OXFORD, Ohio — Six days ago Minnesota Duluth was piling on the top-ranked team in the country at Amsoil Arena, knocking Denver from it’s No. 1 pedestal with a 5-2 victory.

On Friday it was the two-time defending national champion and sixth-ranked Bulldogs (4-4-1 overall, 1-1-1 NCHC) getting upset, losing a 3-1 stunner to unranked Miami (3-5-2, 1-2) in NCHC play at the Goggin Ice Center.

Senior goaltender Ryan Larkin stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced to backstop the RedHawks to just their second win over the Bulldogs in the last five seasons (2-15-2).

Larkin entered the weekend with just an .865 save percentage and 4.52 goals against average in his first seven games of the season, though he had pitched a shutout in late October at Colgate.

“(Larkin) played well, but we were kind of a one-and-done team tonight. We didn’t get too many second chances,” UMD junior center Justin Richards said. “We didn’t get too many bodies to the net. I think it was a pretty easy night for him. We got pucks there, but we didn’t have bodies there and we didn’t get second chances from that.

“I don’t think we competed hard enough like we did last Saturday against Denver and it showed. That’s why we lost.”

The RedHawks took advantage of some puck luck to tally two of its three goals.

Sophomore defenseman Derek Daschke scored the game-winner for Miami with just under four minutes to play in regulation on a heads-up play, finding a puck that got lost behind the mass of bodies battling in front of the Bulldogs net. The puck stayed untouched for a whole two seconds.

Senior Karch Bachman gave the RedHawks a 1-0 lead in the second, taking advantage of a broken Scott Perunovich stick to take off on a successful shorthanded breakaway late in the Bulldogs’ first power play of the evening.

Sophomore center Monte Graham added an empty netter for Miami in the final minute.

“We shot ourselves in the foot and it’s not going to fly every game,” said UMD senior defenseman and co-captain Nick Wolff. “We played the No. 1 team in the country last week and beat them by just playing simple hockey. Tonight, we didn’t do that. That just shows the strength of our conference.”

The Bulldogs appeared ready to break through — not give up a shorty — midway through the second period when they finally got their first power play of the night. Up until the broken stick, UMD got a Grade-A scoring chance from junior wing Kobe Roth and Grade A-plus chance by sophomore wing Noah Cates, but both were stopped by Larkin. The Miami goalie made five stops on that kill.

UMD finally got to Larkin in the opening minute of the third on a power play that carried over from the second period. Sophomore wing Tanner Laderoute, who missed three games earlier this season with a leg injury, picked up his first goal of the season by deflecting through a pass by Perunovich, tying the game at 1-1.

The Bulldogs finished the night 1-for-3 on the power play against a Miami team that entered the night just 73.8 percent on the penalty kill. The Bulldogs had an advantage late that was cut short by a Perunovich interference penalty.

“We didn’t play hard enough,” Bulldogs coach Scott Sandelin said. “We didn’t have enough guys bearing down, playing harder, competing harder. The difference is we played a hard game last Saturday against Denver and got a good result. Were we perfect? No. Tonight we didn’t want to play the hard game and you know what? It kind of bit us.”

Bulldog Bites

Junior defenseman Dylan Samberg did not make the flight to Oxford this weekend due to an undisclosed injury. Samberg took a puck to the head during the first period of last Friday’s game against Denver at Amsoil Arena, but returned before the first intermission to finish the game. He played Saturday as well.

His absence, along with that of injured sophomore Hunter Lellig, left UMD with six healthy defenseman and just one of its original pairings in Nick Wolff and Perunovich. Juniors Louie Roehl and Matt Anderson, who played all of last season together, were back together Friday. Senior Jarod Hilderman and sophomore Jake Rosenbaum, who have played minimally this season despite suiting up, were the third pairing, though they rotated in with Rosenbaum playing with Wolff and Hilderman with Perunovich.

Minnesota Duluth 0-0-1—1

Miami 0-1-2—3

First period — No scoring.

Second period — 1. MU, Karch Bachman 5 (Gordie Green), 13:28 (sh).

Third period — 2. UMD, Tanner Laderoute 1 (Scott Perunovich, Cole Koepke), 0:43 (pp); 3. MU, Derek Daschke 3 (Phil Knies, Monte Graham), 16:02; 4. MU, Monte Graham 2 (Andrew Sinard), 19:31 (pp) (en).

Shots on goal — UMD 7-19-10—36; MU 14-5-7—17. Goalies — Hunter Shepard, UMD (16 shots-14 saves); Ryan Larkin, MU (36-35). Power plays — UMD 1-of-3; MU 1-of-4. Penalties — UMD 4-8; MU 306. Referees — Dan Dreger, Tom Sterns. Linesmen — Dan Cohen, Eric Frank. Att. — 2,416.