Miami sinks Ferris to take 3rd in GLI

The Mathis Langevin era has begun, and it was an unambiguous success.

In his collegiate debut, the Miami freshman goalie stopped 30 of 32 shots as the RedHawks beat Ferris State, 4-2 in the third-place game of the Great Lakes Invitational on Monday.

Langevin transferred in from Rimouski of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League two weeks ago after Miami and Shika Gadzhiev parted ways.

The RedHawks finish the regular season 3-0 against the Bulldogs after sweeping them at Cady Arena to open the 2025-26 slate.

Miami is off this upcoming weekend and heads to Arizona State for a two-game set on Jan. 9-10.

RECAP: Miami (11-7-2) took the lead 7:07 into the first period when David Deputy carried the puck through the neutral zone to the right side of the net while heavily guarded and roofed a shot a second before being elbowed in the head.

With 2:46 left in the opening frame, Ferris State’s Jacob Badal tied it by poking a puck from under Langevin’s pads into the cage just before it was dislodged from its mooring.

The RedHawks went ahead for good 2:01 into the middle frame, as Max Helgeson banged home a rebound a second after a Ferris State penalty had expired.

Ryder Thompson extended Miami’s lead to two on a one-timer off a feed by Bradley Walker just over four minutes later.

Ferris State (4-15) made it 3-2 with 4:01 left in regulation when Gavin Best centered a pass from the left wing to Max Itagaki, who redirected it past Langevin just outside the blue paint.

But Miami sealed it with 17 seconds to play, with Deputy scoring an empty netter for his second tally of the game.

STATS: Deputy scored twice for the second time in four games (he also netted a pair of goals in the opener against Colorado College on Dec. 12).

Thompson went 1-1-2, earning multiple points for the first time at the collegiate level in addition to scoring his first NCAA goal.

Helgeson scored his ninth goal of the season and his third in five contests, moving him into a tie with Matteo Giampa for the team lead.

Vladislav Lukashevich dished for an assist for the second straight game and leads all RedHawks defensemen with 16 points.

Ethan Hay also picked up a helper, his ninth of 2025-26 and his 11 point.

A night after earning his first collegiate assist, Walker tallied his second on the Thompson goal.

— Langevin stopped 30 of 32 shots in his Miami debut, and his .938 save percentage was the fourth-best performance in net for the RedHawks this season. Matteo Drobac recorded a pair of shutouts and held this same Ferris State team to one goal on 20 shots opening weekend.

It was also the first time in six games Miami has allowed fewer than three goals.

— Miami was perfect on the penalty kill for the second straight night, going 3-for-3. The RedHawks improved to 77.8 percent on the PK for the season, 41st-best in Division I.

— Following up on Sunday’s notes, MU scored in both the first and second periods for the fifth straight game. The RedHawks also didn’t allow a goal in the middle frame for the first time in seven contests.

ANALYSIS: Finally having a set goalie trio is the biggest takeaway.

Obviously, all will have to earn their minutes between the pipes, but as the cliche goes, internal competition makes everyone better.

And we can’t say enough about Drobac logging every minute of the first 19 games. He recorded a pair of shutouts and kept the RedHawks in every other start despite the transition to a new school and — frankly — that wasn’t Miami’s plan entering this season.

Having multiple netminders compete for the starting job will make coach Anthony Noreen’s job harder, but his team just got a lot stronger.

— Treating this as a positive, but Miami scored all four goals without a contribution from the MILK line. Deputy played like he was fired from a cannon all weekend — and at his size that might’ve been a career choice had he not been really good at hockey and academics — Thompson definitely deserved to be rewarded after the first half he’s had and Helgeson has been a huge offensive contributor on the second line.

Giampa has no goals in his last four games, Ilia Morozov has one point in his last six and in his most recent seven contests, Kocha Delic is 1-1-2.

— Where did the offense come from? Miami scored six goals this weekend: Two by defensemen (Thompson and Michael Quinn) and the other four came from the second line of Helgeson, Deputy and Ryan Smith.

— Again, really hate to discuss officiating since it sounds petty, but a night after blowing the whistle a split-second before a Miami delayed-penalty goal that came nowhere near a Ferris player, the RedHawks reviewed for a potential elbowing major for the shot to the head dished out by Nic Belpedio (younger brother of former MU defenseman Louie Belpedio), and after clear evidence on replay that Belpedio extended his elbow well before contact to the head, Miami lost its timeout.

Keep in mind, the challenge by the RedHawks was only made because neither referee saw Deputy get clocked at the top of the crease and thought that warranted a penalty.

And because Miami lost that challenge, it was unable to throw the challenge flag on Ferris State’s subsequent goal, which was scored while Langevin’s pads were being whacked harder than John Bonham’s drums during Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti tour.

To challenge again meant a delay of game penalty for Noreen’s RedHawks. So they didn’t.

— Miami finished Calendar Year 2025 with a record of 11-22-3. That’s not bad considering the RedHawks finished last season 0-15-1 after New Year’s.

LINEUP CHANGES: John Emmons replaced Justin Stupka up front.

It was just the sixth time Emmons has dressed this season, and Stupka had played in all of Miami’s first 19 contest.

On defense, Shaun McEwen was back in the lineup after being scratched for the first time all season on Sunday, replacing Owen Lalonde.

Neither Stupka nor Lalonde are expected to miss significant time due to injury, and the RedHawks are off the next 11 days.

STANDINGS: Miami improved two spots in the NPI, from No. 35 to 33.

The RedHawks finish 9-1 in non-conference play and 3-1 in tournament contests.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Miami won its 11th game of the season to wrap up its 2025 slate on Monday.

In 2024-25, Miami finished 3-28-3 and was winless after Halloween.

The RedHawks still have a ton of work to do, granted.

However — and this isn’t the first time we’ve brought this up, but as a real-time reality check — if you were told on Oct. 1 that Miami would have 11 wins heading into 2026, would you be happy with that?

The RedHawks won four times in Calendar Year 2024, so it’s hard to argue this team’s trajectory.