OXFORD, Ohio — Two weeks into Anthony Noreen’s NCAA coaching career, Miami is riding its longest unbeaten streak to start a season in 11 years.
The RedHawks dominated Alaska-Anchorage on Saturday, winning 4-1 at Cady Arena and earning a series sweep for the first time in exactly one year.
Miami (2-0-2) tied both of its games at Ferris State last weekend, ironically extending its carried-over winless streak to a school-record 18 games.
“Happy for the program, the school, the athletic department, the people that believed,” Noreen said. “For me personally, I’m happy for the people that I had here to come here that got to experience it and see it.”
The RedHawks return to the ice for a rare Thursday home game on Oct. 17 vs. Robert Morris and play RMU on its home ice in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
RECAP: Miami took the lead 3:43 into the first period when Colby Ambrosio skated the puck from his own end through the neutral zone and beat goalie Greg Orosz on the stick side.
Just 23 seconds into the middle stanza, the RedHawks doubled their lead as Johnny Waldron stole the puck along the half wall and centered it into the slot to a wide-open Ambrosio, who drew the lone defender and slid a pass across the top of the crease to Matt Choupani, and Choupani buried it on the forehand.
MU’s Casper Nassen cranked a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle that beat Orosz glove side with one second left in a power play, teed up by a cross-ice feed from Raimonds Vitolins.
That made it 3-0 and chased Orosz with 4:48 left in the second frame.
The RedHawks pushed their lead to four 58 seconds later against replacement goalie Tyler Krivtsov on a tic-tac-toe play. Ambrosio centered a feed to Waldron, who tipped a pass to Choupani at the left side of the cage, and after trapping the puck, Choupani flung it inside the far post for his second goal of the night.
Alaska-Anchorage (0-4) finally scored with 6:21 left in regulation when an attempted Miami clearing pass through the slot was ripped home by Dimitry Kebreau.
STATS: With the win, Noreen tied one of his mentors — Enrico Blasi — for longest unbeaten streak to begin a RedHawks coaching career. Blasi’s inaugural team in 1999 started 3-0-1.
— Ambrosio led Miami with three points on a goal and two assists.
He’s the only RedHawks skater with points in all four games and leads the team in points (2-5-7).
Choupani scored twice, his second-career multi-goal game, with his other two-goal performance coming against Providence while he was with Northeastern last season. He has five points already in 2024-25.
It was Waldron’s third collegiate two-assist game.
Freshman Nassen has four points in four games to start the season including two goals, both on missiles from the left wing.
Vitolins picked up an assist for his outstanding power play feed to Nassen and has points in three straight games (0-4-4).
Freshman defenseman Michael Quinn recorded his second assist of the season on the Nassen goal.
— Four games into 2024-25, sophomore goalie Bruno Bruveris has already doubled his win total from his rookie year. He stopped 25 of 26 shots, raising his save percentage from .922 to .933.
— The top line (what are we going to call them, the WAC line — Waldron-Ambrosio-Choupani?) accounted for seven points and have a combined 16 points four games into the season.
— The RedHawks actually broke their streak of scoring in the first 11 periods of the season when they were held off the scoreboard in the final stanza.
— MU has allowed 10 goals this season and six have come in the third period, including UAA’s lone goal in this game.
ANALYSIS: This bleeds from stats as well, but the final SOG total was 26-15 in favor of the Seawolves. Yes, that’s the correct order.
We asked Noreen if that was one of the least indicative shot totals compared to performance he had ever seen, and he said this:
“One of the things I’ll tell you about our teams moving forward, you’re probably not going to see a huge shot count, we’re going to be a team that takes quality shots and we’re going to be a team that takes care of the puck,” Noreen said. “We want to make other teams defend.
“One of the sayings these guys will hear me say a million times, there’s no shot clock in hockey — you want to hang onto that thing.”
The 15 shots Miami was credited with were of much-higher quality than UAA’s 26.
With the exception of a couple of surges, the RedHawks dominated this game.
