This past weekend the Northern Michigan men’s hockey team hit the road to face off against CCHA opponent, the Bowling Green Falcons. The Wildcats dropped the first game of the series on Friday, Nov. 24 with a score of 6-2 but tied the series on Saturday, Nov. 25 with a 2-0 lead. The ‘Cats sit at fourth in the conference going into the non-conference play this weekend with an overall record of 6-7-1.
In the game on Friday night, Bowling Green put the first point on the board in the first 10 minutes of the game while on the power play. The rest of the first period both teams had chances but the period ended 1-0, Falcons.
Early in the second period, senior Artem Shlaine tied the score for the Wildcats with an assist from senior Kristoff Papp and sophomore Josh Zinger. The ‘Cats were on their third penalty kill of the night when senior Michael Colella blocked a shot by Bowling Green to get a breakaway and push NMU ahead 2-1 to end the period.
The Falcons started the final period with back-to-back goals in the first five minutes. The Wildcats found themselves with another penalty and Bowling Green took advantage to make the score 4-2. In the final 10 minutes the Falcons scored two more goals including an empty-netter to end the game 6-2.
“Friday night, for whatever reason, it felt like we took a long time to get to our game. Looked a little sluggish in the first period,” Associate Head Coach Byron Pool said. “We turned the puck over at inopportune times, took some undisciplined penalties, and then unfortunately we just couldn’t plug the dam when it broke open.”
On Saturday night, the ‘Cats started off strong and despite being outshot in the first period 12-10 the score remained 0-0. Nearly one minute into the second period, sophomore Connor Eddy scored with a penalty kill breakaway. Later in the period, the Wildcats took advantage of the power play with a goal from Colella. NMU goalkeeper Beni Halasz continued to shut out Bowling Green for the rest of the game. Halasz earned his first shutout of the season.
Because of his performance on Saturday, Halasz earned CCHA Goaltender of the Week honors. He saved 30 total shots in the game to make this the fourth shutout of his career. Halasz is currently ranked third overall in the CCHA for saves per game, ninth for save percentage, and tenth for goals against average.
“Saturday, great response. Probably the best 60 minutes we’ve played as a group short-handed, and we’re missing a couple key pieces that got hurt through the weekend, but the guys stuck to the script,” said Pool.
The Wildcats look ahead to host the Augustana Vikings for the first time in program history on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7:07 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 2 at 6:07 p.m. The Vikings overall record is 4-7-1 most recently dropping 2-0 in the series with Omaha. The ‘Cats hope to find some momentum this weekend before they face UP rival the Michigan Tech Huskies on Dec. 8 and 9.
