Miami winless streak reaches 11

OXFORD, Ohio — After struggling early, Miami positioned itself to end its 10-game winless streak, erasing a two-goal deficit in the final seven minutes.

Unfortunately for the RedHawks, No. 18 Omaha had other plans.

Zach Urdahl scored on a 2-on-1 with 54 seconds left in regulation as the Mavericks edged Miami, 4-3 at Cady Arena on Friday.

The RedHawks are 0-10-1 since their last win on Jan. 13 and have lost 19 straight games in March.

RECAP: Despite being badly outplayed in the first period, Miami (7-21-3) nearly survived the opening 20 minutes without being scored upon.

But with 1:31 left in the frame, a loose puck bounced out from the slot to the top of the left faceoff circle, and Omaha’s Kirby Proctor stepped into a shot that snuck under the crossbar.

Five minutes into the middle frame, the Mavericks (17-10-4) went up two on a 2-on-1, as Jimmy Glynn buried a one-timer from the left faceoff dot off a feed from Jesse Lansdell.

The RedHawks cut the deficit to one on the power play with 8:32 left in the second stanza. Raimonds Vitolins missed the net on a one-timer, but the puck corralled off the end boards to John Waldron, who whipped it into the net on the short side.

On a power play with 11:01 left in regulation, Urdahl flicked a wrister from the blue line on net, creating a rebound that Brock Bremer batted in from the top of the faceoff circle on the man-advantage to make it 3-1.

At the 13:45 mark of the final stanza, Miami took five whacks at a loose puck around the net, and a big rebound off the latter kicked out to Rihard Simanovics at the left faceoff dot. He took a stride and shoveled a wrist shot that Max Dukovac redirected into the far corner of the cage, cutting the deficit to one.

The RedHawks completed the comeback with 2:21 remaining, as Axel Kumlin eluded a defender at the right point, penetrated to the high slot and snuck a hard wrister inside the post on the stick side.

But Urdahl ruined the Miami storyline, skating in on a 2-on-1 and beating RedHawks goalie Bruno Bruveris far post from the right faceoff dot with 54 seconds left in regulation.

STATS: Dukovac snapped a 16-game points drought with a 1-1-2 line, making an excellent play to set up a goal as well as his tip-in in the third period.

It was the fourth multi-point game of his career and his first in conference play.

Simanovics finished with two helpers, the first two-point game of the freshman’s career. He has five points in his last seven games — all assists — after recording two his first 17 contests.

Waldron’s goal gives him seven points in his last seven games (3-4-7).

Kumlin’s marker was his second of the season, with his other coming Oct. 14 vs. Arizona State, also at home.

Matthew Barbolini notched a helper for his fourth point in five games since returning from injury, and Ryan Sullivan tallied his fourth helper of 2023-24.

— Miami’s power play has been markedly better recently, as the RedHawks have converted on 4 of 12 attempts (33.3 percent) in their last five games, raising their season clip to 15.1.

The flip side? Miami allowed a PPG on four chances and is just 10-for-16 on the penalty kill (62.5 percent) in that same span.

— MU allowed 33 shots in this game and is surrendering an average of 38.0 in its last four.

— The RedHawks’ 11-game winless streak is tied for the ninth-longest in program history.

That equals their Jan. 11-Feb. 22, 2020 skid, during which they went 0-9-2. This team also went 12 games without a victory last season, starting with a last-minute loss to Niagara on New Year’s Eve and running through Feb. 25, 2023.

— Miami is 0-19 in March since beating St. Cloud State in an NCHC quarterfinal game on March 10, 2018.

ANALYSIS: This site and Blog of Brotherhood, which I wrote for previously, has two loss template stories.

Last Saturday we used the Non-Competitive Blowout template, and for this game we return to the excruciating, final-minutes crotch-kick-with-cleats goal-against, hot sauce-on-an-open-wound format.

Has anyone heard this before the past nine years?

To appear unprepared for the start of a game and end up chasing the game because of an early resulting deficit is so Miami.

To make poor defensive decisions that lead to odd-man and A-plus scoring chances that end up in the net is so Miami.

To have zero puck luck, as if the hockey gods are punishing this program for some unknown deeds in a parallel universe, so Miami.

