The Miami RedHawks picked up a massive 5-2 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils this past Saturday night, taking the series split with the win. It was head coach Anthony Noreen’s first NCHC win in his tenure and the program’s first conference win since Jan. 13, 2024 (658 days).
The goal scorers for Arizona State were Cruz Lucius and Ben Kevan, one coming on the man advantage and the other five-on-five. Connor Hasley stopped 26 of 30 shots in the loss.
Related: Miami Picks Up First NCHC Win in 658 Days Over Arizona State
Two RedHawks each scored two goals: Max Helgeson and Ryan Smith, while Matteo Drobac picked up his seventh win of the season, stopping 21 of 23 shots. It was the second game this season where two RedHawks both scored two goals, per Tim Cary of MiamiRedHawks.com.
After the game, Noreen spoke highly of the group’s effort and response after Friday’s loss.
“I think it was evident from the drop of the puck. I think it’s very easy to look at last night’s game (Friday) and say, oh, it’s a 2-1 game, we had our chances, but no, that was not to our standard. It’s really easy for us as a staff to put those clips together, and it’s really easy for us to be hard on the guys during the day and deliver a message. The hard part is them taking it and actually doing the work on the ice, and I thought we were as physical as we’ve been all year,” he said.
I thought we took the messages as far as a couple of X and O things we needed to be better at and do differently, and a couple of adjustments, and we saw them right from the very beginning till the very end. I thought that allowed us to beat a really good hockey team.”
Depth Steps Up with Morozov Out
Miami faced early adversity when top-line center Ilia Morozov was given a game misconduct for cross-checking midway through the first period. It was definitely an undisciplined penalty and warranted a major, but it is one that he will learn from, given he is only 17 years old.
Funny enough, once Morozov was sent off, many of the NHL scouts in attendance, including representatives from the Winnipeg Jets, San Jose Sharks, and Calgary Flames, reportedly packed up and left despite it only being the first period, according to John Lachmann of viewfromtheglass.com.
Despite losing one of their top forwards, many RedHawks stepped up. Noreen spoke on how his group responded without Morozov.
“Yeah, and the fact that he was not back in his suit, but in the shooting room firing pucks that you could hear between periods, like his attitude coming in was that he felt bad but not sorry for himself. I think his attitude toward the guys and him being in there and picking them up, obviously losing him hurt, but I think it gave a guy like Deputy more minutes.
I thought he took it and ran with it. I thought Matteo and Kocha did a really good job. Like you said, I think it was just a testament to our depth. We had to make some changes on the power play and special teams without Ilia, and didn’t really miss a beat. So, it was good to see.”
David Deputy was one who made an instant impact with Morozov out. He started the game on the fourth line at right wing, but after Morozov was sent to the locker room, he double-shifted for most of the night, spending a lot of time on the top line with Kocha Delic at center and Matteo Giampa at the wing.
He also saw time on the power play/penalty kill and finished with a total of 17:28 of ice time, all in just his second game back from injury. Deputy finished with seven shots, tied with Helgeson for the team high.
To tie the game at 2-2 in the second period, Deputy made a slick pass to Helgeson for a one-time goal. It was Deputy’s first collegiate point and foreshadows what we can expect from him in the future.
Noreen spoke highly of Deputy’s game after the win.
“Speed, tenacity, compete, second, third effort. I think it’s something maybe we see in the NCHC and probably haven’t seen enough of here, that just breakaway speed, to be able to get a puck and break a game open through pure legs and ability. Deputy’s got that. He’s a guy that, trust me, no one has even seen close to what he’s going to wind up being here.
Obviously good for him to come in and go from playing a little bit of limited minutes, getting worked back in last night, to tonight, here it is, take it and run with it. And I thought he took it and ran with it on both sides. He was good offensively, but I thought he was really good for us defensively and on the penalty kill as well.”
Momentum Swinging Kills
Miami’s penalty kill was strong all night, going four for five and keeping Arizona State from finding much rhythm. The RedHawks blocked shots, had active sticks, and didn’t let the Sun Devils set up for long stretches in the offensive zone.
Miami blocked 12 total shots compared to Arizona State’s eight, led by Ryder Thompson with three. He quietly played one of his best games of the season, finishing plus-3 while logging a team-high 22:42 of ice time.
Noreen credited the five-minute penalty kill late in the first period as one of the game’s biggest moments.
“You’re in a situation where the five-minute kill is the turning point of the game. With that power play, and those guys going against first-rounders all over the place, that could very easily go the other way, and you get through it, and there was a really good feeling from that point on.”
Later on, Arizona State controlled much of the play early in the second period. Kevan scored on the power play off a perfect feed from Johnny Waldron to give the Sun Devils a 2-1 lead. After that, Miami scored four unanswered goals.
One of those was a shorthanded goal from freshman Ethan Hay, his first collegiate goal, which turned out to be the game-winner. He took a drop pass from Justin Stupka on a rush and fired a laser one-timer past Hasley.
Hay finished with a goal and an assist in 17:04 of ice time.
Yet again, another massive penalty kill was a key turning point in the game, which Noreen touched on afterwards.
“For Ethan Hay to get his first goal there, you talk about, again, an adversity turning point of the game, that was as big a turning point as it gets. What Ethan does doesn’t always show up on the scoresheet. And I know we’ve had a lot of guys that have done a lot of things, players of the week, rookies of the week, things like that, but that kid is every single thing we want this program to be about.
That’s what he is every day. Usually those guys get rewarded and show up in big times. That was probably the biggest goal we’ve scored as a team all year. So that was a huge moment, and I thought our kill was excellent.”
Finished the Right Way
After Friday’s 4-1 loss, one of Noreen’s main messages to the group was to play the right way for a full 60 minutes. On Saturday, the RedHawks did exactly that, which Noreen loved to see.
“We play the right way 60 minutes, every single day, every time we go out. We don’t care what the score is, where we’re at, who we’re playing; we play the right way till the very end. There’s a standard here. Our standard doesn’t change, no matter what the score is. I thought compared to last night, that message was now set in stone, and I thought our guys played the right way to the very end. Because of that, you get a deserving result.”
Miami outshot Arizona State 31-23 and looked much better at getting pucks to the net compared to Friday night, which saw them only get 20. Also, Miami finished with 47 shot attempts on Saturday, 10 of those coming on the power play.
While the power play went zero for five. it had strong puck movement and created multiple grade-A chances, even after losing Morozov early. Noreen spoke on the power play, which now sits at 17.2% on the season, tied for 36th best in college hockey.
“I thought our power play was really good tonight. I thought that was the best our power play’s been all year. Didn’t necessarily lead to goals, but I thought every time the power play ended, Troy’s message, the detail, we lose Ilia, who’s obviously a key guy, plug in another guy, I thought we got momentum and we gained traction every time we went on it.”
Faceoffs were nearly even overall, but Miami won several important draws in big moments, whether that was down a man or five-on-five. Stupka went 13-for-17 (76.5%) in the faceoff circle, while Hay went seven-for-17 (41.2%).
Also, the RedHawks won five total faceoffs during their power plays, but only one shorthanded.
Up Next
Miami now heads into a bye week before traveling to Kalamazoo, Michigan, for a series against the defending national champion Western Michigan Broncos on Nov. 14 and 15.
The Hockey Writers will be at Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo for the weekend series, so make sure to follow along for updates on what will be the biggest test yet for this RedHawks squad.
