After getting swept at home by Notre Dame, the NMU hockey team faced off against the University of Michigan last weekend to walk away with a tie and a win.
The No. 20-ranked Wildcats took on the No. 8-ranked Wolverines on Friday, Nov. 2 and Saturday, Nov. 3, ending the first night with a tie of 4-4 and a shootout ending with an extra point scored by U of M. The ’Cats returned the next night with their first CCHA victory of the season, 4-3.
NMU head coach Walt Kyle said the second night against the Wolverines brought the team a step closer to achieving the level of performance they are looking for.
“I thought it was a really good win,” Kyle said. “They are a very good team and you can’t let them breathe. Overall, we played much better tonight than we did the first night. There were much longer stretches where we played the way that we want to play.”
The Wildcats hit the ice on Saturday to a sold-out arena after a hard-hitting opening night, setting up the victory with a first period score of 2-0. Sophomore forward Reed Seckel started the ’Cats off with the first goal 4:04 into the first period.
Assisting the shot was senior forward Matt Thurber. Seckel scored two goals during the game following a hit that removed him from play on Friday.
“I’ve taken a lot of big hits, but I think that was the biggest hit of my life so far,” Seckel said. “I was pretty excited coming into the game, and I was just happy being able to play out there.”
Senior defenseman Scott Macaulay scored his first goal of the season to wrap up the first period. Thurber and freshman forward Justin Rose earned the assist on the shot.
Thurber said the leadership on the team was responsible for the second night’s endurance, as well as his three assists in the game.
“We were definitely nervous,” Thurber said. “We kind of fell apart last night, but the leadership on our team is pretty good. We brought everyone together and just made sure that nothing else happened out there when they started coming back, went from there and just kept pressing on.”
Freshman forward Cohen Adair earned his fifth goal of the season to open the second period, with the pairing of Thurber and Rose assisting the shot again. Adair currently leads the team in goals.
After Adair’s goal, the Wolverines answered with a goal of their own 7:37 into the second. Three minutes later, Seckel tallied his second goal of the night, putting NMU ahead 4-1. Sophomore forward Ryan Daugherty and junior forward Stephan Vigier assisted the goal. The night ended with two more U of M goals before the clock ran out, unlike the night before.
Kyle said Friday night was a tough loss for the team, as they lost the 4-1 lead they had going into the third period.
“We were really disappointed in the result,” Kyle said. “We started slowly and then I thought we played really well the last part of the first and early in the second. I thought we even played well 10 or 12 minutes into the third, but then we started making mistakes that cost you games.”
The Wolverines opened the first game with a goal at 15:38 in the first period. The Wildcats were able to answer their goal when junior forward Erik Higby tied the game. Adair and Thurber assisted Higby’s first goal of the season. NMU pulled ahead in the second period when junior defenseman Wade Epp earned his first goal of the year from the blue line, with Vigier and freshman defenseman Ryan Trenz with the assist.
At the end of the second, Daugherty brought the score to 3-1 with his fourth goal of the year after receiving a pass from junior forward CJ Ludwig and sophomore defenseman Mitch Jones.
Adair scored during a power-play following a pass from Macaulay and Thurber, bringing the game to 4-1.
The Wolverines returned in the third period with three unanswered goals, including one with 0.6 seconds on the clock. Overtime came and went with no points being scored, and then U of M scored the only goal during the shootout to end the game in a tie with a U of M favor of 5-4.
“Every game is important,” Kyle said. “The biggest thing for me that I am taking out of this weekend is that we have a win and a tie against Michigan. I can assure you they’re going to be beating a lot of hockey teams, and at the end of the year that could be really big for us. These guys have worked hard and they did a great job.”
The next set of games for the ’Cats take them out-of-state as they travel to Ohio. NMU will play on Friday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 10 against Miami.
