No. 17 Miami outshot Omaha by more than a 2-to-1 margin for the first time in over eight years on Friday.
Unfortunately for the RedHawks, the Mavericks scored on six of their SOG to hand MU a 6-4 loss at Cady Arena.
The teams wrap up their weekend series — the 2026 home finale for Miami — at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: Omaha (4-4-1) opened the scoring with 7:17 left in the first period when Joel Plante wristed a bad-angle shot from the goal line near the wall that hit the right skate of Miami goalie Matteo Drobac and caromed into the net.
Gavin Hodnett redirected a centering pass in with his skate 2:03 later, upping the Mavericks’ lead to two.
Miami (7-4) trimmed the deficit to one with 2:57 left in the opening frame, as Ryan Smith forced a turnover below the goal line and fed Ryan Seelinger, who cut to the net on the left wing and beat Omaha goalie William Lacelle glove side on the power play.
Omaha made it 3-1 on a goal by Marcus Nguyen, whose wrister from the high slot beat Drobac on the glove side 3:58 into the second period.
Plante struck again just 27 seconds later, slamming home a bouncing rebound from the right side of cage after Drobac stopped a shot from Carter Sotheran from the top of the right faceoff circle, extending the Mavericks’ lead to three.
Less than three minutes after that goal, Seelinger struck again to pull Miami two, batting in a loose puck at the top of the crease after teammate Matous Kucharcik backhanded a pass to him while on the ground behind the goal line.
Omaha re-upped its lead to three with 5:47 remaining in the middle stanza, as Vincent Desjardins snuck a wrist shot through Drobac from the top of the right faceoff circle, ending the Miami goalie’s night.
Miami fought back late in the third period, scoring twice with an extra attacker.
Matteo Giampa backhanded a self-pass off the boards as he entered the zone, regained possession in full stride and wired a quick wrist shot, top shelf, far post from the left faceoff dot with 5:27 left in regulation to make it 5-3.
The RedHawks clawed within one with 3:21 to play, as Timmy Runtso sent a shot in from the blue line that Lacelle kicked out, and Kucharcik cleaned up the rebound that pinballed around from the right side of the net.
But Plante sealed it and capped off his hat trick when the skated in and tapped in an empty-netter with 1:03 left.
STATS: Seelinger scored twice, the first multi-goal performance by any RedHawk since Oct. 17 at Robert Morris. It was also his first career two-goal game, as the freshman had just two tallies on the season entering Friday.
Giampa, Kucharcik and Deputy also finished with two points, with the former two going 1-1-2 and Deputy picking up a pair of assists.
Kucharcik now leads the team in points outright with 12 as well as multi-point games with four.
Deputy leads the team with nine helpers, and Giampa is one back of him with eight.
Smith picked up an assist, giving him points in consecutive games (believe it or not, he has the longest points streak on the team at two).
It was Smith’s third point of the season, and was also the third for Doug Grimes, who notched a helper, and Runtso recorded his second point as a RedHawk with an assist.
Vladislav Lukashevich was credited with an assist as well, his first point of 2026-27.
— The last time Miami finished with 45 shots on goal was in a 4-0 win over Alabama-Huntsville on Oct. 7, 2018. The RedHawks had not lost when recorded at least 45 SOG since March 14, 2015, when they fell, 7-5 to Western Michigan in Game 2 of the first round of 2015 NCHC playoffs, a series they eventually won.
Coincidentally, that was also the last time Miami doubled up an opponent in SOG. In that game the RedHawks actually quadrupled UAH’s shots output, 45-11.
— MU had not scored at least four goals and lost since Feb. 15, 2024, when Colorado College beat the RedHawks, 5-4 in Colorado Springs. Miami’s last home loss when netting at least four markers was Feb. 2, 2024 vs. North Dakota.
— The second period was the first Miami allowed three goals.
— Drobac stopped just 7 of 12 shots for a career-low save percentage of .583. It was the first time in his year-plus career he’s been pulled. Yegor Yegorov stopped all nine shots he faced in relief.
ANALYSIS: Miami did almost everything right most of the night, from defending to playmaking to dishing out physicality to killing penalties.
Despite falling behind three, the RedHawks battled in the third period, outshooting Omaha, 16-4, and nearly tied it in the closing minutes after scoring twice with an extra attacker.
— Miami challenged the second Omaha goal, claiming it was kicked in. The original call was a good goal, and upon review it was upheld, although it looked like Hodnett pushed his skate toward the puck to redirect it in.
— Midway through the first period, play was stopped for about 10 minutes because a curved pane by the visitors’ tunnel was broken. Can’t remember one of those oddly-shaped panels needing to be replaced in-game in the rink’s 20-year history. Cringed as the rink crew nearly dropped the new pane when holding it overhead to slide it into the appropriate slots to secure it to the boards.
— Kucharcik centered the top line with Seelinger and Deputy as wings, and the trio combined for six points, including three of Miami’s four goals. All three played outstanding games.
— Speaking of Seelinger, he seems to be getting better every game, not surprising considering he was one of the USHL’s top points producers last season. He’s second among RedHawks freshmen with seven points.
— Really liked Smith in this game. Made a gritty play to set up Seelinger’s first goal and was excellent in both ends, plus he was 4-3 on faceoffs.
— Ridiculous pass by Kucharcik on Seelinger’s second goal. Kucharcik is clearly the best forward on the team, and he now leads the team with 12 points.
— Alternate captain Ethan Hay was involved in a major collision around center ice midway through the third period. He went down the tunnel for several minutes and eventually came back to the bench but didn’t take a shift.
— The Buffalo Sabres draftee centers Ilia Morozov and Kucharcik combined for shots on goal.
— Who starts in net on Saturday? Drobac has been the workhorse but Yegorov was perfect on nine shots on goal.
LINEUP CHANGES: Delic missed the first game of his career, and he wore a shoulder sling on the concourse.
Fellow forward John Emmons was also scratched.
Nicholas Mikan returned to the lineup up front, dressing for the second time this season, as did defenseman Michael Phelan, who had sat the previous six contests.
D-man Branko Vukas was out again with a week-to-week LBI.
STANDINGS: Miami slipped to fifth place in the NCHC. The RedHawks are 2-3 in division play and have earned six conference points.
MU dropped to 26th in the all-important NPI rankings, which determine at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.
FINAL THOUGHTS: There’s no way to write around it: Drobac — who had started and finished 44 of the RedHawks’ 46 games the past season-plus since coming to Miami — struggled and should’ve been pulled sooner.
He’s had a great run and is still the frontrunner for the starting job at this point, but even the best goalies have off-nights.
The good news is Yegorov blanked Omaha for 22:35, stopping all nine shots he faced and raising his small-sample save percentage to .935, so the RedHawks have another qualified option should they need it.
