Miami’s conference tournament hopes will come down to the final night of the regular season.
The RedHawks fell to last-place Omaha, 5-3 at Baxter Arena on Friday, and will need to earn at least one point in the finale or have Denver pick up a point against Arizona State in its final game before the postseason.
The top eight teams in the nine-team NCHC qualify for the postseason tournament.
Miami (17-14-2), which lost its sixth straight game, is trying to snap a five-year skid of last-place finishes.
The series and regular season finale is at 8:05 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: Omaha (12-21) opened the scoring with 1:44 left in the first period on a goal by Cam Mitchell, who was left all alone in front of the net and shoveled a point-blank shot through Miami goalie Matteo Drobac.
The Mavericks made it 2-0 at the 6:15 mark of the middle frame when Tyler Rollwagen tipped a belt-high blue line blast from Jeremy Loranger just under the crossbar from the right side of the net on the power play.
On the power play with 5:47 left in that period, Miami’s Matteo Giampa carried the puck from the left point to the left faceoff dot and whipped a quick wrister with a defender draped to him and with another in the lane past Omaha goalie Simon Latkoczy glove side.
Giampa tied it on a nearly identical goal 1:43 into the final stanza, this time on a 4-on-4 after juking a defender at the top of the faceoff circle.
But Omaha took the lead for good, 3-2 just 2:41 later, as the Mavericks stole the puck in the neutral zone, and Brett Hyland carried the puck to the high slot, where he buried a wrister blocker side from the high slot.
And 3:15 after taking the lead, the Mavericks regained their two-goal cushion, as Jacob Guevin ripped a one-time slap shot through Drobac on the power play.
With the extra attacker, Miami did cut the deficit to one with 37 seconds left, with Casper Nassen hammering a one-timer past Latkoczy.
But UNO’s Jacob Slipec sealed it with nine seconds left by firing in a long-range empty netter.
STATS: Giampa netted two goals for the third time this season and the eighth time in his career.
He had never scored twice on the road as a RedHawk — he also found the net two times at home against Ferris State in the season opener and in the Belpot final against Union.
Giampa had five multi-goal games with Canisius but has never recorded an NCAA hat trick.
Shaun McEwen and Kocha Delic both picked up a pair of assists.
It was the second career two-assist game for McEwen, a defenseman who also went 0-2-2 at Lindenwood on Oct. 24.
Delic extended his points streak to four games (2-3-5), and this was his fifth multi-point game of the season. He leads the team with 27 points.
Nassen snapped a seven-game points drought with his sixth goal of the season.
Vladislav Lukashevich, playing in his third game since returning from injury, dished for his first assist since coming back, giving him a defenseman-leading 19, and Ryan Smith racked up a helper for his second point in four games and his 18th of the season.
— Miami finally scored on the power play, snapping an 0-for-26 skid over its previous eight games. The last time the RedHawks had recorded a man-advantage goal was against Omaha on Jan. 17.
But they were still just 1-for-6 (16.7 percent), and the penalty kill wasn’t much better at 6 of 8 (75.0 percent).
In its last four games, Miami is just 13-for-20 (65.0 percent) on the PK.
— The RedHawks have hemorrhaged goals in the final two periods of their last three games, allowing 13 goals in the last 40 minutes.
ANALYSIS: Miami dominated the first few minutes then Omaha took complete control of the game for the balance of the period. Drawing the first penalty of the game eight minutes in seemed to send the Mavericks to about Mach 4.
The break didn’t help, as the first half of the middle frame was one of the worst stretches Miami has played all season.
When the RedHawks finally created a scoring chance after allowing the first 10-plus shots of the stanza, Smith was whistled for goaltender interference.
David Deputy rang a shorthanded chance off the crossbar, and Giampa did eventually score, which seemed to settle the RedHawks a bit.
Then Giampa scored again early in the third period, and it felt like Miami might overcome its molasses-in-winter sluggish start and eke out a win anyway.
But when Omaha’s Hyland came right back with goal less than three minutes later, that felt like a death punch. Then another power play for the Mavericks, and three minutes after the go-ahead goal, UNO had rebuilt its two-goal lead.
Omaha deserves tons of credit: The Mavericks needed this game to have any shot at a postseason berth, and they played like it. They were the better team and absolutely deserved the three points.
But Miami got away from its game in several facets in what was probably its worst effort of the season.
— 2-on-1s against.
— Trying to carry the puck through several defenders.
— That crisp, flowing passing game of the RedHawks that makes them so fun to watch was almost non-existent in all three zones.
— Miami wasn’t nearly as pesky along the boards or pursuing 50-50 pucks, and just flat-out wasn’t as physical, although McEwen would probably take exception to that statement.
On top of all of that, the RedHawks were shorthanded eight times, including multiple taboo offensive zone infractions.
Was Miami overconfident? Tired from five straight weeks of grueling games? Has its power play woes drained its confidence in other areas? Is it the building (recall that one of the RedHawks’ worst games of last season was the last game it played at Baxter, an 8-1 loss)? A combination?
Unclear, but it was obvious that this wasn’t the same Miami team that we’ve watched — win or less — for the past five months. And the RedHawks need to right the proverbial ship immediately or their season could end in less than 24 hours.
— Giampa was easily Miami’s first star, as he looked like the Giampa we saw the first half of the season. He’s been battling injuries the second half and has missed seven games.
— The other Matteo — Drobac — one of the first stars of the season — may have wanted one of those goals back, but without him this game could have been 7-3.
That said, we’re surprised we haven’t seen Mathis Langevin, who played the GLI third-place game against Ferris State and stopped 30 of 32 shots in the win soon after coming to Oxford and hasn’t been since.
Drobac has been exceptional overall and was hot the first six weeks of 2026, but the last four games his save percentage is .886.
Changing goalies is a time-honored coaching motivational tactic. And it works.
LINEUP CHANGES: Giampa returned to the lineup after a three-game absence, and fellow forward David Grosek dressed for the first time in his Miami career.
Out were Justin Stupka and defenseman Nick Donato, as the RedHawks dressed 13 forwards.
STANDINGS: After the loss, Miami — still with 25 points — sits in seventh place and is just one point ahead of the Mavericks and three up on now last-place Arizona State, which owns the tiebreaker against MU.
Colorado College was tied with Miami entering Friday but upset Duluth in Duluth and now lead sit in sixth place by three.
Again, if the RedHawks earn just one point — which means take their game to overtime — they qualify for the NCHC Tournament.
Miami does own the tiebreaker against CC, so a regulation win and regulation loss by the Tigers would result in the RedHawks earning a No. 6 seed.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This isn’t what we expected to see from Miami Version 2025-26.
Last week, after pulling ahead, 2-0 on Senior Weekend in Oxford, the RedHawks allowed eight straight goals and didn’t even sniff the points column.
Look out, next opponent?
The opening minutes on Friday were encouraging, as it had appeared the team was back to its skates-to-the-metal ways, complete with physicality, smart defending and Division I envy-level effort.
But overall this game was a major bust, beyond the scoreboard.
Naivety is bliss to a degree, as many of these players had never experienced Miami hockey’s struggles prior to this season, but is that hurting them now because they haven’t been in this position before?
This team has made the biggest one-year turnaround in Division I, so it would truly be a pity if the RedHawks’ season ends without a playoff series.
View From the Glass 