OXFORD, Ohio — Two early Western Michigan goals were overturned, but two stood, and with an empty netter thrown in, that was enough for the Broncos to salvage a series split.
In a game choc with challenges, replays and disallowed goals, No. 4 WMU beat Miami, 3-1 in the series and season finale at Cady Arena on Saturday.
That snapped the RedHawks’ five-game winning streak.
Miami (17-9-2) heads to North Dakota next weekend.
RECAP: Western Michigan (20-8) went ahead just 1:48 into the first period on a goal by Bobby Cowan, who drove from the right point to the slot and flicked a change-up backhander that snuck in off the stick side post.
A WMU goal was waved off for goaltender interference, and another was erased with 5:02 remaining in the stanza when it was ruled the Broncos had committed a major slew footing penalty earlier.
Cowan led a 3-on-2 rush with 11:14 left in the middle frame, fired a close-range shot that RedHawks goalie Matteo Drobac kicked out, and the rebound deflected in off the skate of streaking teammate Cole Spicer to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead.
Miami cut the deficit in half with 32 seconds to play shorthanded in the second period. Ilia Morozov stole the puck in his own zone, skated through the neutral zone and fed a surging David Deputy, who took one stride through the slot and roofed a forehander home on the glove side.
Deputy was awarded a penalty shot earlier that period but was denied by WMU goalie Hampton Slukynsky.
The Broncos’ Liam Valente sealed it with a minute left in regulation, swinging his stick at a loose puck in the right faceoff circle that found the empty net.
STATS: That’s 12 goals in 12 games for Deputy, who has scored 36.4 percent of Miami’s goal during his current assault of college hockey netminders.
With 14 markers on the season, Deputy is one away from becoming the first RedHawk to score 15 times in a season since Gordie Green in 2017-18.
Morozov picked up an assist, his second in as many games.
— Miami was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill, with Deputy scoring MU’s lone goal shorthanded, and the team finished the weekend 8 of 8 on the PK. The RedHawks improved to 81.1 percent on the PK, 28th-best in the NCAA.
— But, MU was 0-for-4 on the power play including a major, so the RedHawks played 13 minutes — over a fifth of this game — on the man-advantage and didn’t score.
ANALYSIS: Like Friday, Miami started slowly but got better as the game progressed.
And to its credit, Western Michigan had jet fuel in its skates the opening 10 minutes, scoring three times…with only one standing.
At times it felt like the Broncos might pull away, but to the RedHawks’ credit, they held a high-octane WMU offense to a fluke slow-motion goal, another off a skate and an empty netter.
Miami has had plenty of puck luck the last few games. Western Michigan seemed to lead in that department in this game.
— Sean Kuraly dropped the first puck in this game to honor his father, Rick Kuraly, who passed away in September.
Kuraly is MU’s all-time leading goal scorer with 101. Tenth-year NHL forward Sean, who plays for the Boston Bruins, was a Miami captain in 2015-16 and scored 43 goals in four seasons with the RedHawks.
This weekend also represents the 15th anniversary of Brendan Burke’s death. Burke, a student manager for Miami at the time, and a friend were killed in a snow-related car accident on Feb. 5, 2010.
— A number of alumni attended this weekend’s series, including Kuraly, Kevyn Adams, Jay Williams, Kevin Morris, Alex Wideman, and Chuck Thuss.
— What a crowd again. Saturday was another sellout, announced as 3,642. Students were two deep in many of the SRO areas and they stood on benches in the non-Zamboni end just to see the action.
Miami hasn’t had widespread standing room visibility issues since the first years Goggin opened in the late 2000s.
— The waved-off third WMU goal (which actually would have made it 2-0 since its second was overturned) was for a slew foot prior to goal, a replay initiated by the officials. Zaccharya Wisdom was ultimately ejected for the takedown of Miami’s Kocha Delic, although any intent isn’t clear from the NCHC.tv replays.
— Already shorthanded due to injuries, within about a minute, Doug Grimes and Nick Donato went down in the third period, drawing whistles, but both were able to remain in the game.
Donato saw a major uptick in his workload and responded by logging some of his best shut-down minutes of the season.
— Drobac allowed the Bugs Bunny slo-mo goal because traffic in front of him, but again he made two stops on A-plus chances.
LINEUP CHANGES: Both defenseman Vladislav Lukashevich and forward Ethan Hay were injured on Friday and were scratched on Saturday.
Down to just six healthy blueliners, Miami dressed 13 forwards, with Justin Stupka returning to the lineup and Brayden Morrison playing just his second game of the season.
Interestingly, Miami had been recently acknowledging injuries in its line charts, but the RedHawks did away with that for Saturday’s lineup, which has no injuries listed although multiple key players are clearly being scratched due to injury. Like Lukashevich and Hay.
STANDINGS: St. Cloud State won on Saturday, dropping Miami to sixth in the nine-team NCHC, but the RedHawks have two league games in hand over the Huskies.
Colorado College is seventh at 20 points, Arizona State has 19 and Omaha is at 18.
As of the conclusion of all Saturday games, Miami is 21st in the all-important NPI.
FINAL THOUGHTS: It’s never fun to lose, but the RedHawks split with the defending national champions, who were ranked No. 4 in college hockey.
And Miami hung tight in this game, finally allowing an empty netter with a minute left.
The RedHawks needed to prove they can beat a top-5 opponents, and they did, and they were right there with the Broncos in the closing minutes but couldn’t generate the equalizer before giving up the ENG.
Two points out of six against this team, at this point, is still a major victory.
Miami has checked off the ‘beat a really good opponent’ box, but next week the RedHawks will have to do so in one of the most intimidating rinks on the continent.
View From the Glass 