The Miami hockey program has long been known as 'The Brotherhood.'
 
For two current RedHawks, that term has an extra layer of meaning.
 
Junior winger Ryan Savage and freshman center Red Savage are enjoying getting to play on the same team —and sometimes, even on the same line— this winter for the Red and White.

The two brothers hope to lead the RedHawks toward the top of the conference standings and a league title before they're done playing college hockey, etching their names in Miami history forever as champions.
 
Of course, it wouldn't be the first time a Savage has come to Oxford and done exactly that.
 
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ALL-AROUND ATHLETE
 
Ask Ryan and Red Savage who the best golfer in their family is, and the answer comes in perfect unison from both RedHawks.
 
"Me!"
 
Miami head coach Chris Bergeron disagrees. "They can say whatever they want; their dad is the best golfer. I know Ryan and Red can play. But Brian can play. There's no doubt about that.
 
"And until I hear that one of them can beat their dad consistently, then Brian has the belt as far as I'm concerned."

Bergeron should know. He and Brian Savage (Ryan and Red's father) were hockey teammates and linemates at Miami in the early 1990's, and remain good friends to this day, even participating in each other's weddings. And yes, they've played golf together a time or two as well.
 
The RedHawks coach says the elder Savage was and is 'an absolute athlete', no matter the sport. "Athletically, things come easily to Brian Savage," said Bergeron. "He was the most raw-talented athlete I'd ever been around."
 
Brian Savage grew up in Sudbury, Ontario: a hockey player in a hockey family. His mother, a figure skater, taught him to skate. His father, who had played junior hockey in Canada, made a pond in the backyard for him to practice on. His older brother, Mike, was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in 1982 when Brian was 11. His uncles, Larry Hillman, Floyd ('Bud') Hillman, and Wayne Hillman all played in the NHL. (Larry remains the youngest player in history to win the Stanley Cup, just two months after his 18th birthday.)
 
Brian's hockey experience as a boy mainly consisted of outdoor games. "Our season was from when the ice was cold enough until it thawed," he laughed. And while Savage was talented on the ice, he excelled at other sports as well, including basketball, football, track and golf. A teammate of eventual Masters champion Mike Weir, Savage thought his own future might involve pursuing a golf scholarship. In fact, Savage quit hockey completely for two years in high school to focus on his other athletic pursuits. He even gave away his skates!
 
However, it didn't take long away from the sport for Savage to realize how much he loved it. "When you miss something as much as I missed hockey, you'll do anything to get going again," he said. Before long, he was back in the rink, playing for the Sudbury Cubs, a junior 'A' team in Ontario.
 
Savage's success with the Cubs led to two full scholarship offers to play college hockey. The first was from Western Michigan; the second came from Miami's George Gwozdecky.
 
"I just liked what George was saying," Savage remembered, even though he didn't actually step foot on campus in Oxford until the beginning of his freshman year in 1990. "We were his first recruiting class. Probably going to play a lot, that sort of thing. So I agreed to go to Miami."
 
The rest is history.
 
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CLIMBING TO A CHAMPIONSHIP
 
Miami won just five of 37 games in Brian Savage's freshman year, including a stretch of 31 games with only a single victory to show for it. Despite the disappointing win-loss record, Savage played well enough to get drafted that summer, hearing his name called in the eighth round by the Montreal Canadiens. That led to a conversation that changed the young prospect's life.
 
"Miami was the beginning. I always give credit that if it wasn't for Miami, I probably wouldn't have been in the NHL," Savage said.

"George Gwozdecky called me right after I got drafted and said, 'Well, you have a decision to make now. You can either go back to Sudbury and be with your friends and party, or you can go up to Brainerd, Minnesota. There's a hockey camp – go up there for eight weeks, come right from there to school, and make yourself start developing into a pro.'"
 
Savage's teammates noticed the difference in the sophomore's game immediately when he arrived back on campus. "Coach pushed him. He helped Brian realize how good he could be," Bergeron recalled. "Brian loved going back to Sudbury, but he spent the summer in Minnesota basically because Coach told him to.
 
"It took Brian's game to a whole new level. You could see he was just better."
 
Miami finished the 1991-92 season with the program's first winning record in nine years (18-16-6), as Savage improved on his 11-point debut campaign with 40 points as a sophomore. That set the stage for a truly special season in Savage's junior year.
 
The Red and White went 27-9-5, winning the CCHA championship for the first time in school history. Savage, Bergeron, and company finished the 1992-93 season unbeaten at home, including a thrilling 4-3 overtime win over league runner-up Michigan. "He was a stud in that game," Bergeron said of his fellow captain. "I just remember how good he was.
 
