Miami shuts out RPI, wins 4th straight

For just the fourth time in Miami hockey history, the RedHawks have won their first four games to open a season.

And unlike the first three victories, this one was a blowout.

Matteo Giampa scored just 62 seconds in and another Matteo — Matteo Drobac — stopped all 26 shots he faced in a 5-0 shutout over RPI at the Houston Field House on Saturday.

That secured the RedHawks’ first road sweep in 1,084 days, with its last 2-0 road weekend coming at Canisius on Oct. 21-22, 2022.

Miami (4-0) had not shut out an opponent since Nov. 26, 2023, when it blanked Mercyhurst, 2-0.

The RedHawks are off next weekend and travel to Lindenwood for a two-game set Oct. 24-25.

RECAP: Giampa stole the puck in the slot, went in alone and beat goalie Nate Crawchuk on the backhand at the 1:02 mark to give Miami the early lead.

The RedHawks extended their lead to two with 10:03 left in the second period when Michael Quinn and Ilia Morozov played give-and-go, with Quinn finding Morozov in the left faceoff circle and Morozov picking the top shelf.

Twenty-two seconds into the final frame, Doug Grimes tipped a left-point wrister by Casper Nassen home from the top of the crease to make it 3-0.

With 10:19 left in regulation, Kocha Delic shoveled a wrister past Crawchuk from the left faceoff circle to extend Miami’s lead to four.

Vladislav Lukashevich capped the scoring when he snuck a blue line wrister through traffic with 3:26 left.

STATS: Miami has only started 4-0 three times previously: In 1997, 2004 and 2007. The RedHawks qualified for the NCAA the latter two times.

— Morozov recorded a team-high three points for the second straight night, going 1-2-3. It’s the first time a Miami skater has notched consecutive three-plus point games since Jimmy Mullin racked up seven points in a two-game span Feb. 25-March 9, 2012.

Delic and Giampa added two points apiece, with both notching a goal and an assist.

Grimes and Lukashevich scored their first goals as RedHawks, the fourth and second of their collegiate careers, respectively.

Delic leads the team with four goals, and Giampa tops all Miami scorers with eight points, with Delic and Morozov at seven. Delic and Giampa have recorded points in all four games this season.

Nassen, Quinn and Justin Stupka all picked up assists. Nassen has four points and Quinn and Stupka three.

— Drobac stopped 26 shots to earn the shutout and improve to 4-0. He is riding a 96:04 shutout streak.

Miami’s last shutout came on Nov. 26, 2023 at Mercyhurst, a game the RedHawks won, 2-0.

— The last time Miami beat a team by five or more goals was Dec. 10, 2022, when MU blanked St. Cloud State by the same 5-0 score.

— The RedHawks scored three more third-period goals and have now outscored opponents, 10-2 in the final stanza.

— Miami has scored in seven consecutive periods for the first time since the beginning of 2024-25, which the RedHawks opened by finding the net in 11 straight frames. MU has 12 goals in those seven frames.

ANALYSIS: Again, a little bit of a slow start, the turnover-turned-Giampa goal notwithstanding, but Miami seemed to get better as the game progressed.

RPI threw everything it had at the RedHawks and controlled play at times, but each time the Engineers had a quality chance a Miami skater blocked it or Drobac turned it aside.

Once again, yes, it’s very early, but the RedHawks have shown a badly-needed killer instinct, the lack of which has plagued them for a number of years. In recent seasons, leads were rarely safe, evidenced by numerous truly epic, finger-through-the-toilet paper collapses.

Game 1: Down 3-2 after two periods, Miami wins, 6-4.

Game 2: Ferris State ties the score in the third period, Miami scores twice to win, 3-1.

Game 3: RPI takes a 3-1 lead, Miami scores the next four, and…

Game 4: …make it nine straight, as Miami led 1-0 until midway through the second period, when the RedHawks pulled ahead by two. Then they blew it open in the third.

Is it conditioning, is it skill, is it confidence, is it the proverbial ignorance being bliss from a group that had three-quarters of its players not suffer through the pit of misery that was the last four months of 2024-25? A combination?

Obviously Miami will be tested by much better opponents once the gauntlet of league play starts, but the RedHawks’ struggles were equal opportunity in the past — MU blew leads and turned wins into losses against good teams and weaker non-conference foes — and at least in a small sample size they’ve thrived rather than buckle when facing adversity.

— Drobac was outstanding, carrying over from the last 20 minutes on Friday. His rebound control got better as the weekend progressed, and it looked like he was seeing the puck better. Even his optics were better — he appeared more confident and settled. Drobac probably wasn’t expecting to log over 239 minutes the first four games of the season, and he’s handled the workload exceptionally well.

— RPI (0-2) probably wasn’t unhappy to see Miami’s top line of Giampa, Morozov and Delic leave New York. They torched the Engineers’ defense for seven more points, finishing with 16 for the series. They scored seven of the RedHawks’ 10 goals and accounted for 59 percent of MU’s points this weekend.

One suggestion was to call it the M-IL-K line. As in Matteo, IL-ia and Kocha.

Thoughts?

Got MILK? Miami does. Maybe it could result in a sponsorship and an NIL deal.

— Is it the sweater number? Shaun McEwen laid out a couple of punishing hits, with one being reviewed by RPI for a potential major.

Fortunately, the Engineers lost the challenge, because Morozov scored the RedHawks’ second goal a minute later, and it would have been negated if that hit was ruled a major.

McEwen wears No. 2, taking over that number for Spencer Cox, who packed a career’s worth of highlight-reel checks in his two-year career.

McEwen led Miami in ice time at 20:36.

— It seemed like the fourth line barely touched the ice on Friday, but those skaters averaged 10 minutes in the finale and were outstanding in their grinding role.

John Emmons was a forechecking machine, Blake Mesenburg was his typical, steady, hard-to-play-against and maximum-effort self, and Nicholas Mikan played his best game and is starting to thrive with his new linemates.

— What a give-and-go by Morozov and Michael Quinn. Quinn got better all of last season and appears to have taken a major step forward so far this fall.

— Lukashevich stood out more for his offensive abilities vs. Ferris State, but this weekend — and this game in particular — he shined on defense. He also laid out multiple hits. It’s easy to see why Michigan State fans weren’t happy to see him transfer.

LINEUP CHANGES: None.

But defenseman Kyle Aucoin only played 3:42 and may have tweaked a lower-body injury.

STANDINGS: NPI (the replacement for the PairWise ratings) are unavailable, not that they’re really important this early in the season.

Miami is the first team to four wins in the conference. North Dakota is the only other NCHC team with a perfect record, and that’s due to one home win over St. Thomas.

FINAL THOUGHTS: It’s really hard not to get excited at this point, not only with the early wins but how Miami has earned them, through hard work, persistence and a rejuvenated killer instinct. While the league schedule looms in the not-so-far distance, it’s hard to imagine all of the positive attributes we’ve witnessed and discussed not permeating into NCHC play.