OXFORD, Ohio — Friday night featured several lead changes, a late two-goal comeback and overtime win, multiple skirmishes and crushing body checks and even a broken pane of glass on the end boards.
Round 2 didn’t quite match that level of drama.
No. 2 North Dakota rode an early-two goal lead to a 4-1 win over Miami at Cady Arena on Saturday, capping off the series and season sweep of the RedHawks, who dropped their sixth straight game.
MU hasn’t beaten North Dakota at home since Nov. 10, 2018 and has dropped seven straight to the Fighting Hawks in this building since.
Miami (7-17-2) wraps up its four-game homestand vs. St. Cloud State next weekend.
RECAP: UND (20-6-2) opened the scoring four minutes in when defenseman Logan Britt took a feed on the left wing, skated in and flicked a wrister into the far corner of the net.
Cameron Berg extended the Fighting Hawks’ lead to two with 6:11 left in the opening stanza, skating the puck through the slot and shooting across his body and past Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris on the glove side.
The RedHawks pulled within one four minutes into the middle frame, as John Waldron stunned UND goalie Ludvig Persson with a close-range shot and Albin Nilsson cleaned up the rebound at the right side of the net.
But with 5:48 left in that period, Britt scored again to make it 3-1, this time burying a bad-angle one-timer inside the near post near the goal line on the right wing.
Dylan James sealed it for UND on a 6-on-5 with 2:20 left, outskating the Miami defense through the slot and tapping the puck into the empty net.
STATS: Nilsson scored for the second straight game and owns a team-best three-game points streak.
He has six points in eight contests this season, including four in the last three.
Waldron and P.J. Fletcher picked up the assists. Fletcher has points in 4 of 5 games and Waldron got on the scoresheet for the second straight contest.
— It was a better day on special teams for the RedHawks, who scored their lone goal on the power play and equaled a season high with six man-advantage opportunities, including a pair of brief 5-on-3 chances. They also finished 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
— Miami led in shots, 34-32 and has generated 30 or more SOG in three straight games.
ANALYSIS: This is not in any way intended to sound harsh, but the outcome of this game was predictable.
Playing without five key skaters and a veteran goalie, Miami seemed to throw everything it had at North Dakota on Friday.
Key forwards logged way more ice time than usual (Fletcher played nearly 28 minutes, for example) on the front-end of a weekend series.
To sustain that level of energy and hang with the second-ranked team in Division I on consecutive nights was tantamount to asking North Dakota fans to abstain from drinking at hockey games…on consecutive nights.
That said, the effort was still outstanding for all 60 minutes, even factoring in what had to be fatigue in the fifth and sixth periods of the weekend.
UND is No. 2 for a reason and proved it in this series. The Fighting Hawks found a way to overtime a two-goal deficit on Friday and never really give Miami a chance to win in the finale.
The RedHawks threw the best they had at North Dakota and it wasn’t enough. That’s why UND is going to be a very tough out, come NCAA Tournament time.
— Despite the outcome, the environment at Cady Arena this weekend was fun. With an ample and vocal student section, tons of North Dakota fans and a highly-entertaining game on Friday, it was reminiscent of 2014-15, when Miami won the NCHC championship and every game in this rink was meaningful and ultra-competitive as well as sold out and raucous.
— Miami finished 1-for-6 on the power play but was much better than that, especially considering forwards that haven’t logged many man-advantage shifts this season were forced into the two units.
— I was surprised former RedHawks goalie and current North Dakota starter Ludvig Persson wasn’t pulled after the third or fourth goal on Friday, but he seemed to right the ship and ultimately the Fighting Hawks won.
I was curious if the Fighting Hawks would come back with him in Game 2, and they did, and he stopped 33 of 34 shots.
— Congratulations to Steve Cady, who is formally retiring after 48 years after helping found the program and acting in multiple roles since. Without Cady, there is no Miami hockey, and it was an easy choice to name the current facility when it opened in 2006.
He was honored prior to opening faceoff and at intermission. Nearly 100 RedHawks hockey alumni attended.
Anyone who has played for this team, coached this team, roots for this team or has ever played any other role with this team owes Cady his or her gratitude.
LINEUP CHANGES: None. Still 21 healthy players, which is exactly how many appear on an NCAA lineup card.
Logan Neaton, out with a lower-body injury, was listed as the third goalie on Friday but was a scratch Saturday.
Neaton, Matthew Barbolini (lower body), Raimonds Vitolins (upper body) and William Hallen (lower body) are supposedly close to returning.
While Zane Demsey and Jack Clement had their names drawn out of the Miami defensemen pairing hat first on Friday, it was Rihards Simanovics and Hampus Rydqvist who were randomly selected for the first pairing slots prior to this game.
STANDINGS: Miami dropped to 1-14-1 in the NCHC with six league points.
Through all games played on Saturday, the RedHawks are No. 44 out of 65 in the PairWise Rankings.
GRADES
FORWARDS: C+. Looking up and down the line chart, all 11 members of this corps played well, but one goal isn’t going to win many hockey games. Loved the effort by Ryan Sullivan, who despite a minus-3 rating played an indirect role in Miami’s goal, and Artur Turansky seemed a lot more involved than in recent weeks. Teddy Lagerback and Tanyon Bajzer have seen very limited ice time this season but both thrived. Twenty-four shots by 11 forwards means an average of over two per skater. It obviously didn’t work out in this game but that’s a very positive stat against one of the best shut-down teams in Division I.
DEFENSEMEN: B. This group wasn’t sexy but did a quality job overall of preventing high-percentage shots in vulnerable areas. North Dakota was held to almost no odd-man chances, and with the Fighting Hawks’ speed and skill, they create a lot of those. Dylan Moulton scored a couple of goals recently but he was excellent defensively all weekend. Axel Kumlin generated five of this corps’ 10 shots of goal and took a big step forward running the power play.
GOALTENDING: B-. Bruveris faced a slew of what can only be described as power wristers this weekend, and North Dakota beat him multiple times on the glove side from the high slot. He’s clearly still raw but has excellent reactions and athleticism. Bruveris did his best work late, turning aside all 10 shots he faced in the third period, including two off his mask. He stopped 28 of 31 shots (.903).
SCHEDULE: Miami is home again next weekend, as St. Cloud State visits, and MU is off Feb. 16-17.
The RedHawks then travel to Denver, return home to face Omaha and finish the regular season with a weekend set at Western Michigan.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The morning after Miami’s 6-2 steamer at Minn.-Duluth last Friday in which the RedHawks’ defense seemed to revert to 2019-20 mode, a players-only meeting was held.
Apparently that loss was a burning-bush moment for Miami, as the team agreed it was going to go out on top.
Upon hearing about this, these three thoughts immediately came to mind: 1) Yay! 2) It’s about time — where was this two months ago, and 3) If the players are able to impact the team’s energy level to this degree, why couldn’t/hasn’t the coaching staff?
If this team had given this level of effort all season, Miami’s record would look a lot better than 7-17-2.
Albeit late to acknowledging reality, this version of the RedHawks — if…if…if this trend continues and the team gets healthy — will be much tougher to beat down the stretch and potentially a major nuisance in the conference tournament.
View From the Glass 