Miami rallies past RPI to open road slate

For the first time in 16 years, Miami has opened a season by running off three straight victories while winning its first road game in over 21 months.

Trailing by two goals early in the second period, the RedHawks netted the last four markers, beating RPI, 5-3 at Houston Field House on Friday.

The last time Miami began a campaign by winning three straight games was in 2009.

The RedHawks and RPI wrap up their weekend series at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

RECAP: Miami (3-0) opened the scoring at the 5:45 mark on the power play when Doug Grimes threaded a pass through the slot to Ilia Morozov, who corralled it and wired a shot past goalie Bruno Bruveris from the right faceoff dot.

But RPI (0-1) answered with a pair of goals in the next 90 seconds.

Forty-three seconds after Morozov’s goal and just seven seconds into the Engineers’ first man-advantage, Kaz Sobieski wired a shot from just inside the blue line that beat Miami goalie Matteo Drobac, tying the score.

At 7:12, Matthew Buckley snuck a shot through a screen and past Drobac, giving RPI the lead.

Four minutes into the second period on a 4-on-4, Filip Satar fired a one-timer from the left faceoff dot near post to extend the Engineers’ lead to two.

Miami’s Kocha Delic skated into the zone, juked a defender and beat Bruveris on the power play with 12:56 left in the middle stanza, cutting the deficit to one.

Morozov tied it at three on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Matteo Giampa and Delic, burying a one-timer from the high slot with 8:34 left remaining in the second frame.

Less than three minutes later, Miami regained the lead when Giampa fed Max Helgeson on a backdoor cut, and Helgeson roofed the puck from the right side of the net to make it 4-3.

Morozov muscled the puck forward to Delic with 1:09 left in regulation, and Delic skated in and deposited it into the empty net to seal the win.

STATS: The top line of Delic, Morozov and Giampa all finished with three points, with the former two going 2-1-3 and Giampa picking up three assists.

Delic now leads the team with three goals, and he’s second on the RedHawks with five points.

Morozov’s tallies were the first two of his career. He has two goals and two helpers in his first three collegiate games.

Giampa racked up three-plus assists for the third time in his career (he did it twice with Canisius last season), and his six points is tops on the RedHawks.

Delic and Giampa have points in all three of Miami’s games.

Helgeson also found the net for the second straight contest.

Grimes’ assist was his third this season. He had just one in two seasons with Boston University.

Vladislav Lukashevich notched his third assist of the season, and Ethan Hay and Ryder Thompson both notched their second.

In addition to stopping 26 shots and improving to 3-0, Drobac earned a secondary helper on Delic’s first goal for his first collegiate point.

— The last time Miami had two two-goal scorers in a game was Jan. 28, 2022 vs. Denver in a 5-4 loss (Hampus Rydqvist and Red Savage). The RedHawks haven’t won a game in which two players scored twice since a 7-5 win over Maine on Oct. 20, 2017 (Gordie Green and Grant Hutton).

— Three wins equals MU’s total from the entire 2024-25 season, and the season is only eight days old.

— In 2009, the last time Miami started 3-0, the team advanced to the Frozen Four.

— The RedHawks scored twice on the power play for the second time this season. They are 4-for-15 on the man-advantage (26.7 percent).

— Miami had not won a road game in 650 days, going 0-21-4 in that span. The RedHawks’ last road victory came at Niagara on Dec. 30, 2023.

ANALYSIS: The first period for Miami was fairly sloppy and uninspired. The RedHawks didn’t play with the same edge they had in the Ferris State series, and they turned the puck over way too often.

But the final 40 minutes were a complete reversal. The energy, the smooth passing, the tenacious defense that propelled Miami to a sweep last weekend was back.

The scoreboard reflected that shift: The RedHawks outscored RPI, 4-1 in the final 40 minutes after allowing three of the first four goals.

