty-net clincher for the Bulldogs with 11 seconds remaining to seal it.

STATS: Fletcher finished the weekend with three of Miami’s goals after netting a pair in the opener.

His tally in this game was his eighth of the season, tying him for the team lead with Matthew Barbolini.

John Waldron earned the primary assist for his one-time set-up pass, giving him points in three straight games, the longest current streak for the RedHawks.

William Hallen picked up the secondary assist, his second helper in three games.

— Minn.-Duluth outscored Miami, 4-0 in the second period this weekend, and the RedHawks have netted just eight goals in the middle stanza while allowing 21.

— MU’s power play was 0-for-4 in this game, is nothing out of 12 in its last three contests and has converted 3 of 38 chances in its last 11 (7.9 percent).

That said, the RedHawks have done an excellent job of staying out of the box, allowing just 11 man-advantage opportunities the past six games, and they’re nine for their last 10 on the penalty kill.

— Miami finished with just 19 shots on goal, its lowest total on home ice this season by a wide margin.

— The RedHawks scored more goals in the first five games of the season than they have in the past 11. MU had found the net 22 times through five games (a 4.4 clip) but has tallied just 19 markers in the 11 contests since (1.82 per).

ANALYSIS: Miami was better than the shot counter indicated in the ultra-physical first period (11-5 Duluth), but after the two quick goals by UMD early in the second frame, the RedHawks seemed deflated and flat.

Then Fletcher made it a one-goal game and it appeared Rydqvist had tied it, but that goal was waved off, and again, that seemed to squelch any momentum Miami had. The RedHawks finished with just five shots on goal in the final 20 minutes despite two minutes on the power play, the final two minutes of 6-on-5 and one of those five being a goal.

So in other words, MU did bupkis 5-on-5.

— How does a team win one out of 22 league games in calendar year 2023 (actually 24 if you include the first-round playoff series)?

The current coaching staff has openly advocated for Miami leaving the NCHC since taking over in 2019, and that mentality appears to have permeated the players’ psyches.

— Really hate to question personnel moves here for numerous reasons, but it’s hard to understand why Spencer Cox wasn’t on the ice for the final two minutes of extra attacker time.

Cox has 38 career collegiate points in two-plus seasons, nearly half of which have come on the power play, and he has been by far the team’s best power play quarterback.

Kumlin is a solid D-man but is still not quite as polished heading the man-advantage, and twice in the closing minutes he was unable to hold in low-velocity pucks at the right point (although the ice wasn’t great partly due to rain and an unseasonable 62-degree high temperature).

Cox also created the Miami broken 3-on-2 that led to Fletcher’s goal by burying a UMD skater, allowing Hallen to seize the resulting loose puck which he fed to Waldron, who teed up the one-timer.

He was brought here to run the power play and has not only proven himself fully capable of handling that role, he is one of the hardest-hitting D-men and still defends well.

During all four Miami power plays, the RedHawks used Kumlin with the top forwards and Cox with the second forward unit, and MU once again were abysmal on the man-advantage. So to stick with that failed strategy with the game on the line is mind-boggling.

— On the potential tying goal: The replay on NCHC.tv did show that the play was off-side…barely.

LINEUP CHANGES: Just one: Cox returned to the lineup on defense, replacing Rihards Simanovics. Cox was a healthy scratch on Friday.

STANDINGS: Now eight points clear of the entire NCHC field, Miami still has just one league points through eight games. Omaha and UMD are tied for sixth with nine.

The RedHawks slipped one place in the PairWise to 43rd.

GRADES

FORWARDS: D+. Obviously it’s tough to grade this corps too highly when it generates one goal and 15 SOG, but Fletcher is playing his best hockey as a Miamian (he had a breakaway as well but was denied). Artur Turansky led the team with four shots and seemed to have the most energy of any RedHawk. Could’ve done without two Blake Mesenburg penalties, but Miami killed them off.

DEFENSEMEN: B. It wasn’t sexy but overall the blueliners were solid. They also continued to stay out of the penalty box, as the only minor assessed to the D-corps was against Jack Clement late, and that was a matching minor for roughing after top-scorer Steeves took a late stab at Neaton. Apparently Clement and Dylan Moulton won the pre-game rock-paper-scissors competition, since they were listed as the seemingly-random top pairing du jour.

GOALTENDING: B. The first UMD goal was a snipe to the top corner, but the second was stoppable. That said, Neaton made a few quality stops and again controlled rebounds well. He’s playing way more than at any time in his five-year collegiate career but has kept Miami in almost every game this season.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Like Friday, this was a winnable game.

Duluth is a better team than its record indicates, but MU needs to come away with more than one point in this home series.

The RedHawks have three weeks to regroup and five weeks until returning to NCHC play, so hopefully they can figure out how to right the ship — and transfer forward Albin Nilsson should be back at some point after a lower-body injury sidelined him for the first three months — but in past years the second half of the schedule has not been kind to Miami.