"Two years prior, we were one of the worst teams in the country, and then we became one of the best teams. And Brian Savage was a big part of the reason."
 
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INTERNATIONAL IMPACT
 
Savage finished his junior year with 37 goals, the second-highest total in school history. He tallied 58 points (a top-10 season in that category all-time at Miami), ending his three-year career with 109 points in 106 games played. Savage was named CCHA Player of the Year, earned second-team All-American honors and became Miami's first-ever Hobey Baker Award finalist.
 
Brian knew it was time for the next chapter in his hockey career. But before he would suit up for the NHL's Canadiens, the Canadians – Canada's national hockey team, to be specific – came calling. Savage was chosen for the 1994 Olympic team, earning a silver medal in the Lillehammer Games.
 
Representing his country in the Olympics remains Savage's greatest hockey memory, although a 'full-circle' moment 22 years later may come close. Fast forward to February 21, 2016: That's when Ryan and Red both won major international tournaments the same day, with Red representing Austria (where the family lived at the time) in the prestigious Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament and Ryan competing in the Youth Olympics for Team USA.
 
The site of the Youth Olympics? Lillehammer, again.

Brian (who had been watching Red's tournament in Montreal while the boys' mom, Debbie, was in Norway with Ryan), flew to Europe to see the gold medal game in person. Ironically, Ryan's United States team had to face none other than Canada in the final.
 
"Canada ended up getting silver again," Brian Savage said with a grin. "He one-upped me and got the gold medal. Within two hours, Red won the Quebec pee-wee and then Ryan won the gold.
 
"It was a good day for the Savages that day!"

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PRODUCTION AS A PRO
 
While Brian Savage made his mark both at Miami University and also internationally, the majority of hockey fans remember Savage from the 12-year NHL career that followed. Savage played for the Canadiens, Coyotes, Blues, and Flyers between 1993 and 2006, tallying 192 goals and 167 assists. He posted a career-best 60 points for the Habs in 1996-97, and put up six points in a single game (four goals and two assists) the following year against the Islanders.
 
"There's only 700 of those [NHL] players in the world, so to be there, you're pretty lucky," Brian said. "The hardest thing is to stay there…I wanted to be there. I didn't want to let people down, and I didn't want to let myself down. That fear of failure really motivated me.
 
"I definitely wasn't the most talented player, but my work ethic was off the charts. I think that really started with my time at Miami: There were a lot of guys that were more talented than me that didn't make it [in the league] because they didn't have the work ethic."
 
Savage's willingness to put in the effort it took to succeed at the game's highest level set an important example for his sons. "That drove him every day, and it drove him to surpass a lot of people that went ahead of him," Red said. "He was taken in the eighth round, and no one ahead of him that got drafted by the Canadiens at the time made the team, let alone played for as long as he did.
 
"I think he just proved a lot of people wrong throughout his life, and he did that through hard work."

 

Ryan and Red were only six and three years old, respectively, when their father retired, so while the Savage boys grew up around NHL arenas, they don't remember much of what was happening inside the rink.
 
Away from the ice, though? That's a different story.
 
"When my dad was playing for the Flyers, a lot of the players obviously had kids, so we would play mini hockey in the hallway while our dads were playing out on the ice," Ryan said. "We had the security guards play goalie for us with their feet; they were just so big that they ended up being pretty good goalies.
 
"The players had to walk by where we were playing. One time, the little kids were in overtime and our dads were coming off the ice and they had to wait for our overtime to finish before they could get by. We wouldn't let them pass!"
 
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SECOND-GENERATION STUDENT-ATHLETES
 
As the Savage boys outgrew carpet hockey and became good ice hockey players in their own right, both Ryan and Red eventually decided to follow in their father's footsteps by attending Miami. Ryan is now in his third year as a supply chain and operations management major, while Red just completed his first semester studying business economics.
 
"We just grew up around the culture of Miami," said Ryan. "I remember coming to Oxford a few times, watching some games, walking around the arena. Miami's been in our life for pretty much all of it.
 
"It was basically automatic. You look at other schools, but there's nothing to compare to Miami. Once you get here and see what the campus and the people are like…it's a pretty special place."
 
Red argued that he may have decided to become a RedHawk even before his older brother did. "When Ryan was on his first visit, we all went as a family," he said. "I just fell in love with Miami and the atmosphere of the campus from the first moment I saw it. I was set in stone, even at 11 or 12 years old."
 
