MU swept by SCSU, loses 8th straight

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami’s losing streak is now its longest of the 2020s.

St. Cloud State broke a late tie with a pair of third-period goals en route to a 3-1 win over the RedHawks at Cady Arena on Saturday, earning the weekend and four-game season sweep.

The loss was Miami’s eighth straight, its lengthiest skid in the 4 1/2 years under the current coaching staff.

The last time MU lost more consecutive games was Feb. 23 to Oct. 11, 2019, as the RedHawks dropped the final seven games of the 2018-19 season and the first two of the following campaign — coach Chris Bergeron’s first behind the RedHawks’ bench.

Miami (7-19-2) is off next weekend then travels to Denver for a weekend series Feb. 23-24 before returning to Oxford for its final homestand of the season vs. Omaha.

RECAP: St. Cloud State (14-9-5) opened the scoring on the power play, as Kyler Kupka fed a cross-ice pass through the crease to a streaking Adam Ingram, who redirected it past Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris from the left side of the cage with 8:47 left in the first period.

The RedHawks tied it with 6:17 left in the middle stanza when Dylan Moulton took a drop pass from Tanyon Bajzer in stride at center ice, drove the net and backhanded a puck that was nearly stopped by SCSU goalie Isac Posch but trickled behind him across the goal line.

With 9:44 left regulation, the Huskies took the lead for good. Off a defensive zone turnover by Miami, Barrett Hall backhanded a pass from the goal line to a wide-open Dylan Anhorn, who buried the one-time feed.

St. Cloud State iced it with 1:59 left, as Kupka centered one from the left corner to Zach Okabe, who poked the feed over a sprawling Bruveris from the inside edge of the right faceoff circle.

STATS: Moulton, a shut-down defenseman, scored five goals his first three seasons at Miami.

He recorded his fifth marker of this campaign on Saturday and his fourth in 10 games.

No other RedHawks blueliner has more than one goal in 2023-24.

Assists on Miami’s lone marker went to Bajzer and Raimonds Vitolins.

Pressed into service due to the RedHawks’ injuries up front, Bajzer has picked up two points in five games.

Vitolins, who returned on Friday following a five-game injury absence, recorded in points in both games this weekend.

— Miami has been held to 15 goals during its losing streak, or 1.88 per game. Opponents have scored 32 times (4.00 per) in that stretch.

— The RedHawks drew just one power play again, as referees Mike Sheehan and Brian Hankes let both teams play. Just 14 PIM were assessed all weekend (including one non-contact too many men minor against MU) — five man-advantage chances for St. Cloud State and two for Miami.

The last time Miami was held to one or fewer power play chances was in the first round of the NCHC Tournament on March 10-11 — coincidentally at St. Cloud State.

— All four goals were scored in the second half of their respective periods.

ANALYSIS: Two things stood out in this game: The first period overall was atrocious, and blown defensive coverage that cost Miami on Friday was again a huge factor.

The first five minutes weren’t bad although St. Cloud State recorded five of the first six shots on goal.

But Miami took a too many men penalty midway through the frame, which the Huskies scored on, and SCSU took complete control from that point until the first intermission.

The RedHawks were much more competitive the final 40 minutes, but again, when you’re outmanned you can’t write off 20 minutes and spot ranked teams a one-goal lead.

It definitely sounds like skaters were suffering the residual effects of logging excessive minutes last weekend (for example, P.J. Fletcher played close to 28 minutes one night and has done that multiple times recently).

And stud forward Matthew Barbolini has been a huge minutes-eater all season but looked worn-out at times after missing the previous five games with an LBI.

Then there’s this big defensive breakdown issue, which is difficult to watch because Miami had done a much better job of shutting down high-percentage shots in previous weeks.

Why the sudden coverage issues?

As mentioned above, fatigue is a possible factor, as Miami seemed to throw all of its effort into the North Dakota series and not have its legs back entirely for this set. Yes, those games were 7-8 nights ago but skaters still had heavy-duty practices this week and full courseloads at a demanding university.

The upcoming week off will be welcomed.

The constant jumbling of pairings can’t help. Moulton and captain Jack Clement have played together most of the season but the other defensemen appear randomly assigned every night and in different pairings. A scratch or a seventh D-man could be on the first pairing the next game and vice versa.

And credit to St. Cloud State, scouting may have played a role, and if nothing else, the Huskies’ skill helped create those A-plus chances.

— For the third time in four games, Cady Arena was rocking with a nearly full capacity, active crowd. That’s extremely encouraging considering Miami’s woeful record the past handful of years.

LINEUP CHANGES: Just two: Up front Brayden Morrison replaced Teddy Lagerback, who had dressed in six straight games.

On defense, Spencer Cox returned and Zane Demsey was scratched. Demsey had played in the RedHawks’ last 19 contests. Cox has been scratched five times in 2023-24.

With the upcoming bye week, Miami is hopeful goalie Logan Neaton and forward William Hallen will be available for the Denver series.

STANDINGS: Miami dropped to 1-16-1 in league play and have mathematically clinched one of the bottom three slots in the NCHC Tournament.

That means the RedHawks will face one of the top three conference seeds in a best-of-3 road series.

The top three teams in the league are currently North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan.

MU actually improved one spot in the PairWise rankings, jumping to No. 46 out of 65.

GRADES

FORWARDS: D-. Thirteen shots on Friday, 15 in this game, mostly from the perimeter. A lot of the poor defensive coverage on goals came from the corps, most notably Barbolini, as well as Vitolins, both of whom — as noted — were returning from multi-week injuries. Vitolins did earn an assist on MU’s lone goal. Very little production from any of the four makeshift lines. Fourth-liner Blake Mesenburg led all forwards with three shots, and linemate Bajzer picked up a helper for his great feed to Moulton.

DEFENSEMEN: C-. Moulton scored Miami’s lone goal, and he led the team with four shots on goal. He’s having a solid year defensively as well overall. No one really stood out on this corps, either negatively or positively. SCSU finished with 36 shots on goal, which is always in part a reflection of the blue line.

GOALTENDING: A-. Bruveris was much sharper than on Friday and had little chance on any of his three goals against, all of which were on one-timers off quick passes.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is not a recording: Miami didn’t do enough to win, and St. Cloud State deserved the three points (six on the weekend) more than the RedHawks.

Despite getting healthier, with two-thirds of its top line returning, MU lacked the energy it showed against North Dakota.

Confidence becomes a question. So does conditioning (Bergeron actually mentioned that in the postgame presser).

The team held a players’ only meeting on Jan. 26 and that helped motivate the team for a whopping three games. Then, according to Bergeron, Clement has to play the bad-guy role after the first period just two weeks later?

Miami was undeserving of any of the six points available this weekend, and the RedHawks are headed to Denver in two weeks.

Then Omaha visits Oxford, and MU finishes the regular season at Western Michigan before almost certainly visiting North Dakota or these Huskies in the first round of the playoffs.

Miami hasn’t won a game since Jan. 13. A trip to Grand Forks or St. Cloud seems inevitable in the opening round of the NCHC tournament.

So…sitting on just seven wins with six games left in the regular season, in Year 5 of the Bergeron era and coming off an eight-win season in 2022-23, the question now becomes: Will the RedHawks even surpass or match that 8-victory level from last season?