With little help from his teammates, Bruno Bruveris’ first collegiate outing between the Miami pipes began well before derailing wildly, as the RedHawks were peppered for six goals on his watch.
His second career start was the obverse of his Division I debut.
On Saturday, Bruveris turned aside all 21 shots he faced, earning not only NCAA win No. 1 but the first clean slate of his career in a 3-0 victory over Niagara at Dwyer Arena.
Bruveris became the fifth Miami goalie in the online stats era to notch his first collegiate victory via shutout.
The teams split the weekend series, and like last year when they met in Oxford over Christmas break, the home team won the opener and the visitor took the finale in their final games of the 2022 calendar year.
RECAP: Following a scoreless first period, Zane Demsey gave Miami (6-10-2) the lead 4:28 into the middle frame when he took a centering feed from John Waldron on the right wing and beat Niagara goalie Jarrett Fiske on his stick side with a wrist shot from the high slot.
The RedHawks’ William Hallen slipped through traffic and pounded a loose puck in the crease into a vacated net with 1:34 remaining, making it 2-0.
Miami’s Raimonds Vitolins won the ensuing faceoff back to defenseman Hampus Rydqvist, who flipped the puck 100 feet into the open cage for the RedHawks’ second goal in 10 seconds, sealing the RedHawks’ win.
STATS: Bruveris’ metrics were documented above, and he became the fifth Miami player since college stats became internet available in 1997 to post a zero while recording his inaugural victory.
The list:
| Name | Date | Opponent | Saves | Score |
| Jeff Zatkoff | Oct. 9, 2004 | vs. Wayne St.* | 19 | 4-0 |
| Cody Reichard | Oct. 24, 2008 | at Notre Dame | 29 | 2-0 |
| Ryan McKay | Oct. 12, 2012 | COLGATE | 24 | 3-0 |
| Ludvig Persson | Dec. 12, 2020 | vs. Denver# | 30 | 1-0 |
| Bruno Bruveris | Dec. 30, 2023 | at Niagara | 21 | 3-0 |
#-at the NCHC COVID pod at UNO’s Baxter Arena in Omaha, Neb.
Demsey’s goal came in his 59th career game with the RedHawks. The shut-down D-man has five assists in his two seasons in Oxford.
Speaking of first goals, Rydqvist’s launch from across center ice was the first time he had found the net this season. He snapped a 23-game goal drought, potting his 12th career marker.
Fellow Swede Hallen scored for the third time in 2023-24, breaking a 10-game goal-less streak.
Artur Turansky notched an assist for his first point in 14 games. He was 2-3-5 three games into the season.
Waldron picked up a helper to extend his points streak to a team-best five games. He is 3-2-5 in that span.
P.J. Fletcher also earned an assist and has nine points in eight games, including five goals.
Vitolins has five points in six games after racking up a helper.
— Miami finished plus-15 in the shots-on-goal department, its second-best clip of the season only behind its 39-18 margin vs. Canisius on Oct. 14.
— The power play still has nothing to do with power. The RedHawks failed to score on the man-advantage for the fifth straight game, spanning 18 attempts. MU is 3-for-44 (6.8 percent) on the power play in its last 13 games.
— .361 on faceoffs.
ANALYSIS: Effort has been good overall this season, which is what made Friday’s game so disappointing, but the 60-minute game Miami played on Saturday was impressive.
Niagara was a little flat the first 40 minutes but really pushed back to start the third, with the game still very much in doubt. While under fire in the final frame, the RedHawks held the Purple Eagles (7-11-1) to very few high-percentage chances, and Bruveris took care of the occasional Grade-A opportunity.
Hopefully this is a major confidence builder for Miami. The RedHawks led by one with 20 minutes left and were able to not only hold the lead but extend it thanks to one hard-working and one skilled-flip empty netter.
— The first, second and third most important ‘ledes’ from this game are Bruveris, Bruveris and Bruveris, and all of the news was positive.
Logan Neaton has held his own in net for Miami this season, but he’s a final-year senior and the proverbial torch has to be passed.
Bruveris was a stud with Cedar Rapids last season but battled eligibility issues early this season then was out with a concussion. His only sample size this season was 60 minutes of action in which seemingly every shot he faced was ticketed for the corner of the net.
So this game showed he can handle Division I action, that Neaton doesn’t have to man the net every night this season and that Bruveris can at the very least be trusted to log minutes beyond 2023-24.
At best we may have seen a coming-out party for Miami’s starter in net for the next several seasons.
— Waldron force all weekend, creating tons of shots for himself and his teammates. His seeing-eye pass to Demsey set up the first goal, and he could have easily finished with several points each night.
— Congratulations to MU equipment manager Andy Geschan, who was behind the bench for his 1,000th game. Geschan has held his current position with the RedHawks since 1995.
LINEUP CHANGES: In addition to Bruveris making just the second start in net this season by a player not named Neaton, neither defensemen Michael Feenstra and Robby Drazner had their names drawn from the defenseman lineup hat, and both were healthy scratches. Spencer Cox and Jack Clement were apparently the first to have their names pulled and skated on the top pairing.
Coach Chris Bergeron reverted to the more-standard 12-forward, seven-D lineup, so defenseman Axel Kumlin, who took a rare seat Friday, was back on the ice in this game, as was forward Teddy Lagerback, who had not dressed three straight contests.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Obviously the win was a great way to end 2023 and the Bruveris storyline is an added bonus.
That said, Niagara is in the bottom handful of the PairWise, so the RedHawks were the clear favorites both nights yet left the Greater Buffalo Area with a split.
Of Miami’s six wins this season, five have come against the bottom 10 in PairWise. The RedHawks are 1-7-2 vs. the Division I’s top 88 percentile.
Miami is 0-7-1 in league play, having earned just one of 24 possible points, and all of MU’s 16 remaining regular season games are against conference opponents.
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