OXFORD, Ohio — David Deputy singlehandedly solved Miami’s special teams drought.
The freshman scored twice on the power play and again shorthanded for his first career hat trick as Miami pounded Omaha, 6-2 at Cady Arena on Saturday, to finish off its first conference sweep in four years.
The RedHawks scored three unanswered first-period goals and the Mavericks never recovered.
Miami is off next weekend and returns to action Jan. 30-31 at St. Cloud State.
RECAP: Miami (14-8-2!) opened the scoring 5:21 into the first period when Casper Nassen fired a slap pass from the top of the left faceoff circle to the slot, where Deputy redirected it into the net from the slot.
Just 92 seconds later, the RedHawks’ Bradley Walker lifted a fly-pattern pass through the neutral zone to Doug Grimes, who won a hand-to-hand battle to control the puck through the slot then poked it past goalie Dawson Cowan.
With 2:33 left in the opening frame, Deputy struck again on a power play tip drill, this time deflecting a Michael Quinn blue line wrist shot in the slot, making it 3-0.
At the 8:27 mark of the second period, Miami extended its lead to four when Ethan Hay sprung Deputy loose on an outlet pass through the neutral zone that Deputy controlled at the blue line for a breakaway, juked on his backhand and tucked the puck into the net on his forehand.
Omaha (8-16) scored two minutes later, as Cameron Briere fed a pass from behind the net to Sean Tschigerl, who batted the puck in from the top of the crease to make it 4-1.
The Mavericks joined the tipping parade, with Myles Hilman redirecting a blue line wrister from Spencer Sova, cutting the deficit to two 1:59 into the third period.
But just 18 seconds later, Miami re-upped its lead to three when a shot from the blue line by Nicholas Mikan was partially blocked in the slot, and John Emmons grabbed the loose puck and whipped it into the short side of the net from the left faceoff circle.
The RedHawks capped the scoring with 6:41 left in regulation when Quinn sent a wrister from the right point that hit a body and deflected to the left side of the net to a wide-open Max Helgeson, whose diving backhander found the back of the net.
STATS: It was Deputy’s first career hat trick and the second three-goal game by a RedHawk this season (Ryan Smith netted three at Lindenwood on Oct. 25).
Deputy has eight goals in eight games and is tied with Helgeson for the team lead in markers with 10.
Quinn finished with a career-high three points, all on assists.
Hay and Nassen picked up a pair of helpers, the first career two-assist game for both.
Helgeson scored his 10th goal, tying him with Deputy atop the team goals leaderboard.
Grimes netted his seventh of the season and the first since returning from injury two weeks ago, and Emmons’ marker was his first of 2025-26 and the second of his career.
Smith, Walker and Michael Phelan picked up assists to give them points in consecutive games, and Mikan recorded his second point of the season.
— Miami had not swept an NCHC opponent since Feb. 11-12, 2022. That was Omaha, at Cady Arena.
The previous time? Omaha again, Feb. 28-29, 2020, also in Oxford.
— Miami was 3-for-36 (8.3 percent) on the power play entering Saturday but was 2 of 4 on man-advantage chances in this game. The RedHawks also scored their first shorthanded goal since Nov. 1 vs. Arizona State.
— Speaking of special teams, Miami did not allow a PPG for the sixth straight game, going 13-for-13 in that span.
More to come Sunday…
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