The aphorism is it’s better to be lucky than good, but in its NCHC road opener against the sixth-ranked team in college hockey, Miami was both.
For the first time in five years, the RedHawks won their inaugural conference road game, and it came against one of college hockey’s elite.
Miami scored twice in the third period and held on for a 3-2 win at No. 6 Minn.-Duluth on Friday.
It was just the third time the RedHawks had won in Duluth in 25 all-time meetings.
The series finale is at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: After nearly 38 minutes of scoreless hockey to open the game, Miami’s David Deputy took a cycling pass from along the half wall, skated to the high slot and whipped a wrist shot through traffic and past UMD goalie Carl Axelsson five hole with 2:15 left in the second period.
But exactly one minute later, the Bulldogs tied it on a blue line one-timer by Blake Bechen that was tipped in the slot by Peyton Platter and past RedHawks goalie Matteo Drobac.
Miami (7-2) regained the lead for good four minutes into the third period, as Kocha Delic carried the puck the length of the ice to the UMD corner and centered a pass to Matous Kucharcik, who chopped down on the puck at the same time as a Bulldogs defender in the slot, and the puck floated over Axelsson and into the net to make it 2-1.
The RedHawks extended their lead to two just 1:45 later when Ethan Hay drove the net from the right corner and tried to stuff the puck in, and Axelsson carried it over the goal line when it hit off his blocker as he attempted to fight it off.
Minn.-Duluth (6-3-2) made it interesting late, as Ty Hanson played give-and-go and blasted a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle top shelf, far post with 28 seconds remaining with the extra attacker to make it 3-2.
In the chaotic closing moments, the final horn sounded about a second before the Bulldogs’ Hunter Murphy slammed home a rebound from the right side of the net.
STATS: Kucharcik finished with a goal and an assist, and Delic — his left wing linemate — picked up two helpers.
Kucharcik now leads the RedHawks in points outright with 10, and Delic is in a three-way tie for second with nine.
Delic’s four-game points streak is the longest on the team.
Deputy’s goal was his second of the season, and he also has nine points.
Hay netted his third marker of 2026-27.
Ryan Seelinger picked up an assist for his fifth point of the season, and Bradley Walker notched his second helper and third point.
— Fun with stats: Despite the win, Miami generated just 22 shots, its worst SOG output of the season, and Minn.-Duluth finished with 25 shots on goal, the most the RedHawks have allowed in 2026-27.
— Miami has scored 28 goals this season: Nine in each period and one in overtime.
ANALYSIS: First, a quick review of the game…
Miami played some of its best hockey of the young season in the first half of the opening period, much of which was spent in the Minn.-Duluth end, and the RedHawks survived a couple of early penalty kills as well, but the Bulldogs took control in the final few minutes of the frame.
MU was excellent overall in the second period as well, giving UMD little time and space to set up for most of the period and controlled play for large chunks of the frame.
It looked like Minn.-Duluth had taken the lead midway through, but a Zam Plante goal was immediately waved off because the puck was slid back to him by a teammate’s glove.
Miami scored a pair of kind of fluky goals in the third period to take the lead, but they were both the result of hard work and crashing the net.
The RedHawks played an excellent shut-down game the rest of the period. They practically had a forcefield at their blue line for the critical 14 minutes after their final goal. And that includes two crucial penalty kills.
The final Minn.-Duluth goal was on a snipe by the leading goal-scoring defenseman in the NCAA with an extra attacker.
— Miami put on a masterclass in shutting down a high-powered offensive team.
It seemed like the RedHawks sticks knocked pucks off of Bulldogs sticks multiple times per shift, and they had little space to operate with all night the few times they were able to set up in the offensive zone.
This was absolutely Miami’s best overall game of 2026-27, and it came when the team needed it most.
— Drobac was his same super-solid self against some higher-velocity shots than he had seen in previous weeks, and the results were the same: 23 of 25 saved (.920), in line with his .917 save percentage for the season.
— Kucharcik now rightly leads Miami in points. Deputy and Kucharcik have been the best overall forwards on the team thus far.
And speaking of Kucharcik, he made an awesome backhanded touch pass to start that first goal in motion, and seconds later he also set the screen to allow Deputy’s shot to sneak through.
— Seelinger made an outstanding pass to Hay, which led the Miami’s third goal. He is just beginning to showcase his talent.
— Loved the unsexy game of Doug Grimes and Hay, who were relentless defensively. Austin Baker stood out as well.
— Miami killed eight minutes of power play time, allowing just four shots, but it was unable to generate even one SOG in over a minute 5-on-3.
LINEUP CHANGES: Two banged-up RedHawks returned after missing last Saturday’s game.
Bradley Walker was back up front and Ryder Thompson came back on the blue line. was back on the blue line. Neither had missed a game prior to last weekend.
Nicholas Mikan and Charlie Blanchard were scratches.
STANDINGS: In the way-too-early NPI portion of this post, Miami was No. 20 following the conclusion of all of Friday’s games.
And with six league points, the RedHawks currently sit in second place in the NCHC standings, three behind first-place Denver.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Overall, this is at least as big of a win for this program since its 3-2 overtime victory over then-No. 4 Western Michigan on Feb. 6.
But in terms of NCHC road games, this was probably Miami’s biggest win since Jack Clement scored the late game-winner in Grand Forks as the RedHawks beat North Dakota, 4-3 on Nov. 19, 2022.
Offensively, Miami benefitted from some puck luck, but they earned it because of their hard work driving the net.
Defensively, the RedHawks were relentless, whether it was knocking pucks off of sticks, blocking shots or making great saves when necessary.
If Miami plays at that level every night, it will win a lot of games in this league.
