Miami may be mired in a 14-game losing streak, but first-year RedHawks coach Anthony Noreen is keen to make his team one that nobody will want to face down the stretch.
Better conditioning was evident both of the last two weekends for Miami, even if it didn’t show up on the scoreboard as the RedHawks lost four games to Denver and Omaha by a combined 17-4. Last week, after dropping a 4-1 home decision Friday against UNO, the RedHawks started and ended brighter in a 3-1 defeat to the Mavericks the following night.
“It’s something that we’ve put a major emphasis on here,” Noreen said, of Miami’s conditioning, after Saturday’s game. “It’s been the whole season, but I think we’ve really doubled down on it after the series at UNO (Nov. 22-23, when Miami lost 3-0 and then 8-1 in the rematch) and just made sure we had a long time there with a few amount of games (before the semester break).
“We might not be able to make our group the most skilled group or the most talented group in the country, (but) we think that’s a controllable. We think your conditioning is a controllable, and if it’s a controllable, we have to be elite at it. That’s something we’re going to take a lot of pride in. Both weekends, last weekend and this weekend, right down to the very end, it wasn’t down to a lack of conditioning or legs or effort. Obviously, we just need to get a little bit better execution.”
They certainly had that in the first period of Saturday’s game. The RedHawks controlled most of that period and led 12:37 in on freshman John Emmons’ first collegiate goal. UNO went on to score three unanswered, including two goals in the final minute of the first period, but the teams skated to a scoreless third.
“It’s our job to give (Miami’s players) a plan, and it’s our job to give them a couple adjustments from last night to tonight and present a video session,” Noreen said Saturday, when asked about the RedHawks’ good start to the game. “Everything they did to get that game going from the start was a choice. It had nothing to do with skill, it had everything to do with a mindset and putting the team first and playing connected.
“It was every guy, it was four lines, it was every ‘D’ and I thought that was the majority of the weekend. The majority of the weekend looked like that, where we were connected, we were selfless, we worked, there was a ton of hustle, we had second effort, and you love that. That’s growth.
“We have to eliminate some of the mistakes, and for this group right now, it seems like when there’s a breakdown, there’s a mistake, it goes in the back of the net, and that’s why this game humbles you. We need to build on the good, we need to continue to learn from the bad. I thought we got better from last week to this week, without a doubt.”
Miami’s mettle will certainly be tested this Friday and Saturday at No. 3 Western Michigan. The RedHawks then return home to entertain a surging No. 11 Arizona State team Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
