OXFORD, Ohio — Miami is officially in elimination mode.
The RedHawks allowed four unanswered goals in the first two periods en route to a 5-1 loss to No. 6 Denver at Cady Arena on Friday.
Miami (3-24-2), now 0-19 in conference play with just two league points, needs to earn at least two more on Saturday or the RedHawks will be the first team in league history eliminated from an NCHC Tournament berth.
This series concludes at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: Denver (22-8-1) scored twice in the first period and added two more in the first 14 minutes of the middle frame to blow the game open.
Miami’s Colby Ambrosio briefly cut the deficit to three when he fired a shot from the slot that was partly deflected at the point of contact and bounced over the shoulder of Denver goalie Matt Davis and into the net.
But just 18 seconds later, the Pioneers’ Carter King found the net to seal it, capping the scoring.
STATS: Ambrosio scored for the second straight game, the fifth time a Miami skater has found the net in consecutive contests this season.
Johnny Waldron picked up the primary assist, his team-best 13th, and Michael Quinn earned the other helper, leading all blueliners with eight assists.
— Denver scored exactly two goals vs. Miami the previous five periods, and that streak was extended to seven until the Pioneers broke it in the final frame by only scoring once.
— The RedHawks have allowed at least one marker in 15 consecutive regulation periods and 47 of 51 their last 17 games.
ANALYSIS: Miami was the better team for the first few minutes of the game.
But a turnover by RedHawks goalie Ethan Dahlmeir ended up in the MU net and the night went downhill from there.
Again, we’re in the redundancy department of redundancy at this point.
Were there some good moments? Yes. Did the team bust it? For the most part, yes. Was it nearly enough to beat the sixth-best team in Division I and defending national champions? No.
Once Miami was forced to chase the game, it was actually quite boring for large parts of the balance.
— The RedHawks, who were well-disciplined overall, were whistled yet again for too many men, which has been an issue this season, and at one point in the first period Miami was short a fifth skater for around 10 seconds. Coach Anthony Noreen talked about that call after the game, saying “at some point you can’t make little-kid mistakes” and said he was “at a loss” to explain it.
LINEUP CHANGES: Only one: Conner Hutchison returned to the defense corps in favor of Zane Demsey.
Hutchison was scratched for the first time this season last Saturday.
It was the sixth time Demsey has not dressed in 2024-25.
STANDINGS: Miami dropped to 0-19 in the NCHC with two league points, which came by forcing overtime. The RedHawks are 0-34-1 in their last 35 conference contests.
MU is tied with RIT for 62nd out of 64 in the PairWise rankings. Mercyhurst is ranked last.
GRADES
FORWARDS: D. The Ambrosio goal was nice, but overall, this corps finished with just 12 shots from 12 forwards and had a poor night in the faceoff circle. Plus some questionable defensive lapses by this group. The effort was still good, and John Emmons was once again one of the hardest-working skaters on the ice all night.
DEFENSEMEN: D+. Quinn picked up an assist and led all blueliners with three SOG. Hutchison and Dylan Moulton also had two shots. Some misses on defense by this group for sure.
GOALTENDING: D. It’s hard to write around the first goal. Bad giveaway, into the net. Dahlmeir was OK the rest of the way, although he probably would’ve liked either the third or fourth goals back, which came on a shot ticketed for the corner and a one-timer that slid through the five hole.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Partly due to the early start due to the basketball doubleheader, the attendance for this game was just 1,507, and to watch a significant number of them file out in the second period was painful for this program lifer.
We get that this year was always going to be a rebuild, but 21 straight losses, with eight of the last 11 coming by three or more goals?
The egregious mistakes, like the bad misplay that led to the first Denver goal, like the too many men penalty…difficult to see.
We’ll just let Noreen’s comments from his postgame presser stand here:
“You can sit the guys that make the mistakes, which, you’ve tried everything, at some point you just can’t make mental errors at this level. And it’s part maturity, but it’s part — it’s a grit, it’s a mental toughness thing, pushing through hard things — (this) is one of those things. It’s just a loss.”
“There’s got to be some fight in you, I don’t care who you’re playing, you could be playing the Canadian national team last night, it doesn’t matter, there has to be a compete level.”
“You have the defending national champion in your rink, there’s eyes on you, it matters, it’s a chance for your program, it’s a chance for you as a player.”
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