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UNO hands hurting 'Hawks fifth straight loss

Ben Blanchard, Sports Editor

For the second straight weekend, the Miami University hockey team was swept in a National Collegiate Hockey Conference series, this weekend by the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The RedHawks fell at home 6-4 Friday and 6-2 Saturday.

Following the sweep, MU drops to 3-6-2 overall and 0-4 in NCHC play, making Miami the only remaining program winless in conference. UNO improves to 6-3-1 overall and 3-1 in the NCHC, good enough for a share of third place in conference with No. 18 Western Michigan, who swept Miami last weekend.

In this week's NCAA top-20 rankings, Omaha received the most votes of any unranked program.

Through two periods Friday, the RedHawks appeared to be on track to break their three-game losing streak. Miami led 4-1 in the second and 4-2 after the second stanza of action, but allowed four UNO goals in the third period.

"This was a lesson about playing a full 60 minutes," head coach Enrico Blasi said. "You can't play 40 minutes at our level and expect to win games."

Of Miami's four goals, senior forward Anthony Louis tallied two and assisted one. Louis' first score was his 100th point as a RedHawk, but he wasn't done then, as the Chicago Blackhawks prospect netted an incredible rising backhand goal less than a minute later for his 101st point.

After allowing four third period goals and losing the game, however, Louis was anything but content with the game's results.

"We let off the gas pedal and stopped playing Miami hockey, and it came back to haunt us," Louis said. "We need to get back to playing our team game and work really hard, that's all we can do, and the bounces will come."

While losing five in a row is never a good thing, Miami knows it wasn't at full-strength this weekend, as two of its top four scorers, junior captain Louie Belpedio (lower-body injury) and freshman Carson Meyer (illness), were both sidelined. Belpedio, fourth on the team in points despite missing his second straight weekend series, anchors MU's young defense as well as being a key facilitator on the power play and offensive end. Without Belpedio, Miami has allowed five or more goals in each of its past four games.

Meyer, a starting forward, is third in points. Additionally, starting freshman goaltender Ryan Larkin left in the third period of Friday's game and did not return or appear in Saturday's action.

Blasi, however, was looking for no excuses for his team's fifth consecutive losing performance.

"Missing them just means that guys have to step up and play some minutes," Blasi said. "We didn't do that this weekend."

Saturday, the 'Hawks looked to play with urgency out of the gate, as two nearly identical power play goals by sophomore forward Kiefer Sherwood erased a 2-0 deficit to enter the first intermission tied 2-2. The duration of the tilt, however, was all Mavericks, as UNO put up four unanswered goals to blowout the RedHawks, 6-2.

"We didn't compete as well as Omaha did, and good teams make you pay for every mistake," Blasi said. "They executed better than we did, and we have to get better in a lot of areas moving forward."

The Red and White look to bounce back this weekend at No. 1 Denver. The top-ranked Pioneers (7-2-1, 3-0-1) host the RedHawks 9:30 p.m. Friday and 9 p.m. Saturday.