The Miami RedHawks‘ tough weekend in Kalamazoo, Michigan, continued on Saturday night, falling 6-2 to the Western Michigan Broncos and suffering their first sweep of the season. The loss dropped their record to 7-3-0 (1-3-0 in NCHC play).
Related: Miami Falls 5-2 to Western Michigan After Second Period Collapse
It was another offensive onslaught for Western Michigan on Saturday, as there were five different goal scorers: Iiro Hakkarainen, Ty Henricks (two goals), William Whitelaw, Garrett Szydlowski, and Liam Valente. Hampton Slukynsky was not tested often but stopped 14 of 16 shots for his sixth win of the season.
Miami scored two on the night, coming from Vladislav Lukashevich and Michael Quinn, both in the third period. Matteo Drobac was yet again peppered with shots, stopping 45 of 51 shots. He faced a whopping total of 91 shots on net (not even counting blocks or wide shots) this weekend.
Game Recap
Miami struggled to get pucks out of their defensive zone to start, and Hakkarainen eventually made them pay for it. He finished home a rebound in front, which came off a Bobby Cowan shot, to make it 1-0 Western Michigan. It was the first time in what felt like a while since Miami didn’t score first (second game this season, according to Tim Cary of MiamiRedHawks.com).
Henricks then extended the Western Michigan lead late in the first, sniping a wrist shot past Drobac’s glove for the 2-0 lead.
Ethan Hay and Lukashevich took two penalties nearing the end of the first, sending Miami to a five-on-three penalty kill that carried over into the second.
It was a nightmare period for Miami, who simply couldn’t get anything going offensively against Western Michigan’s suffocating defense. Western Michigan led in shots on goal 18-3 as well, not an ideal stat whatsoever.
Miami killed off the two penalties to start the second, but 2023 Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick Whitelaw scored just seconds after. He tapped one home from the side of the net to extend the lead to 3-0.
Miami finally had their first power play opportunity of the game midway through the second and mustered only one shot on goal; all others were blocked or wide.
Essentially putting this one out of reach, Whitelaw dished a pass from behind the net to Henricks, who one-timed it past Drobac for his second of the night.
After 40 minutes of play, it was 4-0 Western Michigan, who also led in shots on goal at an alarming 39-5 margin.
Miami finally got on the board with a Lukashevich shot that snuck past Slukynsky. Building off that sliver of momentum, Quinn one-timed a pass from David Deputy home to make it 4-2 midway through the third.
However, this momentum lasted no time, as Western Michigan answered with two more goals of their own to make it 6-2. The first came from Szydlowski, and then Valente iced it with the most impressive goal of the weekend. On a breakaway, he went backhand to forehand and chipped it past Drobac’s glove.
Miami finished with 16 shots on goal, compared to Western Michigan’s 51, more than triple the number of Miami’s shots. Also, both teams scored zero goals on the power play, as Miami went 0-for-5, while Western Michigan went 0-for-6.
Miami took a total of nine penalties on the night, for a total of 29 penalty minutes, while Western Michigan took six penalties for a total of 12 penalty minutes.
Faceoffs were about even despite the outcome: Miami won 30 (45.5%) and Western Michigan won 54.5%.
Comments From Coach Noreen
This is what Anthony Noreen had to say post-game about the series and his overall assessment of his team.
“I think probably you credit them. I mean, listen, count how many guys are back from a national championship team over there and how many guys have been here. Look at the roster: juniors, seniors, guys that have been through this, guys that have played in this league, guys that have won a lot of hockey games, and extremely well-coached and detailed.
And we are still growing. Every day is an opportunity for us to learn and grow with so many new guys. And I think you could take a piece out of their book, and it is why we practice so hard, why we train the way we do, why we push our guys and have the standards we do, because this is the place and these are the guys we need to be, you know. And I think there is not one less bit of belief about this group. We love that. I thought we played until the very last second both nights. Tonight, you get it to 4-2, you have a chance, and it is about as unlucky a goal as you are going to get. Sometimes that is the way it goes, but you have to believe, you have to continue to work. And again, it is an unforgiving league (NCHC).
I thought last night, what we did not like was some of the stick penalties. I thought we needed to stay out of the box. I thought we did a better job of that tonight. Obviously, special teams, both power play and kill, are massive momentum swingers. And I think just 50-50 battles are really the key area against these guys.”
Miami is back in action next weekend at home against the St. Cloud State Huskies. Puck drop on Friday is at 7:05 PM EST, and on Saturday at 6:05 PM EST.
