OXFORD, Ohio — The first period nearly mirrored Friday.
Like in the series opener, Miami scored first but Omaha netted a pair of goals late in the frame to take the lead.
And similar to Game 1, the Mavericks never relinquished that edge or allowed another tally, sweeping away the RedHawks, 3-1 at Cady Arena on Saturday.
MU’s losing streak, now at 14 games, is the second-longest in program history dating back to 1990-91, when the RedHawks dropped 16 in a row.
Miami (3-17-2) heads to Western Michigan next weekend.
RECAP: With 8:23 left in the first period, Miami freshman John Emmons won a battle along the half wall and dished to Colby Ambrosio, who skated behind the UNO net and slid a no-look backhander to a streaking Emmons, who buried a one-timer from the right side of the cage.
But with 59 seconds remaining in the frame, Omaha’s Brock Bremer cleaned up a rebound at the top of the crease off a shot by Griffin Luetke, tying the score.
In the final second of the stanza, the Mavericks’ Dylan Gratton buried a one-timer from the slot glove side off a feed from Liam Watkins to put the Mavericks ahead, 2-1.
Omaha (12-10) capped the scoring midway through the second period when Brady Risk threw a knee-high pass from the boards to the right side of the net and Jacob Guevin batted it in.
STATS: Emmons’ goal was the first of his career and his first collegiate point.
Ambrosio earned the primary assist, his second point in four games and his first helper in seven contests.
Defenseman Spencer Cox notched the secondary assist, his third of the season with all coming in his last seven games.
— Miami finished with 28 shots, the team’s highest SOG output in 12 games.
— The RedHawks also snapped a six-game streak of allowing four or more goals. They also did not allow a third-period tally for the first time in 10 games, and that also ended a run of 10 straight frames surrendering a marker.
Now the bust…
— Miami was held to two goals or fewer for the 13th time in 14 games and has scored just seven times in its last seven for an average of average.
— In capping off its four-game season sweep, Omaha extended its winning streak over Miami to 10 games, including six straight in Oxford.
— Miami lost its 19th consecutive game against NCHC foes and is winless in its last 28 vs. league opponents (0-27-1).
ANALYSIS: Feel free to go back to yesterday’s gamer and look…no part of this write-up was cut-and-pasted.
The story was once again the final stretch of the first period.
The first ~16 minutes were some of Miami’s best of the season. Passing, puck possession, defending, boards and 50-50 puck battles, you name it. MU actually led in shots, 6-0 at the 10-minute mark (UNO’s first credit ‘shot’ was gloved by Miller well wide of the cage).
Then Omaha had a near-breakaway, and while defending, Ambrosio was called for slashing in the slot with 1:20 left (Miami coach Anthony Noreen was clearly not happy with the call).
Twenty-one seconds later, the puck was in Miami’s net. With 0.5 seconds left, the Mavericks scored again.
Omaha found its legs in the second period, but the RedHawks played well enough, although they allowed a highlight-reel goal on a cutting forward who batted a puck out of the air and past Miller.
And Miami was very solid again in the third period, outshooting UNO, 11-9 despite being shorthanded for four minutes.
The RedHawks have been outscored, 27-8 in the final 20 minutes this season and 15-2 in conference play, and Noreen said he hopes the extra conditioning work the team did during its extended break has played a factor in MU’s more competitive finishes in recent weeks.
“It’s been the whole season, but I think we’ve really doubled down on it after the series at UNO,” Noreen said. “We might not be able to make our group the most skilled group or the most talented group in the country…we think that’s a controllable. We think your conditioning is a controllable, and if it’s controllable, we have to be elite at it.
“Both weekends: Last weekend and this weekend, right down to the very end, it certainly wasn’t for lack of conditioning or legs or effort, obviously we just have to get a little better execution.”
But playing well overall for two nights at home against an unranked, .500 team and was still outscored, 7-2 on the weekend. Miami’s next eight games are all against ranked teams, including four vs. top-five opponents in the major polls.
