The Miami RedHawks (NCHC) and Robert Morris Colonials (AHA) will face each other in a Thursday-Saturday home-and-home series this weekend. Puck drop is at 7:05 PM in Oxford on Thursday, followed by a Saturday night matchup along the Ohio River on Neville Island in Pittsburgh at 7 PM.
Robert Morris leads the all-time series against Miami with a 5-4 record and swept the RedHawks in a two-game series during Anthony Noreen’s first season as head coach, one he’s not forgotten.
“They obviously took it to us specifically here in that game on that Thursday night. They took it to us in front of our home fans in a full building,” said Noreen. “I think our culture is in a much different, in a much better place (since 2024)…the people in that room are the guys that are meant to be in that room.”
The RedHawks enter the weekend at 1-1-0 after earning a series split at Northern Michigan two weekends ago. Meanwhile, Robert Morris battled then-No. 6 Wisconsin, a Frozen Four contender, but was ultimately swept, dropping to 0-2-0. The Colonials fell 4-2 before losing 1-0 in the second game. Despite the losses, Robert Morris gave Wisconsin a tough series, making this no easy task for Miami.
“It gave us an opportunity to get a week further along with some of our guys that were dealing with some injuries,” said Noreen. “It allowed for us to have a longer period of time to evaluate those first two games and clean up some things and address some areas that we think we need to be better at.”
“Going into Northern last weekend, obviously we took our foot off the gas a little bit. First game, I think that’s good for this group to face some adversity,” said sophomore defenseman Michael Phelan. “Going into Saturday, we were really good, I thought. A lot to learn from the weekend and a lot to build off of coming into this weekend.”
In just two games, Miami has racked up 33 penalty minutes, something the RedHawks will surely want to clean up. On top of that, they ran into a hot goaltender. Not a good recipe for success.
“Some of the penalties we took (Friday at NMU), some of our physicality was more emotion-based as opposed to mission-based, get the puck back on our stick-based, value the possession rather than just trying to run a guy over,” Noreen said.
Thanks to Ryan Sikes and his analytics, we can look at advanced stats for college hockey. Miami ranks among the best in expected goals for and goals against, albeit through just two games. Those numbers also point to Northern Michigan’s Oliver Auyeung-Ashton being nearly unbeatable over the weekend, especially in Friday night’s shutout.
“We got to get there more. We still didn’t feel like we got there as much as we’re capable of,” Noreen said about Miami’s need to generate better scoring chances.
Noreen praised Miami’s defensive play after the series split at Northern Michigan and wants the team to build on that performance while continuing to limit Grade-A chances. The RedHawks allowed just 19 shots on goal in each game. At even strength, Miami was strong defensively and allowed few quality chances. All goals allowed over the weekend came while the RedHawks were shorthanded. The penalty kill currently sits at 66.7%, going 6-for-9.
The RedHawks were more balanced in their ice time distribution over the series at Northern Michigan compared to most games last season. Granted, arguably their best player, David Deputy, was out, along with their top defenseman, Vladislav Lukashevich. Both are expected to log some of the highest minutes on the team. Lukashevich led Miami in average time on ice last season at 22:30 per game.
Here’s a look at the average time on ice across the roster through two games, shown on the far right under the TOI/G category.
The stats have been balanced across the roster through two games. Austin Baker and Matous Kucharcik lead the team in points, with two each. Miami’s power play also needs to get going. It struggled in the first game but got somewhat back on track in the second. The RedHawks are currently 2-for-10 on the power play, good for 20% early in the season. However, they’ve had little trouble drawing penalties thanks to their speed.
Now, Robert Morris is an experienced, veteran team, with an average age of 22.38 and an average size of 6 feet, 187 pounds. The roster includes 19 upperclassmen.
The Colonials have one NHL draft pick on the roster: junior transfer Ryan MacPherson, who came from New Hampshire and was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
“They’re a good team. They’re hard. They’re heavy. They’re old,” said Phelan.
“You saw it from them and in how tight those games were against Wisconsin. I mean, Wisconsin’s as good as any team, if not better than any team in the country,” Noreen said. “To play them to two games where it was about as even as you could possibly make it in Wisconsin’s home rink – I think it tells you the job that (Derek Schooley) and his staff have done and how good they are at Robert Morris.”
Colonials to Watch
George Krotiris (F): A senior forward in his fourth season at Robert Morris, Krotiris scored a goal against Wisconsin. He has elite breakout speed and averaged 21:38 of ice time per game.
Dominic Elliot (D): Elliot leads the team in average time on ice at 24:13 per game through two games. He is a top-pairing right-shot defenseman alongside left-shot defenseman John Babcock. A two-way defenseman, Elliot leads the team in shot attempts with nine, has blocked four shots, and scored a power-play goal against Wisconsin.
Charlie Schenkel (G): At 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, Schenkel will be another tough goaltender to beat, much like Northern Michigan’s OAA. Against Wisconsin, 32.5% of the shots he faced came from high-danger areas. He ranked second in saves above expected over the opening weekend of Oct. 2-4.
The sophomore goaltender is entering his second season with the Colonials after posting an 11-15-3 record, a 2.80 goals-against average, and a .909 save percentage last season.
RedHawks to Watch
Matous Kucharcik (F): Kucharcik had a breakout series against Northern Michigan and looked the part of a two-way center. He won 62.5% of his faceoffs and scored a goal and tallied an assist.
Ilia Morozov (F): Morozov led Miami in faceoff percentage, winning 53.3% of his draws (16-for-30) over the two-game series. That is a solid sample size, and I would like to see him find the back of the net and get going offensively for the RedHawks.
David Helledy (D): With Vladislav Lukashevich likely out, Helledy will once again play an important role on both the power play and penalty kill. He has averaged 20:42 of ice time so far this season
Matteo Drobac (G) or Yegor Yegorov (G)? One of the biggest questions heading into the weekend is who will start in net. Will Miami split the starts 50/50, or will Drobac hold on to the starting job? Drobac played well against Northern Michigan despite facing just 19 shots on goal in each game. Yegorov certainly did not come to Oxford to be the backup, so I would not be surprised to see him get a start this weekend.
Injury Updates
Don’t expect to see Timmy Runtso (D) or Vladislav Lukashevich (D) this weekend. However, there’s a good chance David Deputy will return for at least one of the two games, if not both. The priority is making sure all three are ready for NCHC play, with Halloweekend against St. Thomas quickly approaching.
“Mike Leroy and Gord Farnell have done a great job with our guys that are banged up, having a really good plan with them and a really good return-to-play protocol,” said Norin. “Making sure we get those guys ready as quickly as possible and as safely as possible. We’re starting to see those guys in practice.”
I’ll have coverage all weekend, starting Thursday in Oxford before heading up to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Make sure to follow along, especially for Saturday’s matchup on the “fan-favorite” FloHockey 🙂
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