Box Score | PDF Box Score | Photo Gallery

OXFORD, Ohio - The Miami hockey team was unable to fully battle back from a slow start in a 2-1 loss to Western Michigan on Friday night.

Friday's result drops MU to 8-11-6 (4-7-4-2 National Collegiate Hockey) while WMU is now 14-6-3 (8-6-1-1 NCHC).

The Broncos came out aggressively firing shots from all angles, getting the first four shots on goal of the contest. Extended possession eventually led to a Western Michigan goal when a Cam Lee point shot redirected off a Miami defender and through traffic with 6:01 gone by to make it 1-0. MU countered by drawing a penalty, but its power play was unable to capitalize with only one shot fired in that sequence.

Western Michigan ended up outshooting Miami by a 16-4 margin and appeared to take a 2-0 lead with 9.8 seconds left in the period when Corey Schueneman went coast-to-coast, split the defense and beat Ryan Larkin with a shot from the middle, but officials reviewed the play for offside and eventually disallowed the goal, leaving MU in a one-goal deficit after 20 minutes.

Miami killed off the rest of the carryover penalty to start the second period and started possessing the puck in the offensive zone before eventually drawing a penalty at the 4:06 mark. Despite extended puck movement in the zone, MU was unable to get anything through to the net and WMU once again escaped a penalty unscathed.

A Red and White penalty at the 7:20 mark put the Broncos on another power play and MU managed to turn things around in a hurry. Anthony Louis cleared the puck to a vacated point all the way down the ice for Kiefer Sherwood to catch up. Miami changed up its penalty killing unit and Sherwood fed Grant Hutton off the bench, where he then dished off to Louie Belpedio at the right circle to put home his sixth goal of the season to even it up at 1-1.

After killing off the penalty, Miami got hemmed in at its own end and with a lot of bodies in front of the net, Hugh McGing poked the puck home at the 11:44 mark to put WMU back in front 2-1. While the RedHawks did get a power play late in the frame, they were unable to find an equalizer as they entered the third period behind by a goal.

The RedHawks began the third period generating some speed and hemming in the Broncos for long stretches as they searched for a tying goal. One opportunity saw several bodies crash near the WMU net near Ben Blacker. After some time with the puck out of view, it squirted out to a player with an open net, but the whistle blew just before MU could make the attempt at the tying tally.

In all, Miami took 10 of its 21 shots in the third period, but seven of those came in the first 10 minutes with Ben Blacker turning each aside. With time winding down, MU got set up in the offensive zone and pulled Larkin for an extra skater with a minute and a half left. While the Red and White had some possession in the offensive zone, they were only able to wire one shot on the cage that Blacker again stopped to help the Broncos hold on.

WMU outshot MU 32-21, though that gap was mainly built from a 16-4 spread in the first period. Miami went 0-for-4 on the power play and killed all four Western Michigan power plays while scoring a shorthanded goal of its own. Larkin was strong in the defeat, stopping 30 of 32 shots while Blacker made 20 saves of his own.

These teams finish out their weekend series on Saturday with the puck dropping at 7:05 p.m.