All of Miami’s final five regular season series will feature teams ranked in the USCHO’s top 20 poll, but at least on paper, North Dakota is the toughest challenge of its upcoming matchups.
The Fighting Hawks are No. 2 in USCHO as well as the all-important PairWise rankings and first in the NCHC with 32 points.
And UND already deposed Miami, 6-4 and 5-1 at the Ralph in mid-November.
VFTG takes a look at the upcoming series:
WHO: No. 2 North Dakota Fighting Hawks (18-6-2, 9-4-1 NCHC) at Miami RedHawks (7-15-2, 1-12-1).
WHERE: Cady Arena (3,049), Oxford, Ohio.
WHEN: Both games — 7:07 p.m.
ALL-TIME SERIES: North Dakota leads, 27-8-4.
MINN.-DULUTH RADIO: Both nights — KQHT-FM (96.1). Grand Forks, N.D.
MIAMI RADIO: Both nights — WKBV-AM (1490), Richmond, Ind.; Saturday — Also on WMOH-AM (1450), Hamilton, Ohio.
STREAMING: NCHC.tv ($).
NOTES: When Miami visited Grand Forks 2 1/2 months ago, North Dakota was riding a three-game winning streak, which it extended to five by sweeping the RedHawks.
Since, the Fighting Hawks have not lost a game in regulation, going 14-4-1 since Nov. 3, earning at least one league point in every contest.
They’ve been even hotter lately, going 4-0-1 in their last five including a sweep of now-No. 5 Denver last weekend.
North Dakota is fifth in Division I with 100 goals scored and is averaging 4.5 markers in its last eight games.
One can’t discuss UND’s offense without mentioning Jackson Blake, son of 13-season NHL veteran Jason Blake.
Blake is 16-18-34 this season, tied for seventh in the NCAA in points and six points ahead of all of his teammates. The sophomore Carolina draft pick finished with 42 points last season, and he is 7-5-12 vs. Miami including four points in the series at the Ralph before Thanksgiving.
Philadelphia draftee Owen McLaughlin has broken out this season, netting nine goals and adding 19 assists and scoring twice as a freshman.
Cameron Berg, selected by the New York Islanders, has already set a personal collegiate high in goals (14) and points (26). He transferred last spring after playing two seasons at Omaha.
And of course 5-feet-8 Riese Gaber already has 13 tallies after posting 11, 15 and 20 his first three seasons with North Dakota. He has 12 goals and seven assists in 11 career games vs. Miami, including a two-goal game in the Grand Forks finale earlier this season.
Louis Jamernik, Dylan James and Jayden Perron are also significant scoring threats up front, as all have double-digit points totals.
One offensive weapon — Hunter Johannes — did not make the trip due to injury.
Alaska transfer Garrett Pyke leads the team in defenseman points with 22 after notching 19 each of his last two seasons with the Nanooks.
Undersized blueliner Jake Livanavage is 2-15-17 as an undrafted freshman, and his plus-10 rating is second among UND blueliners.
Three more transfers — Logan Britt, Keaton Pehrson and Bennett Zmolek — as well as freshman Abram Wiebe have been the other main contributors to a defense corps that has helped hold opponents to 63 goals.
A familiar face has backstopped UND for 23 of its 26 games and will likely start one or two of this weekend’s games: Ludvig Persson. Persson is 15-6-2 with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.
The Fighting Hawks’ other goalie, Hobie Hedquist, is 3-0 with an .899 save percentage and a 2.34 GAA.
Keep in mind North Dakota has racked up all of these stats against a brutal non-conference schedule that included No. 3 Boston University, fourth-ranked Wisconsin, Minnesota (No. 9) and Minnesota State.
Unfortunately for Miami, most of its injured players from last weekend are still out for this series. Up front, first-liner Matthew Barbolini and top-nine center William Hallen, and Frankie Carogioiello (who has been limited to four games) will not dress.
Another top-line forward, Raimonds Vitolins, is questionable.
Michael Feenstra, who suffered a shoulder injury on Jan. 12, is still out on defense and isn’t close to returning.
Goalie Logan Neaton, who was targeting this weekend for a return from his lower body injury, will also be unavailable.
That means Bruno Bruveris will almost certainly start both games in net.
NCAA lineup cards allow 19 skaters, and if Vitolins cannot play, Miami will have to dress every available forward and defenseman, plus goalies Bruveris and Carter McPhail.
The RedHawks are 1-11-1 in their last 13 games vs. North Dakota, with their lone win coming on Nov. 19, 2022 on a late strip and back-angle goal by Jack Clement.
But Miami has not beaten the Fighting Hawks in Oxford since Nov. 10, 2018, and last season’s meeting was a disaster, with the RedHawks getting outscored, 12-1 in a sweep at Cady Arena.
Despite its injuries, MU played very well in its loss at Duluth and has rarely let games get away like it has far too often the past few years.
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