UMD Athletics

The No. 6/7 University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey team suffered its second-straight setback, a 3-2 loss Friday night against Miami University (Ohio) inside AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn.

The National Collegiate Hockey Conference loss is the Bulldogs first series-opening, Friday loss of the season and drops UMD's overall record to 6-3-2 and 1-2-0 in league play.

"You got to play 200 feet of the rink in this game, this is a hard league," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin.?"It's hard to win hockey games and everybody's good. And like I said, it's no surprise. That team did not surprise me at all the way they played. ?I just didn't think we checked as well as they did, and by checking, they created a lot of turnovers, and they stopped plays and we didn't didn't really have a response for it."

David Deputy got Miami on the board late in the second period at the 17:45 mark, but just a minute later, Payton Platter pulled UMD almost immediately even with a tip on Blake Bechen's shot, the first of Platter's Bulldog career.

The RedHawks retook the lead with two goals less than two minutes apart early in the third period, and after just 5:44 played in the final frame, UMD trailed 3-1.

The Bulldogs made one last push with their net empty and an extra attacker, and the goal scorer was none other than Ty Hanson, who has been UMD's most reliable offensive threat when the clock ticking down so far this season. Hanson buried a feed from Carter Murphy from the top of the left circle for his ninth goal of the year to pull the Bulldogs back within a single goal at 3-2 at 19:31. 

UMD had one final effort as the horn sounded, but it the puck crossed the line after time had expired.

The Bulldogs lost two players in the skate - forwards Barrett Hall and Callum Arnott. UMD outshot Miami 25-22 but went 0-of-4 on its power play. Carl Axelsson made 19 saves in the loss.

"I mean, credit to the them, I thought they did a good job, like kind of finishing checks and making it hard on us and kind of felt them all over the rink," said Hanson. "I mean, they're a big team and they liked to play physical. We knew that coming in. I think we just have to match it and even take it to them a little bit first tomorrow." 

The two sides will do it all over again Saturday night, with the Bulldogs looking to salvage a series split with the 7-2-0, 2-1-0 RedHawks. The puck is scheduled to drop at 6:07 p.m.