RPI ramped up the intensity early in the third period with Miami leading, 4-3, but despite sustaining some lengthy defensive-zone shifts, the RedHawks held the Engineers to nine shots in the final frame, and Drobac played his best hockey down the stretch.

— Hype has been understandably huge surrounding Morozov, but considering he went 11-11-22 in juniors last season and just turned 17, expectations for his first season were somewhat tempered. VFG said before the season it may take some time for Morozov to take off at the Division I level, but he’s not only demonstrated he can hang with much-older, more physical college skaters, he’s already one of Miami’s best players. And on Friday, he keyed the RedHawks’ top line with two goals and an assist. Again, he turned 17 in August and is the youngest player in Division I.

— The entire top line combined for nine points — four goals and five assists. Morozov, Delic and Giampa look like they’ve played together for years, although they’ve come from three completely different walks of life. We need a name for this line: Maybe the MIK line (Matteo-Ilia-Kocha)? We welcome better suggestions.

— Ryan Smith didn’t record a point but seemed to be all over the ice all night, puck handling, forechecking and backchecking every time he was on the ice.

— Drobac probably should have stopped either the second or third goal and gave up a few rebounds early but really locked down late when Miami needed him most. He stopped 26 of 29 shots and has a .906 save percentage through three games.

— No idea how Grimes had one assist in two seasons at Boston University. He plays defense, he’s physical, he’s a vocal leader and he’s thriving on the power play.

— Liked Shaun McEwen and Ryder Thompson defensively. McEwen also dished out a couple of big hits, and Thompson notched an assist and finished plus-1.

— TOI wasn’t listed in the box score, but the eyeball test said the fourth line played very sparingly. And the top line was out for RPI’s extra attacker shift. Miami coach Anthony Noreen said they earned it. Agreed.

— Officiating was interesting. The game was called tight early (read here: a couple of soft calls against both teams), then no penalties were assessed the final period-plus.

At one point, Miami took a too-many-men penalty but no one was sent to the penalty box and the penalty time wasn’t put on the scoreboard until over a minute of power play time had elapsed.

— After giving up three goals on the first 10 shots he faced, Drobac turned aside the final 19, giving the RedHawks a chance to rally and ultimately win.

And he earned his first collegiate assist. He did not record a point for Western Ontario in 2024-25, but he did have four in his final two OHL seasons and likes to move the puck.

— Three games, three empty net goals. Bradley Walker, Helgeson and Delic have all earned ENGs in the first week-plus of the season.

LINEUP CHANGES: Just one: 2024-25 alternate captain Blake Mesenburg made his 2025-26 debut, replacing Walker. Mesenburg was a healthy scratch vs. Ferris State.

Goalie Shika Gadzhiev traveled with the team and practiced but is still waiting for NCAA clearance. He was scratched on Friday.

STANDINGS: League play is still weeks away, but Miami and Minnesota-Duluth are tied for the best record in the NCHC at 3-0. The RedHawks lead the conference in goals and are second to the Bulldogs in goal differential (plus-6).

FINAL THOUGHTS: For the past several years, a two-goal deficit has been tantamount to a death sentence for Miami.

But the RedHawks, who a week earlier rallied from a pair of one-goal deficits to win their season opener, ran off four straight markers to earn their first road W in over 21 months.

It feels different this season. The skill augmentation is noticeable, every night, every period, nearly every shift. For so long, Miami teams would show bursts of life but then deflate when things went awry.

Twice in three games the RedHawks showed they can overcome deficits, two times in Game 1, and one of the multi-goal variety on Friday.

Yeah, it’s not against Denver or at the Ralph, but even with 21 new players, the first eight days of 2025-26 must be doing wonders for this team’s scar tissue-laden psyche.

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VFG is headed to Belfast to cover Miami in the Friendship Four this November. We’re a completely independent website, so we bring you RedHawks hockey coverage without a dime of corporate compensation. If you like our work and have the means, please consider helping us continue to provide the best RedHawks coverage and photos by contributing via Venmo here: