Miami has played some very tight games against college hockey’s elite recently.
Friday wasn’t one of them, as No. 3 Western Michigan scored three times in the first 15 minutes en route to an 8-3 blowout of the RedHawks at Lawson Arena.
The loss was Miami’s 15th straight, one short of the team record set in 1990-91, and MU extended its conference winless streak to 29 games.
RECAP: Tiro Hakkarainen, Owen Michaels and Liam Valente all scored in a span of 7:01 midway through the first period to give the Broncos an early 3-0 lead.
Miami (3-18-2) pulled within two when Matt Choupani stole the puck in the offensive zone, curled to the high slot and whipped a shot that Ryan Sullivan deflected in, waist-high at the top of the crease 3:34 into the second period.
But Western Michigan (16-4-1) answered 24 seconds later, as Wyatt Schingoethe made it 4-1 and a minute after that, Alex Bump extended the Broncos’ lead to four on a power play blast that snuck through traffic.
Fifteen seconds into the third period, Sullivan found the net again on a well-placed glove-side wrister from the left faceoff circle to make it 5-2.
Michaels capped off a tic-tac-toe passing play to put the Broncos back up by four three minutes later.
Miami again trimmed its deficit to three with 9:23 left in regulation, as Matt Choupani fed a cross-crease pass to Christophe Fillion, who corralled the puck and roofed it on a 2-on-1.
But WMU’s Samuel Sjolund and Zach Nehring sealed it on goals 50 seconds apart in the closing minutes.
RedHawks goalie Ethan Dahlmeir left the game midway through the third period and went to the locker room, and defenseman Nick Donato appeared to get banged up early in the first and did not return.
STATS: Sullivan’s two-goal game was the first of his five-year Division I career and just the second multi-tally contest by a RedHawk this season (Choupani also scored two goals vs. Alaska-Anchorage on Oct. 12).
Sullivan had scored just nine career goals in four previous campaigns, but he already has five in 2024-25, tied with Choupani and Casper Nassen for the team lead.
Fillion’s marker was his fourth of this campaign and his 10th point, tying him for fourth on the team leaderboard.
Choupani picked up two assists, recording his fourth multi-point game of the season and snapping a six-game pointless streak.
A pair of defensemen also earned helpers — Dylan Moulton, his fourth of the season, and Rihards Simanovics, his first point of 2024-25.
— Miami’s special teams continued to struggle.
The RedHawks were 0-for-2 on the power play, their third consecutive game without a PPG. The penalty kill was just 2 of 4, dropping to 57.9 percent over MU’s last eight contests.
— Western Michigan finished with 47 shots, the most Miami has surrendered all season. The last time an opponent ended a game with that many SOG was Feb. 24, 2024 at Denver.
ANALYSIS: Coach Anthony Noreen has been nothing but polite and professional, and — equally as important — honest and insightful in his postgame pressers.
And he has exuded calmness and courteousness after even the most lopsided loss when questioned by his SID or local media.
But for just the second time this season, when answering questions, he stuck out his jaw as if to curb his urge to blow up in John Tortorella fashion.
Only once prior has Noreen appeared ready to go Tiger Williams on someone, and that was after the Saturday loss at Omaha on Nov. 23, the only other time a team hung dog balls on Miami (the final score in that steamer was 8-0).
We’ll have to come up with a name for it: The Noreen Gnash perhaps? Hopefully we don’t see it often.
Regardless, he was noticeably agitated.
The shots were 18-3 in the first period. Guess which team had the three. And then 16-5 again in the third? After we’d seen this team finish off games so much better in recent weeks?
Miami came out strong to start the second and third periods and actually played even with WMU in the second period, but 47-21 on the shot counter largely tells the story.
— Didn’t like some of the defensive breakdowns. We saw a 2-on-1 and goal with both D-men caught in the neutral zone, one with a skater (who had eight goals coming in) left alone at the top of the faceoff circle for a one-timer, one where both blueliners went behind the net in the D-zone to tie up the same player, and the list goes on.
To its credit, Western Michigan showed why it’s a top-five team. The Broncos displayed their ample skill and took advantage of nearly every opportunity Miami gave them. Hadn’t seen WMU play this season and came away thoroughly impressed.
LINEUP CHANGES: Johnny Waldron, who is tied for the team lead with 14 points, was a scratch up front. Brayden Morrison dressed in that final forward slot.
On defense, Zane Demsey sat for the fourth time in eight games, and Michael Feenstra returned to the lineup after sitting out the last three contests.
Dahlmeir was in net for the first time since leaving a game vs. North Dakota with an LBI on Dec. 6 and appeared to suffer another injury in this game. He came out after an innocuous play midway the third period and skated off toward the RedHawks’ locker room minutes later.
Bruno Bruveris finished the game between the pipes.
STANDINGS: Miami actually moved up from 63rd to 62nd out of 64 in the PairWise as RIT switched places. Mercyhurst remains in last.
FINAL THOUGHTS: We were hoping to see sustained progress in the second half of this season — and largely we have — but this outcome did nothing to propel the program to a happier place in any way.
Best to put this game in the rear-view mirror, and fortunately for Miami — or not — it has another game scheduled against this same Western Michigan team tonight.
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