Miami breaks record with 17th straight loss

OXFORD, Ohio — Miami hockey made history on Friday, but not in a good way.

The RedHawks lost their school-record 17th straight game in blowout fashion, 7-1 to No. 12 Arizona State at Cady Arena.

Their previous record of 16 consecutive losses was set between Dec. 22, 1990 and Feb. 22, 1991.

These teams wrap up their weekend series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.

RECAP: Arizona State (15-9-1) took the lead on a Cole Gordon goal 13:27 into the first period.

The Sun Devils led by just one heading into the middle frame, but Ben Schimek scored shorthanded at the 3:05 mark and Ryan Kirwan netted a pair of power play tallies on a major penalty in the to make it 4-0 heading into the second intermission.

Cullen Porter found the net 85 seconds into the final stanza to extend ASU’s lead to five.

Just 1:03 later, Miami scored its lone goal. Dylan Moulton skated behind the Arizona State net and backhanded the puck on goalie Luke Pavicich that was denied then jammed home the loose puck on the rebound.

Lukas Sillinger and Artem Schlaine pumped in insurance goals to seal the Sun Devils’ win.

STATS: Moulton’s goal was the first of the season for grad senior defenseman. He scored six times in 2023-24 and now has 12 career markers.

Max Dukovac earned the primary assist, his second point in five games since returning from his LBI.

The other helper was credited to Blake Mesenburg, his sixth point of the season. The junior tallied just six points in his first two campaigns combined.

Sorry, that’s all the good we can muster.

— Special teams were certainly special. Arizona State was 2 of 3 on the power play (and it’s impossible to finish 100 percent on a major power play, so the Sun Devils maxed out with two PPGs), and Miami finished 0-for-3 and allowed two shorthanded goals.

The RedHawks have now allowed seven shorties this season, the most in all of Division I. Arizona State moved into second place in the NCAA with seven SHGs.

Miami (3-20-2) last allowed two shorthanded goals in a game March 9, 2024.

It was also MU’s fifth straight game without a power play goal (0-for-11), so the RedHawks are minus-2 on the man-advantage in that span.

— This was Miami’s fourth game in its last 12 allowing seven or more goals.

— The RedHawks finished winless in January for the fifth time in six years. They are 1-36-3 in their last 40 January games (.063).

Miami hasn’t won at home in January since the fifth day of 2018 vs. Denver.

ANALYSIS: During this historic stretch, these have been the hardest games to watch.

Miami was oh-so-close during the first period, and heading into intermission, the RedHawks were only down one and absolutely blitzed the offensive zone the last couple of shifts.

And the team was ready to play early in the middle frame and nearly tied it before allowing a dagger of a shorthanded goal.

After the special teams meltdown early in that period that saw MU’s deficit rise from one to four, the RedHawks also put together some great shifts in the second half of the game.

But after 60 minutes, the sad numbers shone brightly at Cady Arena. Arizona State 7. Miami 1.

This is a lame duck season. We get it. Just show everyone the team is getting better, moving closer toward being competitive in the most competitive college hockey league on planet Earth, and yes, please on the studly 2025-26 recruiting class.

And maybe even, I don’t know…win once every few months?

Miami had some good moments in this game, but overall this wasn’t an impressive effort — not a consistent enough effort — from a team that has enough talent to at least play a competitive game against a very good Arizona State team most nights.

— The teams combined for four penalties (although technically a 5 and a 10 are two separate penalties) and Miami managed to finish minus-4 on special teams.

Absolutely brutal.

On the RedHawks’ third period power play, coach Anthony Noreen sent a number of his bottom-6 forwards over the boards and some of his lesser-used D-men as well.

In the postgame presser, Noreen said he thought those were his hardest workers to that point.

Brayden Morrison, John Emmons, Teodor Forssander and Hampus Rydqvist were some of the skaters that logged rare TOI during that man-advantage.

— The major was against Zane Demsey, and while it initially looked like a minor at worst, replay showed he did bury Kyle Smolen when his back was turned to the boards.

Definitely not deliberate by a tough but clean Demsey. It was actually similar to the Zeev Buium hit here when Denver was in town, and he only got two minutes. A game misconduct seems excessive, and it sounds like technical difficulties took away the replay option.

— Miami had two 3-on-1 chances but didn’t even come close to registering a shot on either opportunity. An Arizona State defender made a great play to sprawl and break up one and the RedHawks fumbled the puck on the other.

Obviously MU needs to take advantage of such advantageous scoring chances.

LINEUP CHANGES: Just two, both up front.

Frankie Carogioiello and Raimonds Vitolins in, Tanyon Bajzer and Artur Turansky out.

Last Saturday was the first game Carogioiello was scratched for all season, and Vitolins was not in the lineup for just the second time.

Brett Miller was in net for the second straight game and his third start in Miami’s last four contests.

STANDINGS: Miami fell to 0-15 in the NCHC and now trails eighth-place St. Cloud State by 14 league points with nine games remaining.

The RedHawks would have to run down at least one league opponent to qualify for the conference tournament, since the NCHC now has nine teams and only eight advance to the postseason.

After all of Friday’s games, Miami was tied with RIT for 62nd out of 64 NCAA teams in the PairWise rankings.

GRADES

FORWARDS: D-. Not impressive overall. As mentioned above, a pair of 3-on-1s didn’t even result in a scoring chance, and far too much time was spent in the defensive zone. Power plays also had nothing to do with power.

DEFENSEMEN: D. Moulton did score the lone Miami goal. Otherwise, too many Grade-As allowed by this corps, with several ending up behind Miller. Agree with the call or not, the Demsey major was a killer.

GOALTENDING: D. Miller certainly wasn’t the reason Miami lost but it wasn’t his best game either. He was a little slow side-to-side and probably would’ve like one or two of Arizona State’s goals back. Miller finished 18 of 25 (.720), which is obviously less than optimal.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Well, Miami did it.

Coincidentally, the RedHawks’ previous two coaches both played on the 1990-91 team that lost 16 in a row — Chris Bergeron was a sophomore and Enrico Blasi a freshman.

It’s interesting that no other media has mentioned Word 1 about The Streak, which is easy to verify on Miami’s easily-accessible all-time stats archive page.

Noreen took this job fully aware of the overhaul needed to return the RedHawks to respectability, but even he probably never envisioned this team at the .160 winning percentage mark with nine games remaining with just one point in 15 NCHC games.

We mentioned last week that Noreen will likely take a chainsaw to this roster in the off-season. That means those RedHawks with remaining eligibility will need to earn spots on the 2025-26 roster.

And those who are leaning toward hitting the portal will want to polish up their hockey resumes by impressing during the final stretch of the season.

So there is every reason for everyone wearing a block ‘M’ on their sweater to skate as if their scholarship depends on it the next five weeks, because it likely will.