Since March 8, fans of Miami University hockey have received countless roster updates and coach announcements in anticipation of the 2025-26 season. Head coach Anthony Noreen and his coaching staff invested in the transfer portal and recruited multiple high school and Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players ahead of his second year in Oxford.
The six-month wait is over. The RedHawks open the season against the Ferris State University Bulldogs at Goggin Ice Center on Oct. 3-4.
Miami welcomes the same team that it faced on the road in last season’s opener. The difference for the RedHawks is the location and 21 new faces on the roster.
In last year’s contests, the RedHawks sent both games to shootouts, with Ferris State winning both. Ferris State evened the score 3-3 late in the third period of game one, and the RedHawks battled back to a 4-4 score in the second game after trailing with eight minutes on the clock.
The RedHawks enter this matchup following their 3-28-3 record last season, including a winless status in National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) play. Miami is searching for its first win since Oct. 26, 2024.
At the midweek press conference on Oct. 1, head coach Anthony Noreen said his expectations for the team are much higher than they were this time last year.
“My confidence is way further than where it was when we first took the job,” Noreen said. “At the time, it was a little blind faith in trust. [Now], we have no doubt … We need to get better in practice tomorrow and workouts. We believe in what we’ve got. We feel there’s a group that we can build around. I promise you, you watch these guys play, you’re gonna see that in them.”
In comparison, the Bulldogs’ season was much more successful, though the team finished under .500 in Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) play. Ferris State finished the year at 13-20-3 (12-13-1), dropping three-straight games to close the book, including two in the CCHA quarterfinals.
Ferris State lost its top-scorer from last season, with senior forward Caiden Gault heading to Northern Michigan University after tallying 15 goals and 10 assists with the Bulldogs. However, the second-leading scorer on the roster, senior forward Gavin Best (10 goals and nine assists), stayed in Big Rapids, Michigan, for one more year with the Bulldogs.
Senior forward Tyler Schleppe (nine goals and nine assists) and sophomore defenseman Logan Heroux (three goals and 11 assists) appear on the roster once more as well. The Bulldogs also brought in forward John Lundy, who scored nine goals with American International College, as well as redshirt junior forward Carter Rapalje (17 goals) and senior forward Josh Zary (12 goals), both of whom led the Long Island University roster.
Miami also lost its top scorers, with forward Colby Ambrosio graduating and John Waldron leaving Oxford to play for Arizona State University. Both players had 20 points each in 2024-25.
With how much shopping in the transfer portal the RedHawks did this offseason, as well as the high school recruiting, Noreen said this first series will be a test to determine how ready Miami’s roster is for collegiate hockey.
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“There’s gonna be nerves,” Noreen said. “We’ve got 16 guys that have never played a Division-I college hockey game before. That’s a large number of your roster. We’re gonna be playing against teams that have 23 returners, guys that have played three or four years of college hockey.”
There are plenty of names for RedHawks fans to look for in this opening series. For Miami, junior forward Matteo Giampa was arguably the star of the transfer portal class, registering 30 points in 37 games in 2024-25 with Canisius College.
Sophomore defenseman and Michigan State University transfer Vladislav Lukaschevich is one of two Russian players to look out for on Miami’s roster, alongside the youngest player in college hockey, freshman Ilia Morozov, who will be playing in his first collegiate game at just 17-years-old.
For Ferris State, the name to watch is one familiar with Miami and its program: Max Dukovac. The senior forward returns to Oxford following three seasons with the RedHawks where he tallied 35 points in 92 games.
The puck drops at 7:05 p.m. on Oct. 3 and 6:05 p.m. on Oct. 4 at Goggin. Both games will be broadcast on Rock Entertainment Sports Network.
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