OXFORD, Ohio — Hockey has a history of great terms, such as the Gordie Howe hat trick (a goal, an assist and a fight) and the Michigan (a wrap-around goal scored by lifting the puck on one’s stick and whipping it into the net on the backhand).
Hopefully no one ever popularizes the phrase ‘pulling a Miami’ to refer to a blown multi-goal, late third-period lead.
No. 16 North Dakota scored three unanswered goals in the final six minutes to pull off a 5-4 win over the RedHawks at Cady Arena on Friday after Miami netted four markers the second period.
It was the RedHawks’ ninth straight loss, and they extended their winless streak against NCHC opponents to 23 games (0-22-1).
The teams wrap up their series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday in Miami’s final game of 2024.
RECAP: North Dakota (8-7-1) went ahead with 5:18 left in the first period when Sacha Boisvert threaded a pass from the right faceoff circle to the top left side of the crease, where Jackson Kunz redirected the puck in on the power play.
At the 2:07 mark of the second period, a loose puck found wide-open RedHawks forward Raimonds Vitolins, who roofed a shot from the slot, tying the score.
But 18 seconds later, UND’s Dalton Andrew snuck a shot in from the side of the cage on the short side as the Fighting Hawks regained the lead.
Miami (3-12-2) took advantage of a major power play, as Ryan Sullivan poked home a loose puck from the top of the crease off a rebound generated by a Christophe Fillion backhander from the right side of the cage to even the score again with 13:25 left in the middle frame.
Fillion stole the puck on the goal line and fed a wide-open Johnny Waldron for a slam-dunk one-timer at the left side of the net with 9:20 left in that stanza, also on the major power play, to give Miami its first lead of the game, 3-2.
Waldron then created a turnover in the slot and backhanded a pass to Michael Feenstra, who blasted a one-timer past sprawling UND goalie T.J. Semptimphelter on a 4-on-4 with 5:56 left in the second period to give the RedHawks a two-goal lead.
But North Dakota would score all three goals in the third period, with each coming in the final six minutes.
An Andrew Strathmann wrister from the left point hit a body down low and Cody Croal backhanded the loose puck just inside the post to cut the Fighting Hawks’ deficit to one with 5:23 remaining and three seconds after a Miami penalty expired.
With 1:43 left in regulation, Jayden Perron whipped a shot from the high slot that picked the top stick-side corner to tie it at four.
And wide-open Boisvert unloaded on a one-timer from the inside edge of the right faceoff circle off a feed from Jake Livanavage from behind the goal line on the opposite side with 23 seconds to play.
STATS: Feenstra’s goal was the first of his career.
The junior defenseman has dressed for just seven games this season and was playing in his 45th career game.
Waldron led all skaters with three points (1-2-3), tying a career high. He recorded a hat trick as a freshman on Dec. 9, 2022 and also had a goal and two assists his sophomore season on Oct. 27, 2023.
Sullivan and Vitolins both finished with a goal and an assist, and Fillion also notched two points on a pair of helpers.
Sullivan’s only other multi-point game was on Feb. 2, which was also a 5-4 home loss vs. North Dakota in the first game of a series.
Vitolins racked up two points for the second time this season and the sixth time as a RedHawk.
Fillion snapped a seven-game scoreless streak, picking up two points for the second time this season.
With an assist, Brayden Morrison recorded the second point of his Miami career, with the other coming in his first game as a RedHawk on Oct. 8, 2023.
Conner Hutchison also was credited with a helper for his sixth point of the season, leading all defensemen.
— Miami netted four second-period goals, the most markers it has recorded in a stanza since Game 2 last season on Oct. 8, 2023 (when Morrison had his assist) at Ferris State.
— The RedHawks finished 2-for-4 on the power play, the first time they have scored multiple goals on the man-advantage since Game 3 vs. Alaska-Anchorage.
Both were on the major power play, the first goals Miami has scored on a five-minute PP this season.
— Miami has been scored on in 15 consecutive periods.
— North Dakota finished with 38 shots on goal, the second-most allowed by the RedHawks this season. The most they’ve surrendered is 41, and that was two Saturdays ago against Omaha.
As in the last game they played.
ANALYSIS: Miami looked rusty the first five minutes and couldn’t seem to get its legs. The RedHawks were better — not great — for the balance of that frame. UND was up one after 20 minutes.
Then the second period got weird.
At the 1:18 mark, the Fighting Hawks appeared to take a two-goal lead, but the point-blank rip by Ben Strinden hit the far post, came across the crease to hit the near post, popped into the air and landed on Miami goalie Ethan Dahlmeir’s shoulder blade, rolled down his back and finally off to the side of the crease.
Then Vitolins scored less than a minute later for Miami. Then Andrew answered for North Dakota 18 seconds later.
Seconds before the six-minute mark, Dahlmeir tried to push off post-to-post but came up lame and had to exit the game. He struggled to put weight on his skates and he appeared to be suffering from a groin injury. He was replaced by Bruno Bruveris.
At the same stoppage — and speaking of groins — Miami challenged for a potential major penalty and won in Zebra Court, earning a five-minute power play as replay clearly showed Kunz slashing the RedHawks’ Dylan Moulton between the legs.
