Miami finally ends 3-year NCHC road skid

Miami checked off almost every one of its ‘haven’t done…since’ boxes in the first half of this season, but on Friday, the RedHawks finally ended one of the longest streaks on that list.

Thanks to a heat-seeking, overtime wrister from the slot by David Deputy, MU broke a 1,049-day, 32-game road conference winless streak, edging Arizona State, 2-1 at Mullett Arena to open the 2026 portion of its schedule.

The last time the RedHawks had beaten an NCHC team outside of Oxford was on Feb. 25, 2023, when they pulled out a 4-1 victory in Duluth.

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

RECAP: The game was scoreless until the 16:27 mark of the second period. That’s when Miami’s Michael Quinn fired a shot in from the right point that was kicked out by Arizona State goalie Connor Hasley, and Kocha Delic partially deflected the puck to Casper Nassen, who belted the rebound past the netminder to give the RedHawks the lead.

It looked like that score might hold, but Arizona State (11-11-1) tied it on a one-time slap shot by Sam Court that beat Miami goalie Matteo Drobac on the stick side with 2:52 left in regulation.

Just 67 seconds into overtime, Deputy carried the puck into the zone on the left wing, cut to the middle from the top of the faceoff circle and whipped a shot across his body and just under the stick side crossbar from the high slot to win it.

STATS: Delic led all skaters with two points, both on assists, moving him into second on Miami’s leaderboard with 18.

Deputy netted his third goal in two games and his fifth in his last five contests. He now has seven markers on the season, tied for third on the RedHawks.

Nassen scored his fifth goal of the campaign. After notching just four points in his first nine games, he has tallied 9 in 12 since.

Defensemen Michael Quinn and Vladislav Lukashevich also picked up assists.

Quinn has five points in four games, and Lukashevich — who leads all blueliners with 17 points — he picked up points in three straight contests, the longest current streak on the team.

— Drobac won his 11th game of the season and snapped a personal five-game winless streak. He stopped 37 of 38 shots (.974), his third-best save percentage of 2025-26, with the only two better outings being his pair of shutouts.

— With just three goals in 61 minutes, this was the lowest-scoring game Miami has played in this season. Twice this season the RedHawks and their opponents have four times combined.

— Miami (12-7-2) was perfect on the penalty kill for the third straight game, finishing 5-for-5 against an Arizona State team that boasted a 24.1 percent power play and killing all 10 of their shorthanded chances in that span.

Unfortunately for the RedHawks, they were 0 of 4 on the man-advantage, slipping to 3-for-32 (9.4 percent) their last seven games.

ANALYSIS: Definitely advantage Arizona State in the first period, as they dominated play in a quickly-moving frame that featured just nine faceoffs and saw Miami manage just four shots on goal.

The RedHawks played better in the second period, especially toward the end, including the Nassen goal.

Miami was solid in the third period as well, allowing just a seeing-eye slap-shot goal from what seemed like the second row of the mezzanine.

And credit the Sun Devils: They came out with a ton of energy early, but even with ASU controlled play, the RedHawks played smart hockey (coach Anthony Noreen called it ‘mature’ in the postgame presser) and avoided egregious turnovers.

Arizona State did miss a couple of key chances, most notably a breakaway by D-1 points leader Cruz Lucius, who also was fed a 2-on-1 ribbon-on-the-puck gift of a crossing setup pass through the slot, but he fanned on his slow-pitch one-timer.

Then again, Delic did manage to hit a post and a crossbar (on initial glance from the center ice camera it looked like the first one went in).

— On Deputy’s goal: It was just a beautiful play and a snipe of a shot. Deputy also was a quadrillionth of a second early carrying the puck into the zone earlier in the game, or he was going in for a breakaway. He finished with a team-best six SOG and is now must be considered one of — if not the — biggest offensive threats on the RedHawks.

— On Miami’s first goal: It was great to see Nassen score by way of something other than his canon of a slap shot, and Quinn has really gotten good at sending shots into the crease area for either…well…goals (he has four this season after netting just two all of his freshman season), tip-drill deflections into the net, or — in this case — rebound tallies.

Nassen has been much more active in the offensive zone the past 4-6 weeks, and it’s showing on the points sheet.

— Can’t say enough about Drobac’s effort in this game. When the top line of Lucius, Cullen Potter and Bennett Schimek combine for 15 shots on goal and Arizona State is on the power play for one-sixth of the game, you’re not to win without stellar goaltending.

His rebound control was stellar all game, and he made an acrobatic save on a point-blank chance

Multiple Sun Devils openly showed their frustration as the game went on.

— Bradley Walker was a skating 18-wheeler all game, running players over all night (including one of the bigger hits of the game in one of the corners that shook the ASU skater up), and all but one of the checks were legal. He was whistled for interference late in the first period.

Walker shifted to the second line and Deputy was promoted to the top line with Matteo Giampa scratched.

Deputy, one of the smaller RedHawks, also dished out a huge hit in the first period.

— In the Mr. Obvious department, giving this team five power play chances is not viable long-term. Miami needs to cut down its penalties — especially three by forwards — and for the love of God, can the RedHawks go one weekend without being whistled for too many men?

The Genesis song should be in the Cady Arena DJ’s rotation.

— 4-0-2 in overtime? Proof this is a completely different program than even 10 months prior.

LINEUP CHANGES: As mentioned above, Giampa was scratched up front and is not expected to play this weekend.

That’s a big loss, as he leads the team in points (19) and is tied for the top spot in goals (9).

Doug Grimes returned though after missing two games due to an LBI.

Justin Stupka also dressed as the 13th forward after sitting in the third-place game of the GLI.

Defenseman Nick Donato was scratched, as Miami went with six defensemen.

In net, Drobac started and finished for the 20th time this season in 21 games. Mathis Langevin debuted for Miami between the pipes in the GLI third-place game and stopped 30 of 32 shots. Who starts on Saturday? Stay tuned.

STANDINGS: Miami could have made a move in the NCHC standings, but eighth-place Colorado College beat conference leader North Dakota.

So the RedHawks remain in last place for now, just one point behind St. Cloud State and two back of Omaha and CC. Arizona State leads the RedHawks by four.

After the conclusion of all NCAA games on Friday, Miami was 30th in the NPI, which determines at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The magnitude of this win can’t be overstated.

There’s a whole big internet out there, to quote a famous miamihawktalk.fans member, so maybe the players didn’t know that Miami’s NCHC winless streak had reached 32 games, or that the RedHawks hadn’t recorded a conference win since a team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers had won a World Series, but at the very least they had to be aware that it had been a long time since Miami had won a league road game.

Add this to the Miami checklist of ‘last times’ it has crossed off this season, and this one must rank in the top few, based on longevity alone.

Regardless of the historic significance, the RedHawks have a real chance to climb out of the NCHC basement, and earning multiple points on Saturday could help Miami at least earn a spot in the conference tournament.