CHICAGO -- Western Michigan's comeback effort fell short at the Hockey City Classic at Soldier Field with the Broncos falling 4-3 against No. 8 Miami on Saturday night.

Down 4-0 in the third period the Broncos rallied to score three goals, including one with 45 seconds remaining by Sheldon Dries. WMU was outshot 41-28 on the night with the RedHawks going 2-for-6 on the power play on the night.

The RedHawks took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Alex Wideman at 13:28 in the first period. Alex Gacek threaded the needle to Wideman for the goal, his sixth of the season.

Miami added three more in the second period to go up 4-0. The first came at 9:26 and was the first of two power play goals. Austin Czarnik won a draw back to Louie Belpedio and the defenseman found Riley Barber for the goal. The tally was Barber's 12th of the season and Czarnik picked up his 25th assist on the season.

The lead was pushed to 3-0 at 17:50 after Kevin Morris tallied a goal after a puck deflected off the end-boards and bounced right to him. Belpedio and Blake Coleman each tallied assists on the goal. Sean Kuraly pushed the lead to 4-0 just 1:40 later on his 13th goal of the season.

Josh Pitt cut the lead to 4-1 at 8:02 in the third period on his first goal of the season. Mike McKee found him in front of the net all alone and he put it between Jay Williams' legs. Aidan Muir brought the Broncos within two just 37 seconds later after he punched in a loose puck from his stomach at 8:39. Willam Nong-Lambert and Kyle Novak each tallied assists.

With 45 seconds left Dries deflected in a shot by Kenney Morrison to cut the lead to 4-3. A Miami player tried to clear the zone but Morrison gloved the puck out of the air and fired a shot that deflected off of Dries' chest and past Williams for his 10th of the season.

The Broncos are on the road next weekend at first-place Nebraska-Omaha.