OXFORD, Ohio — Anthony Noreen was loudly cheered by Miami fans as his name was announced minutes before his first-ever Division I home game behind the bench, and the head coach’s team rewarded them with his inaugural NCAA victory.
The RedHawks’ 3-2 win at Cady Arena on Friday came against Alaska-Anchorage, a team MU had not faced in nearly four decades and had never beaten in three previous contests.
It also ended Miami’s 18-game winless streak dating back to Jan. 13, tying its longest drought in team history.
With two ties last weekend, the RedHawks (1-0-2) are unbeaten three games into the Noreen era.
Miami and UAA wrap up their weekend series at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.
RECAP: With 42 seconds left in the first period, the RedHawks took the lead on a one-time blast by Johnny Waldron far post from just inside the right faceoff circle off a quick feed from Christophe Fillion along the goal line.
Miami extended its lead late in the middle frame on the power play when Max Dukovac tipped a wrist shot from Casper Nassen by Seawolves goalie Greg Orosz while cruising through the top of the crease with 39 seconds remaining.
Alaska-Anchorage (0-3) cut the deficit to one 18 seconds into the final frame on the rush, as Aiden Westin slid a pass to wide-open linemate Connor Marritt in the slot for a slam-dunk one-timer.
But Miami regained its two-goal lead 32 seconds later when Conner Hutchison’s blue-line wrister deflected off a defender and under the crossbar, making it 3-1.
UAA’s Ryan Johnson snuck a hard wrist shot from a bad angle through Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris with 1:25 left in regulation, but the RedHawks held off the Seawolves’ late surge.
STATS: Noreen celebrated his first Miami victory, and he is unbeaten in three games to start his Division I career.
The only coach to start his RedHawks career with a longer unbeaten streak is Enrico Blasi, who went 3-0-1 in his 1999-2000 debut — all on the road against Western Michigan and St. Cloud State before losing his home opener vs. Providence.
Noreen also became the only other Miami coach than Steve Cady in 1978 to win his first game in Oxford.
— Raimonds Vitolins led the RedHawks with two points, his first two-assist game since transferring to Oxford prior to last season. Vitolins has three helpers in three games.
Waldron’s goal was his first of the season and his second point. He missed Saturday’s game after suffering an upper-body injury in the opener.
Hutchison is off to a 2-2-4 start after netting the eventual game-winner. He racked up a goal and two helpers in last Friday’s season opener at Ferris State.
Dukovac’s marker gave him a point in consecutive games.
Colby Ambrosio picked up an assist, giving him points in all three games since joining the RedHawks and four overall (1-3-4). Nassen has three points (1-2-3), all in the last two contests.
Fillion’s assist was his first as a Miamian and his second point.
— In 14 decisions last season, Bruveris finished 1-12-1. Through two decisions in 2024-25, he already has both a win and a tie.
He turned 25 shots aside, raising his save percentage from .919 to .922.
— Miami was 2-for-5 on the power play and is now 31.3 percent on the young season. The penalty kill finally surrendered a PPG but is still 12 of 13 (92.9 percent).
— MU faced Alaska-Anchorage three times prior: All during the 1986-87 season. The Seawolves won, 2-1 in the Schweppes Classic in Cincinnati on Dec. 28, 1986 and swept Miami in the teams’ only other weekend series, 4-3 and 8-5 on Jan. 23-24, 1987 in Anchorage.
— Through three games, the RedHawks have scored in all nine periods.
— Opponents have potted five of their nine goals against Miami in the third period.
ANALYSIS: It was far from a perfect effort by the RedHawks, but this is a team that gutted it out and just as importantly closed it out in the final minutes, which has been a herculean chore for many years.
The start was atrocious. Miami didn’t generate a shot on goal for nearly 15 minutes, and the first one was an innocuous outside wrister.
Too much fancy passing and poor passing that resulted in turnovers and players trying to skate through multiple defenders.
Alaska-Anchorage defended well. It didn’t allow a lot of open space, so unlike the Ferris State series that was more end-to-end, Miami’s skill players had little room to operate.
Hopefully they learned from that, because open ice will certainly be at a premium vs. NCHC opponents.
That said, the second shot on goal was a beautiful tic-tac-toe job from Ambrosio to Fillion to Waldron and nothing but net.
Miami found its game after that. Minutes before that, assistant coach Troy Thibeau could be heard yelling at his players to start communicating and start skating, with an expletive or two mixed in.
