Could Miami earn home ice for NCHC Tourney?

When Miami wrapped up the 2025 portion of its NCHC schedule, the RedHawks were in a familiar spot, the league cellar, with just eight conference points in 10 games.

The hope was that MU would at least claw out of the NCHC basement and qualify for the league tournament, which consists of the top eight teams in a nine-team conference.

Thanks to a 5-1 January — with all six games played against league foes — the RedHawks’ conference playoff prospects look significantly different.

First, let’s take a deeper dive into last night’s game, since we didn’t have a chance last night with the 10 p.m. EDT finish and the alarm set for 6 a.m. this morning.

The story of the night was goalie Matteo Drobac. It has been much of the season, actually, with him logging all but 60 minutes between the pipes, the drama surrounding eligibility of Shika Gadzhiev and his mid-season replacement, Mathis Langevin.

But on Saturday, Drobac stopped 36 of 37 shots against a team averaging 3.19 goals, making the spectacular save on occasion and seeing every shot — from the slot or the blue line, slap shot or heat-seeking wrister — directly into his glove.

Rebounds, really during his entire cartoonish January run (.964 save percentage!) have been non-existent.

And the hockey gods love to reward success, and that could be heard clearly in the handful of posts St. Cloud State hit, including a late chance that appeared to hit the post, pop up in the air, roll the back of one shoulder to the other and hit the post again late in the third period.

On a related note, polls for NCHC Goalie of the Month voting should open soon…

— He didn’t score, but what a game by Max Helgeson, whose ribbon-and-bow feed from behind the net set up Ryan Smith’s game winner, and he sprung David Deputy loose for his breakaway goal.

On a related note, Smith’s ensuing one-timer was a total snipe. No chance for the goalie.

— How about the effort by John Emmons, who intercepted a clearing pass at the blue line, skated in and snuck the puck through a pinhole opening just under the crossbar? A maximum effort guy that’s easy to root for.

— Deputy seems to add a gear every game. He absolutely blew through the SCSU defense multiple times, most notably on his highlight reel-worthy breakaway goal, when he juked right and tucked the puck in on his forehand.

— Defenseman Nick Donato has been more out than in the Miami lineup recently, but with injuries, he logged 16:23 on Saturday and more than held his own. He dished out a huge hit and was solid in his own end all game.

— Love to see Miami’s balanced scoring. Nine forwards have at least 14 points yet no one has more than 20. And the fourth line continues to be one of the team’s best each night.

— Got to get this power play going. This team has way too much talent to have zero PPGs in five of the last six games.

Now the standings…

Miami is in fifth place in the NCHC with 22 points in 16 games. The RedHawks are just four points behind fourth-place Minn.-Duluth, who holds the final home-ice slot for the first round of the NCHC Tournament.

MU also has two games in hand over the Bulldogs in conference play: Miami has eight games remaining, UMD just six.

The RedHawks also host Minn.-Duluth in their final home series of the season in three weeks.

Miami hosts defending national champion Western Michigan this weekend then heads to North Dakota before returning home to face UMD and finishes at last-place Omaha.

Duluth play North Dakota at AMSOIL, Miami in Oxford (after a week off) and finishes with Colorado College on home ice.

It’s a difficult road for the RedHawks to jump further in the league standings, but at least they control their own destiny.

Not to mention that it’s cool we can actually talk about this for the first time in over a decade.

Also, as of the conclusion of all of this weekend’s games, Miami is No. 20 in the NPI. The top 14-15 are expected to receive at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament, but advancing further in that index will be difficult without beating the conference powerhouses.

If asked Oct. 1 about the RedHawks’ sweep chances at St. Cloud State in late January, most would have said there was a better chance Mark Messier could grow a fully-flowing mullet.

Yet here we are. Fifth place, in tomahawk range of that all-important four seed.

Miami was 1-31-2 (.059) in its last 34 January games, but it just wrapped up the first month of 2026 with a 5-1 record against league foes it was winless against in its previous 41 contests.

Watching this program’s hyper-rejuvenated recruiting play out in real time the past 21 months, there was little doubt this program would return to Division I relevance soon.

That said, the biggest Miami hockey optimist couldn’t have predicted the RedHawks challenging for home ice in this season’s NCHC Tournament 11 months after they failed to win a game after Halloween in 2024-25.