Northern Michigan proved early this season they could score.
Netting 10 goals in a nonconference series will easily bolster that reputation.
But as goals giveth, goals can taketh away.
In that same series with UMD, the Wildcats let the Bulldogs outscore them 13-10, failing to win either game (they tied 5-5 Friday before losing 8-5 Saturday).
That failure to limit goals frustrated the Wildcats in their first eight games. Coming into last weekend’s series against Upper Peninsula rivals Lake Superior State, they were 1-6-1, with their lone win being a 4-1 victory against Ferris State on Oct. 28.
But now, NMU coach Grant Potulny thinks his team might have turned a corner. The Wildcats swept the visiting Lakers and took five conference points thanks to a 6-4 win on Friday and a 4-3 overtime win Saturday.
“I thought it was a step in the right direction,” Potulny said during his media conference on Tuesday. “You know, I’m a little disappointed we didn’t close the game out on Saturday, and I thought the whole third period we were on our heels a little bit. It would have been nice to close a game out there, but you win the game and that’s the goal, is to find a way to win because then it builds some momentum.”
In both games of the series, it appeared as though the Wildcats were going to allow a third-period lead to go to waste, but both times they were able to recover. In Friday’s game, NMU had led 3-2 going into the final frame but LSSU’s Harrison Roy and Dawson Tritt each scored in the first four minutes of the third to go up 4-3.
However, NMU captain Artem Shlaine didn’t allow the lead to stay very long. He scored his second goal 36 seconds after Tritt’s, tying it again, then earned his first career hat trick with what turned out to be the game-winning goal with eight minutes to go. NMU added an empty netter later to secure the win.
On Saturday, Kristoff Papp gave the Wildcats a 3-2 lead early in the third period but LSSU’s Jared Wescott scored an extra attacker goal with less than 35 seconds to go to tie it up and force overtime; NMU defenseman Josh Zinger secured the victory a minute into overtime.
Shlaine said after his hat trick on Friday that the Wildcats had struggled to mount responses earlier in the season and didn’t have a ton of pushback when things didn’t go their way. Against LSSU, that changed.
“I think it’s a process, and we were struggling with it in our first eight games,” Shlaine said Friday night. “We just couldn’t respond to goals, or maybe if we’d score, (the other team would) respond with the next shift. So I think it starts with practice. … we’re doing different little drills, focused on protecting the lead, trying to score and respond. I think today it showed. I really liked how we came back in that situation.”
Perhaps some of the Wildcats’ success against LSSU comes down to better chemistry. Papp, Shaine, and senior Andre Ghantous have been extremely prolific for NMU (they have combined for 12 goals and 35 points) but having them playing on the same line wasn’t necessarily generating scoring from other players. The three had played together against St. Thomas the weekend before, and the result was a series sweep in which the Wildcats scored just three goals. So against the Lakers, Potulny moved Ghantous – who is the NCAA’s active career men’s points leader – onto a line with Jack Perbix and Mikey Collela, while playing freshman Kevin Marx Noren with Papp and Shaine.
The result was a success: Collela scored his first goal of the season against the Lakers, while Marx Noren added three assists. Down the lineup, there were also some scoring improvements: Connor Eddy and Max Van Unen both scored their first goals of the season.
“We’re kind of still trying to find ‘D’ pairs and lines and some continuity,” Potulny said. “Part of that is because of injury, part of it’s just trying to find that right balance. Hopefully we’re getting a couple guys back this week, but we also might be losing a guy or two, so that carousel will also continue a little bit.”
Potulny hopes to keep some of that consistency and continuity going as they host Alaska this weekend. The Nanooks are 6-3-1 and No. 10 in the Pairwise, with signature wins against St. Cloud State and Michigan Tech.
For the Wildcats, one of their last chances to improve their nonconference record before conference play begins. They’re 3-6-1 overall but just 0-3-1 in their other two nonconference series (they played Minnesota Duluth and Arizona State to start the season).
“They’re a good team,” Potulny said of the Nanooks. “They’re 10th in the pairwise, you know, they just missed getting in the tournament last year, and their coaching staff does a really good job. They’re 6-1-1 in their last eight. They’re a very well-coached team and stingy defensively, and they find ways to generate offense by playing the same way we want to play. It’s almost a little bit like looking in the mirror, and I think whatever team can do it better is going to be the team on top.”