The Miami goal came in the 20th minute, and the team was completely different in the second period, in a good way, in every way, culminating in another late goal.
The third period was mostly fine as well. UAA scored its first goal seconds in, but Miami answered half a minute later to re-establish its two-goal lead.
Again, credit the Seawolves for battling back and pulling within one late. They certainly didn’t roll over when they fell behind by two a second time.
But as fans tensed up anticipating another here-we-go-again ending they’ve seen too often go sideways over the years — turning their bodies largely into scar tissue — held on.
It wasn’t the prettiest win, but this victory had to do wonders for the psyche of players who hadn’t won in nine months.
— Four straight penalties in the final 11 minutes didn’t make closing out this win any easier for the RedHawks.
Especially since Miami was forced to kill 48 seconds 5-on-3 and part of a late too-many-men minor 6-on-4 with Alaska-Anchorage’s goalie pulled.
Obviously MU can’t make that a habit.
— The quick passing/pro-level puck movement on Waldron’s is something we’ve seen a couple of times already, especially on the power play, and Miami’s man-advantage percentage reflects that.
Of the 52 Division I teams that have logged a game, the RedHawks’ power play of 31.3 ranks sixth.
— Graduate senior Dylan Moulton left the game with several minutes left in the second period with an undisclosed injury and did not return.
Moulton, who was on the top pairing, has missed just eight games the past three seasons and led the team with six defensemen goals in 2023-24. The early word is that he’s questionable for Saturday’s game.
— It seems like Miami constantly surrendered goals in the closing moments of periods in recent years, but the RedHawks’ first two goals in this game were scored with 42 and 39 seconds left in the first two periods, respectively.
The teams traded the next two goals, both scored in the first minutes of the third period.
The fifth goal was scored 6-on-4, so all five goals were scored in the first minute or the final two minutes of the game.
— It’s obviously no one’s fault, but it’s a shame Miami students were on fall break and the crowd was just 1,621 for Noreen’s home opener.
— On the late 3-on-5: The two biggest heroes were Ryan Sullivan and Zane Demsey.
Sullivan slapped the initial draw out of the defensive zone, and Demsey battled to clear the puck twice.
LINEUP CHANGES: Just one among Miami skaters.
Waldron returned after missing Game 2 due to a UBI. John Emmons was scratched after making his debut last Saturday.
In net, Bruveris started for the second straight Friday. Freshman Ethan Dahlmeir was in net for last Saturday’s game.
STANDINGS: Including Miami, sixteen NCAA teams have played three games already this season. The RedHawks are the only one that’s undefeated.
In the way-too-early PairWise rankings, MU is 14th after the completion of all Friday games.
GRADES
FORWARDS: C-. The first two Miami goals were outstanding skill plays, no doubt. But Waldron’s goal in the first period was the only shot by a forward, and as mentioned above, passing wasn’t crisp — especially early — and too many times forwards tried to skate through defenders. UAA didn’t capitalize on the resulting turnovers, but you can bet the higher-caliber opponents Miami will face later in the season will. Dukovac and Vitolins were excellent together on the third line, combining for a goal and two assists, and the fourth line of Frankie Carogioiello, Blake Mesenburg and Tanyon Bajzer played well also.
DEFENSEMEN: B. Moulton (until he left the game) and Demsey had excellent games defensively. Didn’t like the Hampus Rydqvist penalty at the red line that resulted in the 5-on-3, especially with a two-goal lead. Hutchison had a goal for his fourth point. Michael Feenstra was on the ice for UAA’s first goal and took a minor but was still solid overall.
GOALTENDING: B. Bruveris had no chance on the first goal but it looks like he would’ve wanted the second one back, which was scored from a bad angle and with no traffic obstructing him. He shut down a breakaway and made one more Grade-A save but didn’t have to be a hero like last Friday’s overtime.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Miami won. That’s the big takeaway from Noreen’s first home game in what is hoped will be a decades-long career behind the RedHawks’ bench.
October is typically a feeling-out process for coaches in terms of rosters, and Noreen is new in this role at Miami and brought in 13 players.
The player evaluation portion of the season will definitely continue, yet Miami has come away from its first three games 1-0-2.
It hasn’t been a perfect start, but after what program has been through, getting into the win column for the first time in ninth months has to provide a huge emotional boost for the RedHawks.
View From the Glass 