It’s official: Miami finished with the worst league record in the history of the NCHC.
No. 15 Western Michigan scored two shorthanded goals in the first period en route to a 6-1 drubbing and series sweep of the RedHawks at Lawson Arena on Saturday in the teams’ regular season finale.
The RedHawks finished 1-21-2 and earned just seven points in conference play, breaking the 11-year-old league’s marks for fewest victories and points, most defeats and lowest winning percentage (.083).
MU’s 57-day winless streak also reached 14 games (0-13-1), tied for the third-longest drought in club history, and the RedHawks lost their 22nd straight game in March dating back to 2018.
Miami (7-24-3) will head to top-seeded Penrose Cup champion North Dakota for a best-of-3 series to open the NCHC Tournament next weekend.
RECAP: Western Michigan’s Chad Hillebrand twice stole the puck at Miami’s offensive blue line and scored shorthanded breakaway goals on both in the first period to give the Broncos an early 2-0 lead.
The RedHawks briefly cut the deficit to one four minutes into the second period when a lunging Thomas Daskas acrobatically backhanded a deflected pass from Max Dukovac into the far top corner of the net from the slot.
But WMU’s Carter Berger buried a wrister from the slot five minutes later to make it 3-1, and exactly two minutes after, former RedHawk Joey Cassetti fired home a shot short side off another Miami turnover.
Zak Gallambos and Cassetti added tallies 20 seconds apart in the closing minutes of the second period to blow it open.
RedHawks goalie Bruno Bruveris was pulled after the second period in favor of Logan Neaton, and MU’s Ryan Sullivan was injured early in the game and did not return.
STATS: Daskas’ goal was his third of the season, as he finished with three points on the weekend, doubling his previous 2023-24 total.
Dukovac earned the lone assist, giving him three points in four games.
— It was the first time Miami allowed two shorthanded goals in a game since Jan. 21, 2022 in its infamous 11-1 loss at St. Cloud State.
— Speaking of special teams, the RedHawks’ power play was 0-for-5, failing to score on the man-advantage for the third straight game (and allowing two SHGs) and falling to 1 of 15 (6.7 percent) in their last five contests.
Miami’s 13.8-percent clip is 58th out of 64 teams in the NCAA.
— Once again the second period was RedHawk kryptonite. MU surrendered four goals in the middle frame, in which opponents have tallied 12 markers in Miami’s last five games.
— Finishing the regular season 0-13-1, the RedHawks tied their third-longest winless streak ever, which occurred in the fall of 1985.
Their only longer strings were in 2018-19, when they went 0-11-4 over a 15-game span, and a 17-game, 0-16-1 run in 1990-91.
THOUGHTS: <switching over from Template A, late heartbreaking loss to Template B: Blowout, non-competitive loss>
The score is definitely ugly, and if Miami was hoping to generate momentum heading into the playoffs in its regular season finale, this wasn’t exactly a burning bush moment.
That said, Miami didn’t play as badly as the score indicated, but the RedHawks made a lot of mistakes on the defensive side of the puck, and Western Michigan is too good of a team not to capitalize.
Bruveris was pulled after the second period, and MU battled in the third period, outshooting the Broncos, 14-5 in the final 20 minutes.
Neaton was sharp and turned aside all six shots he faced.
But…
There’s no way to bury the lede: Bruveris struggled. And for the second straight night, assistant captain Hampus Rydqvist did as well. Axel Kumlin also coughed a puck at the offensive blue line on the power play that ended up in Miami’s net.
Freshman Bruveris has excellent athleticism and has logged some quality minutes in net this season, but in his last three starts, his save percentage is .819 and he’s been pulled twice.
Neaton has been very solid since returning from injury and is likely to man the net for the remainder of the season, which hopefully extends beyond next weekend.
Rydqvist turned the puck over for one of the SHGs in the first period and made another poor defensive play that led to a second period Western Michigan goal, and Kumlin also was stripped at the offensive blue line, resulting the other shorty.
Rydqvist, an assistant captain and four-year defensive staple, made two egregious mistakes on Friday’s game winner.
This game’s first two goals were scored on shorthanded breakaways, A-plus shots that hit twine, but Bruveris probably would’ve liked at least two of the other four goals back.
Take those four unforced errors away and it’s a one-goal game.
— Bruveris clearly wasn’t that sharp in this game. He should’ve been pulled two goals earlier — not to shame Bruveris but to send a message to the team.
That also would’ve given Miami an extra time out for a goalie change when the game was slipping away. Instead Western Michigan scored two more goals late in the third and blew it open.
— The RedHawks didn’t have a timeout because they challenged that the third WMU was scored on an off-sides play. It looked off-side from the naked eye live and it was a good challenge, but ultimately evidence was inconclusive and the call on the ice stood.
— There was feistiness, and honestly that’s a good thing to some extent. No cheap or dirty shots, but hockey is a game of emotion and mixing it up can fire up a team. At the very least it shows a player gives a damn.
Not a fan of Raimonds Vitolins breaking away from a linesman and picking up a 10-minute unsportsmanlike conduct, but liked how he took exception to his team getting ragdolled late in the second period (and Miami responded with a much-better final 20 minutes).
Same with Spencer Cox and Robby Drazner, and captain Jack Clement jawed with some WMU players in the third period. This team has to be tired of losing.
I know what emotions go through my head, watching the losses pile up the second half of the season every year, and I’m not even on the ice.
— Great to see Daskas rewarded with points on all three Miami goals this weekend. What he doesn’t have in top-line skills he makes up for in consistent effort and heart.
The top-line forwards were quiet but his line was solid. Blake Mesenburg and Artur Turansky also had mostly quality games.
— Zane Demsey was scratched for the fifth time in seven games. It’s unclear if there’s an issue with practice, but especially after watching the blatant mistakes by fellow blueliners this weekend, he’s not the eighth- or ninth-best D-man on this team.
— Sullivan has had an outstanding first season with Miami, and it would be a major blow if he can’t return for the postseason.
LINEUP CHANGES: Bruveris in net over Neaton was the only change, and Bruveris was chased after 40 minutes.
STANDINGS: Miami finished 1-21-2 in NCHC play, recording seven points.
Minn.-Duluth finished seventh with 28 points, and Omaha ended the campaign with 37 points, taking sixth in the league.
Miami remains 47th in the PairWise rankings.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Like we said last night, these games ultimately didn’t matter.
Failing to win a league game for two months parlayed with North Dakota’s clinching of the Penrose sealed Miami’s fate in late February, and nothing that happened this weekend was going to change that.
But at the very least it would’ve been nice to take more positives out of this series.
We saw once again that Miami can compete with the best in college hockey at times — typically in the first game of a series — but it can’t sustain that intensity for 120 minutes. If it could have it would’ve earned more than seven NCHC points while the top five teams racked up at least 40.
Now the RedHawks will have to beat No. 3 North Dakota in a best-of-3 on its own ice in front of 11,000 diehards to extend their season.
Obviously the odds are against MU advancing to the Frozen Faceoff.
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