Miami tops WMU for first league win

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami earned its first win of 2024, its first league victory of the season, its first January home ‘W’ in over six years and its first overall win in the calendar-month opener in three years and 22 games.

The RedHawks survived a late major penalty and a starting goalie injury to hold off No. 10 Western Michigan, 4-3 at Cady Arena on Saturday, salvaging a series split.

MU had not won a January game in this building since beating Denver (coincidentally, by the same 4-3 score) on Jan. 5, 2008, snapping a 21-game, 0-19-2 slump in first-calendar month home-ice contests.

Three years ago Miami (7-11-2) swept Western Michigan in Kalamazoo on Jan. 2-3, 2021 during the COVID year. The RedHawks were 0-20-2 in January overall since.

The RedHawks also improved to 1-8-1 in the NCHC, but lost goalie Logan Neaton to a potentially long-term injury. Entering Saturday, Neaton was between Miami’s pipes for all but 120 minutes.

RECAP: Miami took a penalty 34 seconds into the game, and Western Michigan’s Alex Bump fed linemate Dylan Wendt in the slot, and he pulled back and fired a shot over a sprawled out Neaton just 1:48 into the first period.

But the RedHawks answered 62 seconds later, as Thomas Daskas forced a turnover in the offensive zone, and Dylan Moulton whipped a loose puck from the left point that deflected in off a Broncos defenseman.

Miami took the lead with 11:49 left in the opening frame when Raimonds Vitolins backhanded a pass through traffic to a streaking P.J. Fletcher, who skated through the slot unabated and roofed a wrister glove side.

The RedHawks’ Albin Nilsson scored his first goal as a RedHawk to make it 3-1 at the 3:38 mark of the middle stanza, taking a left-point feed from Hampus Rydqvist at the top of faceoff circle and slamming it into the open side of the net on the power play.

With 6:59 left in that period, WMU’s Matteo Constantini shoveled a wrister from the high slot that snuck though Neaton to cut the Broncos’ deficit to one.

Miami regained its two-goal lead with 16:17 left in regulation when Blake Mesenburg flicked a bad-angle wrist shot from the goal line along the boards through WMU goalie Cameron Rowe.

Western Michigan (14-5-1) again cut it to one when Samuel Sjolund cleaned up a loose rebound on the left side of the net with the extra attacker on a delayed penalty with 9:26 remaining, and Neaton injured himself twisting around in the crease trying to keep the puck out.

Miami killed off the ensuing penalty and finished the game running out a major power play.

STATS: Fletcher was the lone RedHawk to rack up multiple points (1-1-2), doing so for the fourth time in 10 games. He has six goals and five assists in that span.

Moulton, a defenseman, has goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. He has three markers this season, tying his career high set in 2021-22.

Mesenburg’s goal was his second of the season and fourth of his career, and Nilsson’s first tally as a RedHawk was the 20th of the graduate senior’s career.

It was not Nilsson’s first collegiate goal in this building unfortunately, as he scored the game-winner with 20 seconds left in regulation for in a Niagara win over MU here on New Year’s Eve 2022.

He transferred to Miami in the off-season but missed the first half of the season after injuring his knee in practice.

Rydqvist earned an assist, his second point in three games, and he snapped an eight-game helper drought. Zane Demsey also picked up an assist, giving him a 1-1-2 line his last three contests as well.

Vitolins also notched a helper, his fifth in eight games and sixth point in that stretch.

— Saves aren’t an official hockey stat, but goalie Bruno Bruveris earned a rare one by holding a one-goal lead for over nine minutes, stopping all five shots he faced.

Neaton earned his sixth win of the season and seventh of his career. He has not allowed more than three goals in six straight and has a .922 save percentage since shutting out Mercyhurst on Nov. 26.

— The eight power play chances allowed by Miami were its most in 29 games, since Feb. 3 at St. Cloud State. The RedHawks were 7 of 8 on the penalty kill.

— Other streak-breakers: Miami was winless in 11 straight NCHC contests and 13 consecutive games vs. league opponents.

The RedHawks were 0-11-2 in their last 13 meetings with the Broncos.

ANALYSIS: This was the type of consistent effort we’ve been looking for all, well, last handful of years.

These guys, top to bottom on the lineup card, busted it for 60 minutes. And ultimately they earned their just reward: Their first NCHC win of the season, a victory over the 10th-ranked team in Division I.

This wasn’t a perfect game by Miami by any stretch. The RedHawks took way too many penalties, still made some ill-advised defensive plays and didn’t capitalize on some great scoring chances.