One of the other schools that Ryan at least considered before choosing Miami was Bowling Green, where longtime family friend Bergeron was the head coach at the time. Bergeron returned to his alma mater to take over the Miami program in 2019, coinciding with the start of Ryan's freshman year.
 
"I would have loved to get coached by Berge, and the fact that he got hired the same year I was coming in was a perfect scenario," Ryan said.
 
"It's come full circle in some regard, that [Brian and I] were good buddies as student-athletes here, we basically watched each other's family grow up from afar, and now I'm coaching two of his kids," said Bergeron.
 
"Brian was part of the first CCHA championship team, a big part of it. Then for the boys to be here with the mindset of wanting to leave Miami hockey better than they found it – well, neither one of them has found it in its highest place, just like their dad didn't.
 
"But when Brian left after his junior year, he left it better than he found it. The boys are in that same situation now. They've got the Red and White running through their blood because of their dad, and they're giving back trying to get it right."
 
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MAKING THEIR MARK AT MIAMI
 
One of the most tangible ways the Savage family has given back to Miami over the past few decades is honored with a plaque outside the RedHawks' dressing room in the event level of Goggin Ice Center: "VARSITY LOCKER COMPLEX THROUGH THE GENEROUS GIFT OF THE BRIAN AND DEBBIE SAVAGE FAMILY." In addition to his financial contribution, Brian helped design the NHL-style locker room when the arena was built, and his sons walk past that sign every day before they get ready to head out on the ice.
 
"When I gave back when I did, it was because I owed Miami," said Brian. "A lot. It's a big part of our family now, obviously, with both boys here, but it's always been a big part for myself and for my wife Debbie."
 
"It's really cool to see that he believes in us and that he put in the time and effort to help out the Miami hockey program," Ryan said. "Whatever we can do for him and the other people that believe in us is what we're going to try to do."
 
Both Savage brothers have been key contributors for the RedHawks in 2021-22. Ryan got off to a fast start with two goals in the season opener and led the team in goals up until he suffered an injury in early January. Red, who recently returned from representing the U.S. at the IIHF World Junior Championship, has already been named NCHC Rookie of the Week a league-high three different times this season. After scoring his first college goal Nov. 27, he recorded points in six of his next eight games for Miami.
 
"I think it's been really good for both that they're here at the same time," Brian said. "They're having such a blast doing this together."
 
"It's something really special," said Ryan. "Whether it was playing in our front yard, playing street hockey or whatever, we always just dreamed of playing together.
 
"It's pretty amazing that it finally came true."
 
 
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RED SAVAGE, RED WING?
 
When the Savage brothers finish their Miami careers, don't be surprised if one or more of Brian's sons end up following their dad's career path to the NHL. In fact, Red has already been drafted at the next level, as the Detroit Red Wings made him their fourth-round pick last July. With the Savage family now living in Northville, Mich. (a Detroit suburb), it couldn't have been a better fit.
 
"I was definitely shaking in my boots the whole time, just waiting to hopefully see my name pop up. When it finally did, it was just an amazing feeling to finally be drafted and by such a great organization too," Red said.
 
"I couldn't have thought of a better team to go to."
 
And if Red ends up eventually joining his great-uncle Larry as a Stanley Cup champion Red Wing, the entire Savage family would be thrilled.
 
"It was awesome that the Red Wings drafted Red with that history," Brian said. "It would be cool if someday he could don their jersey."
 
Bergeron has seen plenty of pro prospects come through Miami during his time as a player, assistant, and now head coach, and he wasn't surprised at all when Red's name was called last summer.
 
"Everybody knew Red Savage's intangibles as a human, as a leader, as a winner," said Bergeron. "It's tough to quantify or put an analytic number on that, because those are hard to measure, but he, one hundred percent, is all of those things…
 
"That's what's going to make him great."
 
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POSTSCRIPT: A PARENT'S PRIDE
 
Ask Ryan Savage what Miami means to his family, and the answer is encapsulated in a single word.
 
"Everything."
 
Ask Chris Bergeron what the Savages mean to Miami, and the response is identical.
 
"Everything."
 
Watch Brian Savage stand and cheer in a suite at Steve "Coach" Cady Arena as one of his boys scores for the RedHawks, and the special bond between family and university, and between father and sons, is obvious.
 
"I couldn't be more proud," Brian had said earlier that day, and the look on his face said even more.
 
"Miami's basically our family," said Red. "It's been a part of our lives since the day we were born...it's done so much for our family and did so much for our dad…and it's been nothing but amazing for us.
 
"[But] just because we're here doesn't mean that we've made it," he continued. "I still feel like we can do a lot more...
 
"We're just going to keep on pushing and hopefully make him prouder."
 
 
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