For the third time in as many years, the Northern Michigan University Wildcats proved themselves to be a dangerous comeback team and very adept in postseason play. Northern Michigan rallied after a loss Friday night to defeat the Miami University men's ice hockey team Saturday and Sunday to advance to the semifinals of the CCHA tournament. Despite outshooting the Green and Gold for weekend totals of 123 to 67, the RedHawks couldn't get enough quality chances to the net to hold onto the early series lead they established.

In 2007, the Wildcats pushed a road playoff series against Ohio State to game three and bested the Buckeyes in the first round, while last year they recovered from a game one loss to come back and triumph over Michigan State in round two. Northern Michigan has been Miami's kryptonite all year as the brotherhood holds a ledger of 1-3-1 against the Wildcats in 2008-09, but this was a loss the Red and White could not afford.

Miami was the lone home-ice team in the nation to drop a game three decision this weekend, and as a result the RedHawks have landed in a perilous place in the PairWise Rankings.

After suffering a loss and a tie at the hands of the Green and Gold just three weeks ago, Miami seemed to be turning over a fresh leaf Friday night with a 3-2 win over the Wildcats.

Senior Justin Mercier lit the lamp first for the Red and White 7:37 into the first frame, with sophomores Pat Cannone and Andy Miele assisting on the tally. About seven minutes later, sophomore Carter Camper netted his 12th power play goal of the year to give the 'Hawks some insurance.

Northern Michigan managed to slip past Miami's No. 1 ranked penalty kill unit when freshman Justin Florek angled a well-placed shot past rookie Cody Reichard to net a man-advantage goal of his own at 8:59 of the second stanza and pull the Green and Gold within one. The Wildcats then appeared to tie the game late in the final frame when sophomore Erik Gustafsson fired a one-timer in from the blue line, but the goal was disallowed because freshman Ben Lindemulder was called for interference.

"I could see why they called it that way," Northern Michigan head coach Walt Kyle said. "We have the best officials in the league, and I'll tell you if they're going to make that call that's fine."

Miele scored his second consecutive game-winning goal with less than two minutes left in regulation, and the Wildcats notched an extra-attacker goal in a final rally effort by senior Nick Sirota to close out the scoring.

"We had the right guys out there, and they made good plays," Miami head coach Enrico Blasi said. "They did a good job of holding them off."

Saturday night's contest saw a continuation of the marked speed and intensity the RedHawks exhibited in game one, and it seemed to be only a matter of time before the brotherhood would earn its second W on the weekend and advance to postseason glory. Instead, the Red and White, previously undefeated on the season when scoring the first goal of the game, fell 3-2 to the Wildcats when NMU sophomore Gregor Hanson earned the critical game-winning tally 5:12 into the sudden-death overtime period.

"Right now it is playoff hockey," Blasi said. "It's execution-one or two plays here and there and that's the difference … We've been in the postseason a lot lately. We've won a lot of games. All we can control is how we play."

Miele gave the Red and White the early lead halfway through the first frame, his third goal in as many games. NMU sophomore Jared Brown evened the score at 15:10, however, leaving the game tied 1-1 at the end of the opening stanza.

The Wildcats unknotted the contest at 4:04 of the second when Sirota notched his second man-advantage goal of the weekend. Sophomore Justin Vaive answered back less than 30 seconds later, wrapping the puck around the net and slipping it past junior net minder Brian Stewart on his stick side to even things up again going into the final frame.

Neither team could gain the lead in the third stanza, however, and the Wildcats found success in overtime to even the series 1-1 and force a game three.

"They're very good," Kyle said. "It's in their building. It's their environment. We're still behind the eight ball and we need to show up tomorrow."

Northern Michigan did more than just show up in game three, methodically notching a goal per period to decisively down the RedHawks 3-1.

Things didn't seem to be clicking for the Red and White at the level that they had been during the first two games of the series. Though Miami possessed the puck for a significant portion of the contest, the brotherhood seemed to have difficulty connecting passes, failed to grab critical rebounds and was unable to capitalize on a 22-3 shots on goal advantage in the third period.

"It's not about shots, it's about quality of shots," Kyle said. "I thought in the second period last night that our guys kind of figured out some things that we could do. I think before that we had no time of possession on their end, and they were coming at us and fatiguing our defensemen."

NMU freshman Andrew Cherniwchan was ejected at 2:55 of the first frame for hitting from behind, granting the RedHawks' No. 10 power play a golden opportunity to take the early lead. Instead, the Wildcats persevered through the deficit, and sophomore Mark Olver beat Reichard with a shorthanded effort to put the Green and Gold on the board.

"You get a five minute power play and you don't score and they score on you-they definitely had the momentum and took it to us from there," Blasi said.

Northern Michigan continued to dominate in the middle frame and extended its lead at 10:55 with a goal off the stick of sophomore Mike Maltese.

In a desperate, last-ditch effort, Blasi pulled Reichard in the final minutes of the third in favor of an extra attacker, and freshman Will Weber made the endeavor worthwhile, notching Miami's first point at 17:53 with juniors Gary Steffes and Jarod Palmer assisting.

It was too little too late, however, and Sirota put the game out of reach with an empty-net goal 35 seconds before the final buzzer.

"Obviously I'm really pleased," Kyle said. "I think we got better every game of the series. I think they came at us hard and we were able to bend and not break; I thought we were resilient. I thought we counter punched them well and got some chances off counters. Mark Oliver had his best game of the series certainly tonight. That shorthanded goal was a big goal-to score early and then come back and get a shorthanded goal. That was huge."

The RedHawks will now wait to see if they are granted the chance to continue their season in the national tournament, while the Wildcats advance to play Alaska in the CCHA semifinals Friday.

"A lot of things have to happen (for us to make the tournament)," Blasi said. "Whether we deserve to be in it or not the numbers will show it and we'll just have to wait and see."