It was nuts.
Miami somehow managed two power play goals on the major — one at the outset and another toward the end — despite being almost completely incapable of setting up in the offensive zone the other 95 percent of the man-advantage.
Strange worked out for the RedHawks, who took a 4-2 lead into the second intermission. Unfortunately for Miami, hockey is a game of three periods.
RedHawks fans for any length of time know all about that, and in this ultra-transformative era of college hockey, they should probably lobby the NCAA for a two-period format.
— In the postgame presser, coach Anthony Noreen nailed it. Obviously Miami needs to win this game and others like it. And the fact the RedHawks didn’t despite leading by two with six minutes remaining is hard to take.
But as he mentioned, there was a lot of good here too, a reminder that while fans may sometimes feel like sticking their faces in a belt sander, for the true fans that have been and will remain in it for the long haul, that matters as much as the result.
For those paying attention to Noreen’s comments, he’s has been clear that he’s going to overhaul the culture, and if that means sometimes players that can help him win now sit, he’s willing to bench them.
For the Miami fanbase, trading a random win here or there this season for more long-term success should be an easy message to sell.
— Didn’t we see this movie before? The last time UND was here in February, Miami scored three unanswered second-period goals to take a 4-2 lead in Game 1.
That ended with the Fighting Hawks netting a pair of goals in the final 20 minutes to tie it (including an extra-attacker marker like in this game) and UND scoring in the second minute of overtime to win it by the score of…5-4.
— Miami did a poor job of clearing pucks in the defensive zone much of the game. Numerous times the puck was at one of the points or the high slot and the RedHawks were unable to knock it out of the zone.
It looked like the ice was less than ideal, which didn’t help. Eight of the nine goals were scored in the south end, where pucks seemed to hop over sticks regularly. There was also an extended delay before the start of the second period because of a rut in front of the North Dakota bench.
The outside temperature never reached freezing either of the past two days — unusual for this area this early into winter — so it’s surprising ice conditions would be an issue.
— Waldron played some of his best hockey of the season the final 30 minutes. He started slowly but was one of the best players on the ice the last period and a half.
LINEUP CHANGES: Just one and it was up front.
Artur Turansky dressed in place of William Hallen. Hallen missed the seven games prior to the Omaha series, so it’s unclear if his being scratched is injury related.
Regular starting defenseman Zane Demsey sat for the second straight game.
The Dahlmeir injury didn’t look good, but fortunately for him, Miami is off until the second week of January after Saturday’s game.
STANDINGS: Miami dropped to 0-7 in league play with just one point. Minn.-Duluth and Denver are tied for seventh with six points apiece.
The RedHawks dropped to 60th in the PairWise, ahead of just UAA, RIT, Northern Michigan and Mercyhurst.
GRADES
FORWARDS: B-. Miami’s forwards were opportunistic. Vitolins buried a loose puck. Sullivan cashed in a rebound. Waldron buried a one-timer, and Fillion set the latter two up. Fillion’s knock is he chased his drifting stick to the blue line shorthanded, leading to a short-term 5-on-3 that North Dakota scored on for its first goal. Loved the efforts of Colby Ambrosio and Blake Mesenburg on the penalty kill. Love John Emmons and Frankie Carogioiello, but they have to stay out of the box. Carogioiello has taken five minors in five games plus a 10-minute misconduct, and Emmons has five minors and a misconduct in his last three contests.
DEFENSEMEN: C-. Loved Feenstra’s goal but otherwise just an OK game by this corps. Way, way too much North Dakota possession time in Miami’s offensive zone, and of course that’s on the forwards too, but nothing special by anyone here. Hutchison picked up a deserved second helper on Vitolins’ goal.
GOALIES: C. Dahlmeir was pretty solid but would’ve definitely liked that second UND goal back from the side of the cage, as he didn’t appear to hug the post securely. Bruveris made a couple of high-quality saves and had little chance on all three of his goals against.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Of course we’re only half a season into the Anthony Noreen era, but seeing his reserved demeanor minutes after another devastating loss RedHawks fans have become all too accustomed to in his postgame presser was reassuring.
It helps that he hasn’t been subject to years of similar losses, the likes and frequency of which are rarely comparable in any other sport at any level. The Miami hockey fanbase is truly over 90 percent scar tissue.
During the past few years, sometimes the decision between heading to Oxford for an inevitable pair of blowouts and thrusting oneself into a wood chipper was a difficult one. But typically even after a couple of miles in the direction of the nearest landscaping company, that feeling would wear off and the better choice was reroute to Goggin.
Watching this ending was tough. Watching many, many similar endings the past few years has been exhausting.
Miami fans watched the national championship game in 2009 end in a similar manner, one of the most heartbreaking losses imaginable for any fanbase.
But — as hard as it sometimes is to do — if one looks beyond the final score from this game, the newly-established recruiting pipeline alone is reason to remain optimistic about the future of this program.
Fans have waited a long time for Miami hockey to return to its former luster. If they can wait a little longer, the dividends will be worth it.
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