And that’s a huge compliment because Alaska-Anchorage appeared very well coached and disciplined defensively, a feat made even more impressive considering most of the defense corps from 2023-24 transferred out and this season’s corps had almost exclusively come in via the portal.
Miami had almost no odd-man rushes all weekend and really had to fight for open ice, unlike the more wide-open game Ferris State played last weekend.
UAA won 15 games last season and knocked off multiple ranked opponents, so the Miami wins this weekend were definitely not against a cupcake opponent.
— The significance of the early Ambrosio-Choupani chemistry can’t be overstated. In four games they’ve combined for 12 points. We’ve already seen more high-speed tic-tac-toe goals involving that duo in two weeks than in the last few seasons.
— It’s hard to believe Nassen slipped to the seventh round of the 2023 NHL draft, but it makes sense the Boston Bruins would acquire the freshman’s rights.
Nassen has gotten better every game, and not only does he have four points in four games — including two rocket one-time goals — he’s winning more and more boards battles using his 6-feet-4 frame.
— Dylan Moulton left Friday’s game late in the second period with an undisclosed injury and did not return, but he was back on the ice in full capacity for the series finale.
— Four games into the season, it’s safe to say Noreen works the refs — to steal a bouncyball cliche — a lot more than in previous years.
He wasn’t shy about showing his displeasure on Miami’s too-many-men call last Saturday and was extremely animated multiple times this weekend.
— The fourth line once again deserves a ton of credit for its energy and prowess on the penalty kill. That was extremely helpful during the Ambrosio major.
If your fourth liners can effectively kill penalties, which Frankie Carogioiello, Blake Mesenburg and more recently Tanyon Bajzer have proven they can do — at least against this level of Division I opponent — that’s more time the top-six forwards can spend 5-on-5.
Watch a Penguins game sometime. Sidney Crosby is the best penalty-killing forward on the team but he has one shorthanded goal his last 14 seasons because Pittsburgh never needs him in that role. The Pens always have solid fourth liners than can kill penalties and save Crosby for 5-on-5 and power plays.
LINEUP CHANGES: None. Not even the lines changed one iota.
It was wondered if Noreen would continue his goaltending rotation with Ethan Dahlmeir, but Bruveris was outstanding.
STANDINGS: The way-too-early PairWise has Miami dropping 11 spots to No. 24.
The RedHawks’ .750 winning percentage is sixth-best in the NCHC.
GRADES
FORWARDS: B. Under Noreen, maybe this will be toughest group to assign a grade to. The top line racked up seven points and this corps accounted for nine of the 10 overall points, including all four goals, with some of highlight-reel quality. Choupani scored twice but did center a pass from the corner into the slot that was blasted in for UAA’s lone goal. Waldron struggled to complete passes early but was much better the final 40 minutes. Nassen has gotten better in every facet since Game 1. Loved the effort from the fourth line, as mentioned. The SOG total was a one-off but not enough shots from this corps would be one ding.
DEFENSEMEN: B+. In football, the offensive line is at its best if it isn’t noticed by the casual fan. That was the Miami D-corps on Saturday, because it made very few mistakes. Most of the 26 Seawolves’ shots were from the perimeter or fired with a clean sightline for Bruveris. Conner Hutchison had been better known for his offensive contributions to this point, but he stepped up his defensive game Saturday. Hampus Rydqvist was also much better in a shut-down role for this game.
GOALTENDING: A-. The biggest mistake Bruveris made all night, he covered for. He gave the puck away at the side of the net on a power play, but 1-on-1 he made the point-blank save. Again, most shots Bruveris faced were from the perimeter, but he controlled his rebounds well and was excellent the few times he had to scramble, making two stops on Grade-A chances. The only goal he allowed he had no chance on, as it was a turnover-turned-rip from the slot.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Miami played a fantastic game against a well-coached team and won easily.
This rebuild won’t always go smoothly, but a 2-0-2 start is definitely a positive, and we’re seeing more energy from players on the ice and a higher level of emotion from those on the bench.
The first two weeks of the Noreen on-ice era have gone extremely well and the future under his guidance appears very bright.
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