Miami University has found the going mighty tough at AMSOIL Arena since that downtown Duluth facility opened up eight years ago and those woes continued Friday night.

Behind a pair of second-period goals from freshman Noah Cates, the University of Minnesota Duluth took down the RedHawks 4-2 and pushed Miami's winless skid at AMSOIL Arena to 12 games (0-11-1) dating back to Nov. 1, 2014. With the victory, the No. 3 Bulldogs improved to 20-9-2 overall and secured a home ice berth for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference playoff quarterfinals, which get underway in two weeks.

Following a scoreless first period (in which UMD outshot the visitors 11-2), Cates put the Bulldogs on the board at 4:25 of the second when his wrister near the top of the left faceoff circle  beat a screened Miami goaltender Ryan Larkin. A little less than four minutes later, Cates struck again, this time with another wrist shot from the right faceoff dot, to complete the first multi goal night of his young collegiate career.  Miami (11-18-4 overall and 5-14-2-1 in the NCHC) answered shortly after for its first score against the Bulldogs in 286:37 of play (it had been shut out by UMD in each of the previous four meetings).  UMD then sandwiched goals from senior center Peter Krieger (0:55) and freshman left winger Cole Koepke (8:04) around Ryan Siroky's power play tally (4:33) to make it a 4-2 final. Noah Cates was credited with the primary assist on Krieger's game winner.

The RedHawks, who were outshot 32-21, went 1-2 on the power play while UMD did not receive a man advantage opportunity the entire night.

'" This was one of those games that was a little bit lifeless with not a lot going on," said head coach Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs has reached the 20-win plateau for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons. "But we got better as the first period went on and it was nice to get those two goals early in the second.  I think it was a good hockey game for us but we need to be better tomorrow."

The two clubs will meet again Saturday night in the Bulldogs' regular season home finales.