But they still found a way to win, and that typically has not been the case the past few seasons.

Confidence has been a huge issue for years with Miami, which has been mired in the bottom two spots each of the past four years and entered this weekend with a .177 league winning percentage the past three seasons.

Maybe this is finally the breakthrough the RedHawks needed.

Sometimes against top 10 teams, you can take a couple of dumb penalties and miss a couple of scoring chances and still work hard enough to earn a win. Could this be the burning bush moment this team has needed?

“I attribute it to the players sick of losing, that’s what I think,” coach Chris Bergeron said in the postgame presser. “That’s what it’s going to take. You want to play in this league? Every night is a figurative fist fight.”

But we’ve thought this before and have been burned. The wins over Duluth the past two seasons, the dominant sweep of Omaha in Oxford in 2021-22. One win doesn’t a resurgence make.

Hopefully this boost of confidence will carry over to the rest of the season.

“We’re looking for ways to find momentum, and this has to be a game to get a little bit of momentum, and feel like, ok, that’s hard we have to play, that’s fine. Well, now we rest and get ready to play that hard against next weekend,” Bergeron said.

— Miami’s showing in the third period was particularly impressive. The RedHawks had to kill over seven minutes of power play time and overcome the potential long-term loss of their graduate senior goalie.

— Bergeron said in the postgame that it was too early to speculate on Neaton’s long-term prognosis.

“It didn’t look good,” Bergeron said. “Lower body…he was on crutches when I saw him in the dressing room.”

— Bergeron has begun introducing Rihards Simanovics on the power play and eating into Spencer Cox’s time. Rydqvist and Axel Kumlin are the other MU D-men earning time on the man-advantage.

Miami was 0-for-20 on the power play goal in its previous six games.

LINEUP CHANGES: Up front, Artur Turansky returned after missing his first game of the season on Friday.

Miami went with 12 forwards and seven defensemen in this game, as opposed to an 11/8 split on Friday. Michael Feenstra (injury) and Robby Drazner (healthy scratch) sat while Spencer Cox returned to the lineup.

Neaton had started 18 of the RedHawks’ 20 games this season. Bruveris has logged 129 career Division I minutes.

STANDINGS: At 1-8-1 in league play with just four points, Miami is still seven points clear of the field, with Omaha sitting in seventh with 11.

Minn.-Duluth (12 points) and Colorado College (13 points) are sixth and fifth, respectively.

After all of Saturday’s games, the RedHawks are in a three-way tie for 40th in the PairWise rankings.

SCHEDULE: Miami is headed to Colorado College next weekend followed by a busser to Minn.-Duluth before returning to Cady Arena for a four-game homestand against North Dakota and St. Cloud State.

GRADES

FORWARDS: B. Much better than Friday for 60 minutes. This corps ended up with 22 shots after registering just 10 in Game 1, and Fletcher, Nilsson and Mesenburg all found the net. Four penalties though, including at least one in the offensive zone. Vitolins made an outstanding pass to Fletcher for his goal but also had four PIM. Fletcher was outstanding in both ends, and Barbolini and Waldron were both on top of their games despite not earning points. Daskas stole the puck to set up the Moulton goal and was a force all game, and this was one of Mesenburg’s best outings this season.

DEFENSEMEN: B. Like Friday, Western Michigan generated a good amount of shots but most were from the outside and very few were the result of poor play from this group. Many were the result of eight power plays, including a major. Moulton picked up a goal and Clement really stepped up his defensive game in this one. Demsey entered this game with four PIM on the season but took 19 in this game, including a third-period major. He did earn an assist. Good effort overall against a top-10 team.

GOALTENDING: B?. Neaton seemed to slip on the first goal, opening up much of the net and allowed a weak wrister though for goal No. 2. The third one was on a rebound when he got twisted around and ultimately was injured. But he made three of his best stops of the year, including one where he sprawled across the crease and cleanly shagged a would-be goal. He finished 29 of 32 (.906) and Bruveris made one Grade-A save and turned aside the final five SOG overall to pick up the save.

FINAL THOUGHTS: If you bust your genitalia for 60 minutes and don’t let the occasional — or frequent — set-back rattle you, your team might just be able to take down the 10th-ranked team in Division I in January more often than once in over 20 games.

That should be the takeaway from Saturday.

Great effort, not perfect, but it didn’t require a Rembrandt to win, as a paint-by-numbers was adequate.

Not every game you play with this intensity level will end up a win. But if you play at the same level you played at for the final 90 minutes this weekend, you sure as hell won’t end up the NCHC doormat.