Last weekend was tech weekend for all of campus as our Men’s hockey team geared up to take on their biggest rival Michigan Tech.
Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, the Huskies swept the weekend, winning in both Marquette the first night and the second night in Houghton.
“Saturday night, the positives were we got three goals which is difficult to do. We won the Special Teams battle and we won the faceoff battle. I thought they got some goals that maybe we could have taken back, but again, some of our defensive breakdowns which we got to continue to fix here should certainly help us out a little bit, and then Friday night, that was the most chances I think we generated in the game this year,” Head Coach Dan Shayiak said.
The first night at the Berry Center the Wildcats fell 0-3 to the Huskies. Despite the three goals allowed back in the net was senior goalie Ryan Ouellette who had 38 saves in goal.
After the loss at home, the team traveled up to Houghton the next day where at one point in the game the Wildcats had a two goal lead over the Huskies. Again the Wildcats fell in the game this time the final was 3-6.
“Sometimes it’s easier to play catchup when you’re behind, especially after the first period when you’re up two goals you get another 40 minutes to play, you start playing a little bit more with desperation or urgency. You start playing on your toes and then when you’re ahead sometimes you just don’t want to make mistakes when you have an inexperienced team,” Coach Shayiak said.
With Michigan Tech coming to town the fans always come out to support. Students and locals totaled over 4,000 people at the Berry on Friday to support the Wildcats.
“We want our guys to embrace that and I thought they did I didn’t think we played nervous uh I thought our Puck Poise was really good um we played really good in the ozone and so I didn’t think the crowd affected it I thought it affected it in a positive way where we’re able to play it probably one of our best games this year,” Coach Shayiak said.
Ouellette was back in the net on Saturday allowing six goals and having 37 saves. One goal out of the three scored by Northern came from freshman Forward Medrick Bolduc. The other two Wildcat goals came from freshman Forward Grayden Slipec. Slipipec also won the CCHA Rookie of the Week. These were their first two points as a Wildcat.
From the weekend the Wildcats sit 1-7 on the season.
This weekend, the team is back home at the Berry Center taking on another strong CCHA team in Lake Superior State. Lake State is currently 1-5 starting out the season.
The last time these two teams played NMU won the first two games at home in the Berry. The team later on last season fell to Lake State both nights in Sault St. Marie.
“If you give them time and space talented players are going to manipulate that space to make a play and get their feet going and play with speed,” Coach Shayiak said.
