The NMU men’s club hockey team had a very exciting weekend at the Third Annual Wildcat Hockey Invitational.

The Wildcat’s first game and victory of the weekend was against Delta College on Friday night.  Last season, the Wildcat beat Delta two out of the three times they played each other.  The Wildcats offense was on fire and left Delta in the dust winning 12 to 4.  Delta put up a good fight,  but they were no match for the hard working offensive lines that the Wildcats have put together.  Senior goalie Joey Minsky had some amazing saves in this game. Minsky said he was pretty excited about them considering he wasn’t feeling well before the game.

“It was a rough day for me, I wasn’t feeling great … In the locker room we were jamming out to some music. Coach gave a great pre-game talk and we were all pumped and ready to go,” Minsky said.

Their next big match up was against Saint Norbert University Saturday morning.  The previous season against this team, the Wildcats went undefeated.  Minsky didn’t play this game because he already had a good record against St. Norbert, so another goalie, Matt Kapushinski, who wanted a chance against the team, played instead. The game this Saturday night on the 18th was really tough and the Wildcat’s gave it their all but still ended up losing 5 to 3.

“It was a good team effort, it was a close game ‘till the third period when we got some penalties,” Minsky said.

They played rivals Michigan Tech University on the 18th.  Last year at the Invitational, the Wildcats beat them 9 to 1 and didn’t plan on changing that this time around.  The Wildcat offensive lines were really on point for this game and finished the game winning score to score.  A big help to this win was junior right wing Kellen Michalak who scored an astounding four goals in the game.  Two of his goals were scored when the Wildcat’s were down a man, and he was still able to get points on the board for his team. Goaltender Joey Minsky also was a big contributor to the game win with an astounding 28 saves.

“I cut down my angles, communicated with the defense, and there was a lot of good group effort. One goal made (it) through out of 28 shots, (so) I can’t complain,” Minsky said.

Freshman forward Andrew Herriman had his first game against Michigan Tech after being in the army for five years.  He was really excited for the game, but nervous about his speed and getting hit again.

“This was my first college hockey game ever.  I was really nervous for that first shift, it’d been years since I competed in hockey. I was excited to feel that my speed was right up there with everyone else and once I got hit all my butterflies were gone,” Herriman said.

Herriman was able to focus and get some really good shifts on the ice and help the team to their victory.

Beating Michigan Tech in the previous game put the Wildcats into the finals of the invitational against Saint Norbert University.  After the first period, NMU had six attempted shots on the goal and Saint Norbert 16, yet there was no score going into the second period.  The Wildcat’s defense was strong with help of goalie Joey Minsky who had many great saves throughout the game.

St. Norbert got two lucky goals in the beginning of the second period.  The Wildcats were able to hold them off for the remainder of the period but were unfortunately unable to score on the opposition’s offense.

“Kapuchinski kept us in the first and second period, there were too many penalties … we beat ourselves,” Minsky said.

The game ended with Saint Norbert winning 5-0 even though the Wildcats gave it all they had.  Most of the goals were when the Cats were short handed on the ice because of penalty time.  Even though the Wildcats didn’t win the invite, the team had a really good weekend and was proud of themselves.

“We have a lot of freshman and all the chemistry between the lines was good … overall great weekend,” Minsky said.

The Wildcat’s next game will be Sept. 24 and 25 in Bowling Green, Ohio against the Bowling Green University Falcons.