OXFORD, Ohio — The curse of Robert Morris continues.
Miami, unbeaten though its first four games, allowed five straight goals in the first 31 minutes en route to a 5-1 loss to the Colonials at Cady Arena on Thursday.
The RedHawks (2-1-2) dropped their fourth straight to RMU dating back to 2010 and were huge favorites in the last three meetings.
The teams conclude their weekend series in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
RECAP: Just 4:29 into the game, a wide-open Trent Wilson tipped a Michael Craig blue-line wrister home from the top of the crease to give Robert Morris (1-0) the early lead.
Wilson gave the Colonials a two-goal lead with 4:21 left in the frame, taking a 2-on-1 feed in the slot, skating in and backhanding the puck through Miami goalie Bruno Bruveris.
Miami nearly got on the board in the closing seconds of the first period when Christophe Fillion went in for a breakaway and RMU goalie Croix Kochendorfer lost his stick outside the crease, but Fillion’s shot whizzed inches by the far post.
Robert Morris defenseman Trevor Ledonne took a feed at center ice after coming out of the penalty box, skated in alone and wired a forehander past Bruveris stick side to make it 3-0 just 57 seconds into the middle stanza.
Ledonne extended the Colonials’ lead to four less than five minutes later, tapping in a one-time feed at the top of the crease from Michael Felsling.
With 9:14 left in the middle frame, RMU’s Walter Zacher fired a shot from the inside edge of the left faceoff circle that was blocked, raked in the rebound and whipped a shot inside the far post to extend the lead to five, ending Bruveris’ night.
Miami’s lone goal came 27 seconds later, as William Hallen won a boards battle, carried the puck the left side of the net and backhanded a short past Kochendorfer on the short side.
STATS: Hallen scored three goals each of his first two seasons at Miami, but this marker was his second of the season, with the other coming against Alaska-Anchorage in that series opener.
Assists went to Raimonds Vitolins and Max Dukovac.
Vitolins picked up a point for the fourth straight game — the RedHawks’ longest active streak — as he has five assists in that span.
Dukovac notched his third point and second helper of the season.
— Miami failed to score on the power play for the first time this season, going 0-for-4 including a 5-on-3 that spanned a minute and a half.
But the RedHawks’ penalty kill continued to excel, holding Robert Morris without a man-advantage goal in three chances. MU is 20 of 21 (95.2 percent) to start 2024-25, second in the NCAA only to Penn State in efficiency among the 28 teams that have played at least three games.
ANALYSIS: Derek Schooley is an appropriate name for Robert Morris’ head coach, because he has taken Miami to school the last four times the RedHawks have played his teams.
MU was ranked No. 5 in 2009-10 when his Colonials swept a similar home-and-home series in early January, handing the RedHawks two of just eight losses they suffered that entire Frozen Four season.
Almost three years later, Robert Morris blanked a loaded Miami team, 1-0 at whatever the Penguins’ home rink is called this week in the Three Rivers Classic title game.
He endured two-year dormancy earlier this decade, and the Colonials are in just their second season since reentering the Division I universe.
So 16 of the 19 skaters Schooley dressed in this game were freshmen or sophomores, and his rookie goalie had never played a game above the NAHL level.
Shots ended up even at 24, puck possession ended up close to even and Miami dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 30 of 47 draws. But the Colonials were more opportunistic and took advantage of poor defending.
They absolutely deserved this win.
After a chance in the opening seconds, Miami never seemed to get in rhythm. This was RMU’s first game of the season but it looked more the RedHawks were the team that hadn’t played since March.
Especially early on, mental errors killed Miami.
Bakeries typically have fewer turnovers.
MU played better in the second half of the game, but by then it was too late, and the Colonials limited the RedHawks to four shots in the final period.
Let’s inject some positives…
— Freshman Ethan Dahlmeir goalie turned aside all eight shots he faced after replacing Bruveris. He looked sharp, controlled his rebounds and appeared more confident.
— Speaking of Bruveris, coach Anthony Noreen talked to him extensively after he was pulled in the second period, a classy move by the new coach. Granted he didn’t have one of his better games, but he definitely wasn’t one of the top reasons Miami took the loss.
— How about a crowd of 2,526 for a Thursday night? The student turnout was excellent, and they were loud the few times they had something to cheer about. That bodes very well heading into the winter months, as we should see some great crowds that will hopefully give the team a major home-ice advantage.
LINEUP CHANGES: None again. Noreen has stuck with the same lineup, lines, pairings and starting netminder for the third straight game.
After this steamer, the smart money is on a shakeup for Saturday.
STANDINGS: Miami has jumped sharply to No. 11 in the all-important-but-waaaaay-too-early edition the PairWise rankings.
GRADES
FORWARDS: D-. The top line of Colby Ambrosio, Johnny Waldron and Matt Choupani were a combined minus-10 with one SOG. Ryan Sullivan hit a post and fired four shots, but his linemates were largely invisible. The Hallen-Vitolins-Dukovac third line generated the goal, and the fourth line of Frankie Carogioiello, Blake Mesenburg and Tanyon Bajzer was the team’s best.
DEFENSEMEN: D. Conner Hutchison has been great so far, but he committed multiple major turnovers, and it wasn’t Michael Quinn’s best night of the season either, but the freshman still shows a ton of promise. Both contributed little offensively. After a couple of poor power plays, Noreen shifted Dylan Moulton to the point after sticking with Hutchison and Quinn almost exclusively as quarterbacks the past few games.
GOALTENDING: D+. Bruveris stopped just 11 of 16 shots (.688) and wasn’t on his game, but Dahlmeir turned aside all eight he faced in relief, which will hopefully boost his confidence after he let in four goals on 27 shots in his Division I debut at Ferris State.
FINAL THOUGHTS: We listed a few positives to take from this game above, but other than that, it was a game Miami would rather forget.
No reasonable person expected the RedHawks to return to pre-2016 levels in five games.
But that said, what’s most disappointing about Thursday is Miami didn’t even show a glimmer of the rejuvenated play it showcased in its first four contests.
Down five midway through the second period, the RedHawks cut the deficit to four but never continued that push.
They squandered an extended 5-on-3, couldn’t convert on a penalty shot and missed the net far too often on shots that should have forced saves.
But it’s only one game and we’ll assume it was an outlier.
Noreen seemed to welcome this as a challenge to himself and his team, and it will be interesting to see how Miami responds in the second half of this series on Saturday.
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