WMU dominates Miami, sweeps series

Not exactly the result Miami was hoping for in its first conference road games of 2025-26.

No. 8 Western Michigan pounded the RedHawks, 6-2 at Lawson Arena on Saturday, sweeping the weekend series and outscoring MU, 11-4 in the two-game set.

Shots for the weekend were 91-38, including 51-16 in this game.

Miami (7-3), which had won seven of its first eight games to open the season, hosts St. Cloud State next weekend.

RECAP: Western Michigan (7-5) dominated the first two periods, scoring the first four goals and outshooting Miami, 39-5.

The Broncos’ Iiro Hakkarainen opened the scoring when he backhanded a pass attempt that was deflected in the slot and ended up finding his stick on the left side of the net 7:54 into the first period.

With 3:52 left in the first period, Ty Henricks whipped a wrist shot from the top of the left faceoff circle past Miami goalie Matteo Drobac to extend WMU’s lead to two.

Less than two minutes into the middle frame, William Whitelaw tapped a seam pass by Bobby Cowan from the top of the right faceoff circle home from the left side of the crease to make it 3-0, seconds after a Miami penalty had expired.

Henricks pushed the WMU lead to four with 1:14 left in that stanza when he rifled home a cross-crease feed from Whitelaw.

Miami trimmed the lead to three less than seven minutes into the third period, as Vladislav Lukashevich wristed a shot from the left point that hit the skate of goalie Hampton Slukynsky, caromed over his body and into the net.

The RedHawks briefly cut the deficit to two when Michael Quinn ripped a one-time feed from the blue line past Slukynsky on the stick side with 9:45 left in regulation.

But just 13 seconds later, a centering feed from the corner by WMU’s Garrett Szydlowski hit the skate of Miami’s Kocha Delic at the top of the crease and ricocheted into the net, giving the Broncos a 5-2 lead.

Western Michigan’s Liam Valante capped the scoring with a breakaway goal with 6:44 remaining.

STATS: Defensemen dominated the Miami scoresheet, as Lukashevich and Quinn led all MU skaters with two points apiece. Both finished with a goal and an assist.

It was the first career multi-point game for Lukashevich, who is tied for second on the team with 11 points. He had seven his freshman season at Michigan State.

Quinn also went 1-1-2 at Denver on Jan. 11, which, coincidentally was also a 6-2 loss in which he factored in both RedHawks goals.

David Deputy and Casper Nassen both picked up assists.

Deputy’s was the second of his career, both in the last three games after he returned from injury. Nassen snapped a five-game points drought and is now 1-4-5 on the season.

— Delic and Doug Grimes both saw their points streaks end. Delic had points in the first nine games of 2025-26, the longest string to open a season since Carter Camper in 2010, and Grimes had notched a point in seven consecutive contests.

Lukashevich currently has the longest points streak for Miami at two games.

— Miami was perfect on six penalty kills, shutting down a pair of extensive two-man advantages.

It was only the third time this season the RedHawks did not allow a power play goal (although WMU did score seconds after a Miami penalty expired, and MU also played in a penalty-free game at Lindenwood).

On the flip side, the RedHawks were 0-for-5 on the power play, slipping to 14.6 percent on the season. They have just two PPGs in their last seven games.

— The RedHawks have allowed multiple goals in five straight periods.

— MU’s 16 shots on goal was a season low. The last time the RedHawks were outshot by a 3-to-1 margin was — you guessed it — that 6-2 loss at Denver in which Quinn scored and earned an assist.

The last time they allowed 51 shots on goal? Again, you can’t make this up: It was the last Miami conference road win, that 2023 4-1 victory at Duluth in which Ludvig Persson stopped 50 shots.

— Miami extended its NCHC road winless streak to 32 games. Last league win away from Oxford: Feb. 25, 2023 at Minn.-Duluth. Sorry, had to say it.

ANALYSIS: There’s no way to sugarcoat it: This was a steamer.

For the second straight night, Western Michigan showed why it’s the defending NCAA champion, and Lawson is always a tough place to win.

But if Vatican City faced Team Canada in the Olympics, it would probably fare better than a 39-5 shot disparity through 40 minutes.

Bad games happen throughout a season, and when you’re struggling against the Broncos on their home ice, it can be a long night. And it was.

To its credit, Miami didn’t give up and took the game to Western Michigan at times in the third period, giving the RedHawks something to build on in coming weeks. Too often the past few seasons during Miami’s structure dissonance period, 4-0 after two would end up a six-, seven- or eight-goal game.

But largely this is where as a coaching staff you set ablaze any film from the game and start anew on Monday.

— To be fair, two of the Western Michigan goals were largely a result of bad luck. A centering feed went in off of Delic’s skate, and Miami altered several passes in their defensive zone on the first WMU goal before one deflection ended up right next to cage for a tap-in goal.

— Speaking of Delic, he took a major and game misconduct with two minutes left for shoving a WMU skater face-first into the boards. Dangerous play and luckily no one was hurt.

— Faceoffs were better than Friday but still underwater. Miami won 30 of 66 draws (45.5 percent) on Saturday after winning just 32 percent in the series opener.

LINEUP CHANGES: Same as it ever was.

STANDINGS: As of 10:40 p.m. EST, Miami had dropped to 24th in the NPI.

The RedHawks slipped to 1-3 in the NCHC and are in the league basement, one point behind St. Cloud State, which Miami will host next weekend.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This weekend was a major reality check for Miami.

Overall, the RedHawks have played very good hockey for most of the first month and a half of the season, and when they didn’t, they found a way to win anyway, a 180-degree turnaround from the last handful of seasons.

Ferris State and Lindenwood were pretty good teams, and Arizona State is better than pretty good. But Western Michigan is about four echelons above all of MU’s previous opponents, and Miami was only able to hang with the Broncos for the first and last period of the series.

The pecking order in hockey — or any sport — constantly changes during a season, of course, but if one believes the polls, Miami was a borderline top-20 team.

This series proved that, at least in mid-November of 2025, the RedHawks still have much work to do if they hope to become serious competitors in this league.