Win or go home? Northern Michigan University Wildcats hockey team embarks on back-to-back series vs. Lake Superior State with playoff chances at stake
Trending
This weekend: Northern Michigan University vs. Lake Superior State in a home-and-home series; Friday at Sault Ste. Marie, 7:37 p.m.; Saturday at Berry Events Center, 7:07 p.m.
———————————-
Northern Michigan University's Troy Loggins, center, works for possession of the puck against Alabama-Huntsville on Dec. 10 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Journal photo by Rachel Oakley)
MARQUETTE -- It's now crunch time for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.
After a disappointing outing at the Florida College Hockey Classic last week, NMU (4-16-2 overall, 2-11-1 WCHA) will try to climb out of last place in the WCHA standings with two straight home-and-home series against Lake Superior State.
With a new playoff format, the Wildcats were forced to alter their schedule to accommodate it and as a result, they get Lake State on back-to-back weekends.
"We were going to play Lake Superior one of the last two weekends of the year and what happened is that we bumped them into this spot so we can move the playoffs up a week," Northern head coach Walt Kyle said. "I would much rather do it like this for a couple of reasons. It gives one more weekend of hockey to a community and I think sometimes when you're only playing one game, it makes it easier for people to plan to come to a game. The other thing is that it spreads out your home and away series."
The Lakers (8-11-1, 5-8-1) currently hold the last WCHA playoff spot and are nine points ahead of Northern. Even though the Wildcats have a big hill to climb if they want to surpass their rivals to the east, they're catching Lake State on a slide. The Lakers are winless in their last five games and were swept by Nebraska-Omaha last weekend.
"They are a much improved team," Kyle said of LSSU. "They had a lot of young guys commit last year and they took some lumps, but they did a good job developing them. They're ahead of us right now, so it's definitely a big series for us."
Lake State's big-name player is goaltender Gordon Defiel. The junior netminder was an All-WCHA Third Team honoree last season and currently has a 2.58 goals-against average and .915 saves percentage.
For the first time in his career, Defiel has a good supporting staff that keeps him from having to carry all the load. Sophomore Mitch Hults has racked up 22 points so far and the Lakers have seven other players in double figures, including leading goal scorers Gage Torrel and Diego Cuglietta, both also sophomores.
With Defiel being one of the league's best goalies, this could be a tough weekend for the offensively challenged Wildcats. NMU is near the bottom of the nation in both total offense and power play efficiency. If the Wildcats have any chance of making the postseason, they'll need to start putting pucks in the net consistently.
Northern did a decent job of that down in Florida. Despite losing games to Cornell and Merrimack, the Wildcats scored three goals on the power play as Dominik Shine and Gerard Hanson had solid offensive outings. Overall, though, Kyle wasn't happy with how it went.
"I was disappointed," Kyle said. "We just didn't get the job done. We wanted to use it as a springboard going into the second half. I would've liked us to play better, so we could be in a good spot moving forward, but it didn't happen.
"Our power play was definitely better down there than it has been all year, but now the question is will we continue to do that. That is going to be a huge thing for us because we've struggled to score goals, and if we're good on the power play, it certainly can alleviate some of the pressure on us."
The pressure is definitely on the Wildcats as they re-enter league play and try to make a run at a playoff spot. Getting four wins against the Lakers would be a great start to the second half of the year, but Kyle said the team isn't focused on picking up sweeps.
"Our goal is just to win Friday night," he said. "That's how we're looking at things. I have a lot of faith in our team. I believe in the guys and I certainly believe that we can make a good run.
"We know what we have to do and that is to win games to make the playoffs. We have 14 games left and we just have to take it one game at a time."
The Wildcats play in Sault Ste. Marie at 7:37 p.m. Friday before hosting the Lakers at 7:07 p.m. Saturday at the Berry Events Center. The two teams then flip-flop home dates the following weekend, though both games will be at 7:07 p.m.
Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.