— Playing on the fourth line, Emmons was arguably Miami’s best forward on Friday, and he was rewarded in this game.
Ambrosio deserves as much of the credit — if you look closely at the replay you can see a little bow on top of the puck, as he had fooled Mavericks goalie Kevin Reidler into thinking he was going to wrap around and instead pulled up and put his gift of a feed right on the tape, and Emmons fired it into the empty half of the net.
— Speaking of freshmen, they have scored all four Miami goals the last three games.
— The RedHawks’ special teams were anything but, as Omaha finished 1 of 4 on the power play with 13 SOG in 6:21, which Miami generated just three shots in four minutes on the man-advantage and went 0-for-2.
LINEUP CHANGES: The only move Noreen made was in net, starting Miller for the second time this season. Bruno Bruveris allowed four goals on 21 shots on Friday and Ethan Dahlmeir was listed as the third goalie but has not played since suffering a lower body injury Dec. 6 vs. North Dakota.
STANDINGS: Miami dropped into a tie with RIT for 62nd out of 64 teams in Division I. Mercyhurst is last.
The RedHawks completed the first half of their league schedule 0-12 with just one point, trailing eighth-place St. Cloud State by 13 points.
This season with nine teams in the NCHC, the last-place finisher does not earn a spot in the NCHC Tournament, so unless Miami can make up a ton of ground the next 12 games against a meatgrinder of a schedule, the RedHawks will sit out the postseason.
GRADES
FORWARDS: C-. This is another one of those effort vs. results grades. The effort was in the A- range, but that isn’t how score is kept in league sports. The fourth line of Emmons, Raimonds Vitolins and Teodor Forssander played well together again, with Ambrosio also double-shifting on that line. Like Emmons, Forssander was a ball of energy and appears to be gaining confidence. Casper Nassen didn’t score for the first time in three games but the puck was on his stick a lot, and he also used his 6-feet-4 frame to help win his share of boards battles, especially early.
DEFENSEMEN: B. There was a lot to like from this corps. Omaha defended well but left a lot of outside lanes open, and with Miami’s soccer-ish offensive numbers recently, RedHawks defensemen fired away. Dylan Moulton led the team with four shots, and Cox and Conner Hutchison finished with three apiece. And Cox picked up an assist on Emmons’ goal.
GOALTENDING: B-. Omaha’s first goal came off a rebound that Miller probably would have liked back, but otherwise he played a quality game, stopping 26 of 29 (.897). The second and third goals were unstoppable, and while Miller didn’t have to make any radical saves, he was excellent on the better chances and controlled his rebounds. Despite being considered the third goalie entering this season, Miller has shown he is more than capable of stopping the bleeding in relief as well as starting. Noreen said after the game that he’s looking for someone to take the reins in net, and with a team-best .892 save percentage, there’s a good chance Miller logs more time between the pipes down the stretch.
FINAL THOUGHTS: If you’re a casual fan that was at either of this weekend’s games or just follow the team remotely, the results couldn’t have impressed.
Even if you’re a long-time fan leaning toward lacing your own drink with arsenic, seeing Miami outscored, 7-2 by a .500 team in its own rink probably did little to assuage that impulse.
At 3-17-2 — a .181 winning percentage that is the second-worst in college hockey only to Mercyhurst — selling Noreen’s message of returning to the glory days of regular NCAA berths obviously gets harder.
But in Noreen’s postgame presser he said this series was a major step forward, and we agree.
Despite an 0-4 record this calendar year and all of the other negative stats, it feels like this team has returned from its extended break with much more consistent energy. Fewer uncompetitive periods, much more overall vigor and many more sustained offensive-zone shifts.
That said, with an unforgiving schedule facing the RedHawks for the final six weeks of the regular season, Miami will have to pull off multiple major upsets down the stretch to less lopsided record.
View From the Glass 