If the first two games of the season for the new-look Miami University RedHawks were representative of what’s to come, plenty of exciting moments will be in store for the Miami faithful.
The RedHawks embarked on a seven-hour bus journey to Big Rapids, Michigan, for their first 2024-25 season series against a familiar foe in the Ferris State University Bulldogs.
Last season, the two teams split the series before going their separate ways. This year, they ended both games in a tie, with Ferris State winning both shootouts.
Because the two programs are not in the same conference, the shootout has no bearing on the result.
The RedHawks came out firing early, dominating the puck through the first period. The Bulldogs battled back before senior defenseman and Sacred Heart University transfer Connor Hutchison slapped home a puck with 2.2 seconds remaining in the period to give Miami a 1-0 lead.
Ferris State responded with haste in the second, scoring just 23 seconds into the period and tying the game.
Miami took the lead into the second intermission following a goal from returning junior forward Blake Mesenburg, putting the RedHawks up 2-1.
The response from the Bulldogs wasn’t nearly as quick in the third, but the team did tie the game for a second time. Following a Miami kill of a five-minute major and game misconduct assessed to graduate student forward Brian Silver, Ferris State scored a shorthanded goal on a separate penalty to tie the game at two goals a piece.
Miami scored a minute and a half later to regain the lead on the power-play with a goal from another newcomer, Christophe Fillion, scoring his first goal in the Red and White.
It wasn’t long before the Bulldogs pulled the game even again, thanks to a breakaway goal on a lost puck by senior defenseman Spencer Cox. The game remained tied throughout the period and the five-minute three-on-three overtime session.
The star of the game for the RedHawks was sophomore goaltender Bruno Bruveris, who earned the start following a great stretch of practices leading up to the first game. He made nine saves in overtime to keep the game level.
“I thought a lot of what you saw tonight, that second and third effort… is what we’ve seen from him,” head coach Anthony Noreen said after the game. “That’s an area we challenged him to be our most competitive player, and I thought he’d done that in practice. He made some big-time saves.”
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Hutchison, who scored the first Miami goal, finished the game with two assists, his first multi-point game as a RedHawk and the first in his career since 2022. He also tallied his 30th career collegiate assist in the process.
Game two of the weekend had the same theme, but the roles were reversed.
The RedHawks battled back from being down a goal three separate times throughout the contest, with Ferris State returning from down the same deficit once in the middle frame.
First-year forward Casper Nassen, a Boston Bruins seventh-round selection, started the scoring for the RedHawks. First-year defender Michael Quinn registered his first collegiate point with a primary assist on the tally.
After falling back down a goal, the RedHawks tied the game again. Senior Northeastern transfer Matt Choupani found graduate student Boston College transfer Colby Ambrosio on an excellent backdoor feed to level the score.
Miami took its first and only lead on a silky backhand goal from Mesenburg on the penalty kill. It was his second goal of the weekend, and Choupani added his second assist of the game.
The lead was cherished briefly, as the Bulldogs came down the ice only 94 seconds later to even the score again before taking the lead halfway through the third period.
Miami did not lay down. Instead, after a rocket one-timer from Nassen on the left side of the ice , junior forward Max Dukovac found graduate student forward Ryan Sullivan with a pass in the slot. A one-timer from the middle of the ice knotted the game at four.
First-year goaltender Ethan Dahlmeir started his first collegiate game and saved 19 of the 23 Ferris State shots. In the second game, Miami posted 38 shots, an increase from 30 in the first game.
Some of the final shot totals were influenced by the number of power plays Miami received — seven compared to five for the Bulldogs. With Noreen’s emphasis on possession-based hockey, more shots will result from that philosophy.
“I take [the second game] all day long over [the first],” Noreen said. “I thought we were way better. I give our guys a ton of credit. The stuff we talked about between games, we were much better at.”
The RedHawks enter their home opening series against the University of Alaska Anchorage with a 0-0-2 record. The two teams will play on Oct. 11 and 12 at 7:05 p.m. at Goggin Ice Arena.
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