It was never a secret that first-year Miami coach Anthony Noreen has a project on his hands in Oxford, Ohio.
The RedHawks haven’t posted a winning record in nine years, and Noreen got straight to work once he was hired, a day before the NCAA’s transfer portal opened. Four veteran players soon arrived to work with Miami’s 17 returners as they try to reverse the fortunes of a program that went 7-26-3 last season.
There were promising signs from the RedHawks amid their 3-3-2 start under Noreen. They’ve lost 10 straight since then, but for as much as Miami has been in need of the winter break the RedHawks are now in, they have still been showing glimpses of what they’re capable of.
Last weekend’s home series against No. 16 North Dakota provided plenty of examples. UND used a late smash-and-grab approach to win Friday’s game 5-4, before Miami dropped Saturday’s rematch 4-2 despite putting in an improved performance.
“Way better than last night. Way better,” Noreen told reporters gathered after Saturday’s game. “I know we might think, like, ‘Oh, we were up yesterday.’ We didn’t like the way we played yesterday, at all. From start to finish, did not like it. Even if we would’ve won that game, and I know we haven’t won a game in a while, that would’ve been my assessment.
“Tonight, we liked the way we played. We thought we stuck together, we thought we took some steps maturity-wise. Special teams have got to be better. We give up two power-play goals and go 0 for 3 on the power play, that was the difference in the game, but I just thought our team game was way better.
“I thought we were harder, I thought we were more physical,” Noreen continued. “We didn’t give up as many chances, and I thought we were able to generate a lot more offensive zone time just by being hard and heavy and playing with an identity and an attitude.”
From Miami’s perspective, Friday’s game showed why some hockey cliches are true. The RedHawks led by two goals after 40 minutes, only for North Dakota to score the last three. All of those Fighting Hawks goals came in the game’s last 5:23, and Sacha Boisvert netted the winner with 13.5 seconds left. That, after Miami’s offense looked good in a four-goal second period, getting a pair of power-play goals in the process through Ryan Sullivan and Johnny Waldron.
Those special teams bounces didn’t repeat Saturday for the RedHawks, but Miami was again hanging right with UND before the Fighting Hawks pulled away late. Back-to-back goals from Waldron and Christophe Fillion had the game tied at 2-2 heading into the third period, only for Jackson Kunz to put UND back in the lead at 3:07. Jayden Perron scored on a power play 5:09 later to help ensure the Fighting Hawks’ third weekend sweep of the season.
Waldron wrapped up a four-point weekend that night, and Brett Miller made 29 saves Saturday in the former RPI goaltender’s first start for Miami.
The RedHawks will have been idle for more than a month when they return to action Jan. 10-11 at defending national champion Denver. Many would call that jumping straight back into the deep end, but Noreen is eager to see how his team uses this long in-season break.
“It’s a schedule we came into, so we’re going to use it for what it is, and we’re going to try and turn it into a positive,” Noreen said. “Obviously the guys have finals next week, so they really need to focus in on that. We’re going to have some captains’ practices for them, and they’re going to get a little bit of a break, probably longer than ideal, to go home and spend some time with family, which is well needed to get some rest.
“I know that most players, when you’re in hockey season, you’re always excited to go home, then you get home and you can’t wait to get back to hockey because you miss it and you miss the guys. Hopefully they come back excited, and when they come back, we’re going to have a couple of long weeks before we get out to Denver. We’ll get creative, we’re going to do some team-building, obviously we’re going to continue to push and make sure our aerobic level and fitness level is high, and then obviously we’ll have a long time to get ready for probably the best team in the country.”
