Miami’s season may have ended in Denver on Saturday, but what the RedHawks accomplished in the past five months should reap residual benefits.
For the better part of a decade, it has felt like this program was doomed, falling further into the doldrums with each passing series.
Miami finished 2024-25 on an 0-25-1, 26-game winless streak, and it got so bad the arena staff considered using The Motels’ “Take the L” as Miami’s intro song.
That changed on Oct. 3, when Miami beat Ferris State, 6-4 on opening night in Oxford, with a pair of first-year Matteos making major contributions.
Matteo Giampa scored twice in his RedHawks debut, and Matteo Drobac stopped 34 shots in net (and how little we knew at that time the impact Drobac would make in 2025-26).
The next night Kocha Delic broke a 1-1 tie with three minutes left to propel MU to the sweep.
On its first road trip of the season, Miami fell behind, 3-1 in its opener at RPI, but the RedHawks scored four times in the last 13 minutes to win, 5-3. The youngest player in Division I — Ilia Morozov — found the net twice and assisted on another tally, and Giampa set up the tying and go-ahead markers.
Miami blew RPI out the next night, 5-0, thanks to three more points by Morozov and 25 saves by Drobac.
Next up was Lindenwood in the St. Louis suburbs, and the RedHawks fell behind in both games but took each one to overtime, where Morozov scored the Friday winner and set up Ryan Smith’s GWG a night later.
The RedHawks were 6-0. It wasn’t even Halloween, and Miami already had twice as many wins as in all of 2024-25.
But we’d seen this script before. Miami was actually ranked several years back after a hot start, and even in 2024-25 — the Yugo of RedHawks seasons — MU was 2-0-2 after two weeks.
Miami still had a number of boxes to check off before being welcomed back into the Division I respectability club.
MU entered NCHC play riding a 41-game league winless streak, as the team finished 0-23-1 last season, the worst-ever finish in conference history by every metric.
After suffering a loss in their league opener against Arizona State, the RedHawks won the finale, 5-2 on home ice, with Max Helgeson wearing the cape, scoring twice. Two weeks later, Miami split at home with St. Cloud State.
A tournament overseas may not have been on the checklist, but certainly success on a European road trip would re-instill team confidence. Win and win. Belpot champions.
Again, it was the Matteos: Drobac stopped 52 of 54 shots that weekend, and Giampa was credited with a late goal that caromed off a Union defender.
Finally, something for this team to celebrate, even if it was nearly 4,000 miles and five time zones away.
Then three months into the season, the NCAA tells you the goalie you were planning on as your No. 1 (and has been traveling with team), isn’t going to be eligible all year. Meanwhile most Division I teams are currently trying to contact Conner Hellebuyck to see if he wants to return to school for his final two years of eligibility.
Shika Gadzhiev returned to Slovakia and turned pro, and Miami coach Anthony Noreen shrewdly exploited a loophole to bring in Mathis Langevin — a high-quality goalie from Rimouski of the Quebec Maritimes juniors league — to tandem with Giampa and relieve his workload.
Langevin started and won the third-place game of the Great Lakes Invitational — going 30-for-32 — in his Miami debut.
The RedHawks entered the 2026 calendar year with two league wins and hadn’t swept a conference opponent in four years. Then they dominated Omaha at Cady Arena, outscoring the Mavericks, 9-2 on the weekend.
Miami’s last NCHC road win was at Duluth in 2023, and the RedHawks swept St. Cloud State at the Herb Brooks Center.
How about beating a top-5 team? David Deputy — who took over in the second half of the season — double clutched and wired home an overtime wrister on a 2-on-1, as Miami beat then-No. 4 Western Michigan.
Deputy scored 13 goals in the RedHawks’ final 20 games, finishing with 15, the most goals by an MU skater since Gordie Green eight years ago.
How about holding your own in the most hostile of rinks? Miami played a solid series at The Ralph and snatched a point, and it could have easily been more.
Meanwhile, Drobac won 7 of his first 8 games after Langevin joined the RedHawks with a save percentage north of .950, and he was above .930 in 2026 entering the postseason.
With each box checked, with every step forward this team took, it looked more like they belonged in this league, rather than the NCHC road kill they’ve been for nearly a decade.
There were definitely games Miami’s Division I elite opponents dominated, but the RedHawks rarely looked intimidated, overwhelmed or demoralized.
And confidence and culture were two of the key pylons this program needed to skate around before regaining respect in this league.
Facing elimination on Saturday, MU was down 4-1 entering the third period, yet the RedHawks outshot Denver, 8-4 in the third period.
That defined Miami hockey 2025-26. Never giving up. Always battling.
A Division I-best 15-win improvement from Noreen’s debut season, which gained national attention.
And this is just the beginning.
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