Games 2-3
Friday, Oct. 11 • 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 12 • 7:05 p.m.
Steve 'Coach' Cady Arena (3,019) • Oxford, Ohio

Miami RedHawks (0-1) vs. New Hampshire Wildcats
TV/Stream: NCHC.tv (Greg Waddell-pbp; Drew Davis-analyst)

MATCHUP
Miami hosts its first full series of the year with its season-opening five-game home stand resuming against New Hampshire this weekend. This
THE SERIES: The Wildcats lead the all-time series 7-5-2 and are unbeaten (3-0-1) in their last four meetings with the RedHawks, including going 1-0-1 last season. MU's last win over UNH came on Oct. 8, 2010 (6-3).

PUCK POINTS
• Miami's line of Gordie Green, Karch Bachman and Casey Gilling combined for eight points on four goals and four assists on opening night. All three posted multi-point performances in accounting for each MU tally.

• Senior goaltender Ryan Larkin has started 99 of Miami's 112 games since his freshman season in 2016-17. He is 261 saves away from moving into second on the school's career list and needs 380 to become the all-time record holder in that category.

• Senior forward Karch Bachman netted a pair of opening night goals, which marked his second-straight two-goal game dating back to last year's season finale at St. Cloud State. Prior to that, Bachman had just one multi-goal game in his career.

• Senior forward Gordie Green opened the year with a four-point night against BG, the sixth game in his career he has posted at least three points in a game. He is now 17 points away from becoming the 53rd player in program history to post 100 career points.

• Miami's defense contributed four assists on opening night with Bray Crowder's two matching his 2018-19 freshman campaign total.

• The RedHawks aim to avoid just their second 0-2 start since the 2005-06 season on Friday night.

LAST WEEKEND
Gordie Green posted a four-point opening night and began the scoring 50 seconds into the second period to give Miami a 1-0 lead, but No. 17 Bowling Green scored two before the intermission and went up 4-1 early in the third to dig MU into a hole. Green added another goal and assisted on two Karch Bachman tallies in the third to pull the RedHawks within 5-4 with roughly two and a half minutes remaining, but they were unable to pull closer as the Falcons skated out of Steve 'Coach' Cady Arena with a 7-4 victory. Casey Gilling and Bray Crowder also notched multi-point nights with two assists apiece in the loss.

COACH BERGERON
Chris Bergeron (Miami '93) returns to his alma mater for his first season as head coach. Before returning to Oxford, Bergeron went 171-154-44 in nine seasons as Bowling Green's head coach, leading the Falcons to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1990 in his final season in 2018-19. BGSU posted 20 or more victories in Bergeron's final five seasons at the helm. Prior to going to Bowling Green, Bergeron spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Miami and helped the Red & White go an astounding 226-139-37 during his tenure. The RedHawks qualified for six NCAA Tournaments and reached the Frozen Four in Bergeron's last two seasons as an assistant, including a national runner-up finish in 2009. As a player, Bergeron spent two years as team captain and helped Miami capture its first CCHA title in 1992-93, posting 61 of his 120 career points that season.

ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Wildcats topped Guelph, 4-3, in exhibition play last weekend and are coming off a 12-15-9 record in 2018-19. UNH was led offensively by senior Liam Blackburn's 24 points, who is one of three returning skaters who recorded at least 21 points a year ago. The Wildcats also boast junior defenseman Max Gildon, who notched 21 points from the blue line while in goal both Mike Robinson (2.48 GAA, .915 SV%) and Ty Taylor (3.67 GAA, .855 SV%) are back after combining to start all 36 games in net a year ago.

OPENING WITH A BANG: Amidst Sunday's season opening setback, Miami's top line managed to shine in a big way by accounting for all four of its goals against Bowling Green. Gordie Green himself was in on each goal by netting two goals and two assists while linemates Karch Bachman (2 goals) and Casey Gilling (2 assists) also recorded multiple points. The trio combined for nine of the team's 19 shots on goal against the Falcons.

QUITE A DEBUT: Sophomore defenseman Derek Daschke enjoyed quite the debut season on the RedHawks' blue line. His 22 points (6g, 16a) led all Miami defensemen while ranking third on the team overall. Daschke was the first MU freshman blue liner to record at least 20 points in a season since 2012-13 season and his point total was the highest for a Miami freshman defenseman since Chris Wideman had 26 in 2008-09.

