The men’s club hockey team returned home from Wisconsin with a pair of wins against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh over the weekend of Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27.

Seven Wildcats scored goals on Friday night to defeat the Titans, 8-3.

NMU led in the first period when freshman left wing Steve Eklund scored the first goal of the night at 10:27. Sophomore forward Wolff Belanger followed up with a second Wildcat goal with help from freshman right wing Brusch Francis. The goal gave the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead.

Oshkosh came back at the ’Cats with 6:39 left in the first period to score their first of the night.

However, NMU answered with two more goals in the first period. The first came during a power play when senior defenseman Evan Weber and senior forward Kellen Michalak assisted Dillon Montalvo, a sophomore at center, for the goal.

Afterwards, Belanger showed up again for an assist to freshman forward Anders Carlson to put another point on the board for the ’Cats.

Sophomore goaltender Alex Latvala knew the team had worked hard for that early lead.

“We are pretty confident in what we do as a team and it all worked out in the end,” Latvala said.

NMU left the ice for the break between periods with a 4-1 lead over UW-Oshkosh.

Head coach Carl Trosien said the Wildcats came out with aggression.

“We took control early and had a pretty dominating period,” Trosien said.

UW-Oshkosh answered NMU in the second period, scoring first at 11:54. The ’Cats did not let that first goal stop them, however, and forward Belanger answered with his second goal of the night at 9:15 in the period. Francis and Carlson recorded the assists.

Oshkosh went on to score one more, leaving the second period at NMU 5, UWO 3.

During the third period right wing sophomore Ben Hughes assisted Michalak for the goal at 10:12, and Michalak did not stop there.

At 7:11, he went on to assist Weber for a power play goal that put the ’Cats up 7-3.

With 6:44 left in the game, Hughes scored the final goal of the night to seal a Wildcat win after assists from Eklund and freshman defenseman Adam Kurczewski.

Sophomore Alex Latvala claimed the win as goaltender with three goals against him on twenty-six shots. However, Latvala gave the credit to his offense.

“It was a pretty offensive game for us,” Latvala said. “We dominated for the most part, and the shots taken were basically two to one us.”

The following night, NMU found themselves with a penalty early in the first period. However, this did not slow the ’Cats, as Belanger managed to score a short-handed goal. Oshkosh returned the favor with a power play goal at 13:49 in the first, and the teams left the ice between periods tied at one.

Trosien said that the penalties in the period killed the rhythm of the game.

“It was one of those bizarre periods,” Trosien said. “Six of the ten minutes we were on penalty kill. Neither team had any flow.”

The ’Cats knew they had to pick up the momentum if they wanted to pull ahead.

Right wing sophomore Ben Hughes explained the lapse.

“We had to get our heads in the game,” he said. “We all knew we should have been beating them.”

Starting off the second period, NMU stormed the ice. The ’Cats scored a series of three goals with a hat trick from Michalak, who had an assist from sophomore forward Dean Potila, and power play assists from Belanger and Carlson. However, Michalak did not stop at three.

Instead, he went on to score an impressive fourth goal in a row with 6:50 left in the second period.

Following, Belanger scored a goal with 0:42 left in the second period off assists from Carlson and sophomore center Corey Acker.

With an NMU lead of 6-1, Oshkosh was not ready to throw in the towel. Instead, the Titans came up to score a goal with only six seconds left in the second period.

However, Oshkosh did not find the energy to come back at the ’Cats in the third period, and center freshman Chris Laux sealed the win when he scored off an assist from senior defense Shane Feeliery with 19:00 left in the game.

Sophomore goaltender Max Laughlin took the win with two goals against on 35 shots when NMU finished over the Oshkosh Titans, 7-2.

The men’s club hockey team is on the road again on Friday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 3 to play the University of Minnesota.