Northern Michigan University’s Atte Tolvanen, center, makes a save on Michigan Tech’s Reid Sturos, left, as the Wildcats’ Connor Frantti comes to his goalie’s aid during their game on Saturday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by David Archambeau)

MARQUETTE — The new season has begun for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

After earning a split with Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech last weekend, NMU clinched the No. 8 seed in the WCHA playoffs and will play MacNaughton Cup winner Bemidji State in a best-of-3 series this weekend. The MacNaughton Cup signifies that the Beavers were the WCHA regular season champions.

A playoff berth for the Wildcats might have been wishful thinking in early January, but a six-game winning streak, including five straight shutouts, helped get them back in the race.

Looking back on the Tech series, NMU head coach Walt Kyle liked how his team kept working hard till the end after falling behind twice.

“I thought it was a good series,” he said. “We fell behind (Friday) and we made some mistakes. Tech is a good team and when they come at you, you have to make sure that you defend well and keep your game mistake-free. They capitalized on that and they went ahead. We made it 3-2 and had some great chances to tie it up, but we weren’t able to do it.

“When we went up there, we fell behind right away, but we came back and our team has been good like that. We got right back in there and kept going much like the season. Tit for tat, we traded goals and we ended up coming out ahead.

“The guys have had a great second half and I didn’t think we’d have to have this good of a second half to get in. It seemed like any time that we needed help, we didn’t get it and the guys had to grind through it.

“In that last game, it turned out we were in regardless (after Alabama-Huntsville lost to Bowling Green State), but I think it was important for us to get that win.

“Now it’s a whole new season. It doesn’t matter who finished first and who finished eighth. Now we just have to win two out of the next three games.”

Freshman defenseman Philip Beaulieu said that the Wildcats turned things around mentally during the second half and that a win like Saturday’s would have been unlikely before Christmas.

“I think it shows how much we’ve matured over the course of the year,” he said. “In the first half, that probably wouldn’t have happened. We bounced back and we really came close at the end Friday. For the seniors, it was kind of tough with their last game at the Berry and for me I wanted to go into Tech and get that win for them. I think we just buckled down and it was fun to get that.”

The Wildcats can’t afford to reflect much on that victory, though, as they now have to deal with the top-seeded Beavers on their home ice.

Bemidji is statistically the best defensive team in the nation. The Beavers are No. 1 in total defense and goaltender Michael Bitzer has the best goals-against average in the country. Bemidji is also second on the penalty kill, so NMU will have to find a way to get its offense going if it wants to keep its season alive.

“They’re a really good team,” Kyle said. “They play at a good pace defensively. You’re usually playing against five guys and they always get back with numbers. They cover well and if you do get through them, you have to face Bitzer. We hope that we can play as well as they can defensively, and that’s tough, but we’re just going to have to play hard and keep the game simple. There’s not really a magic formula.”

NMU has faced the Beavers four times this season and lost all of them. They were shut out in both games at home and had a rough series in Minnesota, giving up four goals in the first 10 minutes in one game.

However, those games were played during the first half the season and Northern has shown over the last two months that this is a much different squad. That might give the Wildcats that extra assist to push them past the Beavers and on to the next round.

“They beat us four times, but it’s awful hard to beat a team six times,” Kyle said.

Friday’s and Saturday’s games start at 8:07 p.m. EST, and if necessary, Sunday’s game will be at 6:07 p.m. EST.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.