To put itself in a position to win late in a game, and in many times lead with minutes remaining, but give up that critical goal in the closing minutes or overtime, is signature Miami, post-…honestly? Post-NCAA title game in 2009.

And it’s certainly much more pronounced since its current plummet from relevance began in 2015-2016.

A loss like this in, say, 2012, would’ve been infuriating for fans. Now the ones that have stuck with this program are so numb to these losses there’s little emotion in the stands when games end in Chernobyl-style disaster.

In the concourse on the way out, the comments are more like ‘saw that coming’ and ‘another one pissed away’ and ‘I’ll meet you uptown and we’ll have lots of strong drinks to cope…got any fentanyl?’.

Is it confidence, conditioning, bad luck, bad coaching, a billy goat being refused entry to Cady Arena? A combination?

Whatever the issue(s) is, we’ve seen these types of endings go against Miami way, way too many times for it to be a coincidence.

— The first period was a complete disaster for the second straight home game. Shots were 13-1 at the 16-minute mark, and P.J. Fletcher wristed a close-range shot to give Miami a second SOG.

Unfortunately for MU, 45 seconds later MU was picking the puck out of its own net.

— In the postgame presser, coach Chris Bergeron indicated goalie Logan Neaton is ready to play after missing the last 11 games due to an ankle injury.

His plan is to alternate Neaton and Bruveris through the balance of the season.

— If you want to take a positive out of this, the sophomore class made a major impact in this game, as all three goal scorers are second-year Miamians, and Simanovics — who went 0-2-2 — is a freshman.

— Interesting that Miami players tapped their sticks on the ice during intros to muffle the PA. Bergeron has been loudly booed the past few months when his name has been mentioned.

LINEUP CHANGES: Up front, Teddy Lagerback was back in the lineup after sitting two of the last four games. He replaced Brayden Morrison, as the two appear to be alternating at the final fourth-line slot.

On defense, Zane Demsey returned to the lineup card after not dressing for a career-high three consecutive games. Spencer Cox was scratched for the second time in 10 contests.

STANDINGS: North Dakota won and St. Cloud State lost, so the Fighting Hawks now lead the NCHC by six points with three games remaining.

That means Miami — locked into last place in the league with seven points — will almost certainly head to Grand Forks for its opening-round conference tournament quarterfinal series.

After Friday’s games, the RedHawks are ranked No. 46 in the PairWise rankings.

GRADES

FORWARDS: C-. The first period, this group was atrocious. Possession, passing, generating scoring chances, all non-existent. And Omaha did a fantastic job shutting all of them down. This corps was much better the final 40 minutes, but the team was chasing at that point, especially after UNO scored the second goal. Really liked Dukovac and Waldron in this game. Save for a couple of hits, the bottom six did very little offensively.

DEFENSEMEN: B-. Tough call here, but the individual effort by Kumlin on his goal was exceptional, and Simanovics earned both of his assists, although he was caught flat-footed in the neutral zone on the final Omaha tally, and Robby Drazner took himself out of the play on an early goal. Jack Clement, who had a huge, boisterous Brother Rice contingent in attendance, and Dylan Moulton drew the 1-2 spots out of the Miami pairings hat and were very solid overall. Overall, more good than bad from this corps.

GOALTENDING: D. The second goal was a missile one-timer off a quick cross-crease pass, but the other three Omaha markers were stoppable. Bruveris appeared to misread the first tally, gave up a huge rebound on a fairly innocuous shot on the third one and was beaten on an outside shot in the final minute. He made several excellent saves, but overall this was not one of Bruveris’ better games, and those miscues were more glaring considering how close this game was. He finished 29 of 33 (.879).

FINAL THOUGHTS: We almost need a template for this portion as well, but these games, as badly as Miami has buried itself, are ultimately irrelevant in terms of standings.

Whether the RedHawks finish this regular season 3-0, 0-3 or anywhere in between, they’re probably headed to The Ralph for a best-of-3 to open (and likely end) NCHC Tournament play.

Showing up a period late didn’t work against a very good Omaha team in this game, and it certainly won’t fare well at North Dakota in two weeks.