MAKING SPECIAL TEAMS, SPECIAL: One spot Miami looks for a resurgence is in its penalty kill as it ranked 58th out of 60 teams nationally last season with a 74.3 percent kill rate. Head coach Chris Bergeron hopes to make that a strength like he did at Bowling Green as the Falcons were second nationally with an 88.5 percent penalty killing percentage in 2018-19. Additionally, MU is looking to recapture its magic on the power play from 2017-18, when its 23.2 percent conversion rate was the ninth best in the country prior to last season's 15.6 percent success rate (45th). On opening night, MU went 1-for-5 on the power play, but allowed two BGSU power play goals in seven tries.

GOING GREEN: Senior forward Gordie Green is once again back in the mix to help anchor Miami's attack. The RedHawks' leading goal scorer the past two seasons opened the year with a bang, scoring twice and notching four points to bring his career total to 83. Sunday's four-point outing was the sixth time in Green's career that he has posted three or more points in a game. In his last 95 games dating back to December of 2016, Green has 78 points on 35 goals and 43 assists.

NICE DEBUT, WHAT'S NEXT: While Jonathan Gruden signed a pro contract following his lone season in Oxford, seven of Miami's eight freshmen from a year ago look to take strides as sophomores after a strong debut. As freshmen a year ago, this group combined for 75 points on 18 goals and 57 assists, a total that was 16th nationally. Derek Daschke's 22 points paced the group, but sophomores Brian Hawkinson (3-13-16) and Scott Corbett (5-5-10) also notched double digit points in their debut seasons. On opening night, Bray Crowder found the scoresheet for this class by chipping in a pair of assists.

HE'S SEEN A LOT: Senior goaltender Ryan Larkin has been kept busy over his time in Oxford. Larkin's started 99 of the RedHawks' 112 games since his 2016-17 freshman campaign. The Clarkston, Mich., native debuted with a strong .910 save percentage as a freshman and despite seeing a lot of pucks come his way a year ago, recorded a respectable .907 save percentage in 2018-19. In his career, Larkin has 34 games where he has recorded at least 30 stops. He already owns two of Miami's top eight seasons in total saves with 905 as a freshman (third) and 863 in 2017-18 (eighth). His 2,595 career saves rank third in school history. He needs 380 saves this season to surpass David Burleigh's school record of 2,975 saves.

SHAKING SOPHOMORE SLUMPS: If Miami is to put more pucks in the net this year, two players who could go a long way towards helping that are junior forwards Casey Gilling and Phil Knies. As freshmen, the duo helped lengthen MU's attack by combining for 37 points on 20 goals and 17 assists. Gilling contributed nine goals and 19 points while Knies chipped in 11 goals and 18 points in 2017-18. However, both had tougher sledding in their second go round through college as Gilling's production dropped to 12 points (4g, 8a) while Knies dipped to nine (6g, 3a). Gilling was part of a productive line on opening night as he had two assists.

CAUSING HAVOC: Entering his senior season, Karch Bachman has never lacked for generating scoring opportunities in his career. The Florida Panthers' draft choice netted a career-best 10 goals in 2018-19 and his ability to create shots makes further strides in the goal column possible. Bachman led the RedHawks with 120 shots on goal last season after putting 97 shots on net in 2017-18 and he finished third on the team in shots on goal as a freshmen with 72 in 2016-17. Sunday's opener saw Bachman put four shots on goal and net a pair of goals for his third career multi-goal game.

STRUGGLES AGAINST THE TOP: With the NCHC sporting five teams ranked in the preseason USCHO.com poll and the league already home of the past four national champions, the RedHawks figure to once again play one of the most difficult schedules in the country this season. Which means that its success will come down to how it performs against the top teams in the nation. Last year, the Red & White played 15 games against teams that finished in the top 15 (1-11-3) and 21 against teams that finished in the top 20 (2-16-3).

SHOTS GETTING FIRED: One spot that Miami hopes to improve on is its shot prevention. Last season, MU allowed 32.21 shots per game, a total that ranked 47th nationally. As the season wore on, the trend got worse with the RedHawks allowing at least 30 shots on goal in 25 of their last 29 games and ranking 56th nationally in shots on goal allowed per game (34.97) in that span. Things didn't improve in that aspect in Sunday's opener as the RedHawks got outshot 42-19 against Bowling Green.

COMING THIS WINTER: While it will take awhile to pay dividends, Miami is looking towards sophomore forward Matt Barry for some additional offense this season. As a mid-year transfer during the 2018-19 season, Barry has to wait until the first semester ends to be eligible to play. Barry spent the first half of 2018-19 with Holy Cross and tied for the team lead with 11 points at the time of his departure. In his final USHL season in 2017-18, Barry notched 54 points in 57 games to help Youngstown reach the Clark Cup finals and he put up 59 points in 59 NAHL games with Bismarck the year before that.