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Northern Michigan University eyeing WCHA lead with series in Alaska

Northern Michigan University’s Philip Beaulieu, left, and Lake Superior State’s Max Humitz go after the puck Saturday evening at Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University hockey team has been playing its best hockey of the season the past few weeks while passing some key tests.

But this weekend poses a different test for the No. 20-ranked Wildcats. After looking good against WCHA leader Minnesota State-Mankato on the road, tying a ranked Boston College squad and sweeping its last two series, NMU now travels to the Great White North to face conference bottom-dweller Alaska-Anchorage.

On paper, this looks like an easy series for the Wildcats (15-10-3, 13-5-2 WCHA), but the last time they faced a team like Anchorage, it was Arizona State at the Ice Vegas Invitational — and that turned into a blowout loss.

Northern head coach Grant Potulny talked about the importance of the Wildcats not overlooking the Seawolves with the regular season ready to enter its final month.

“The team we just played (Lake Superior State) is only one place ahead of them,” he said. “(LSSU) gave us everything we could handle and we had to gut out two wins. So you’ve just got to respect everybody.

“You watch them on video and they do a lot of things on video well. They skate and they work and they’ve got a good goaltender (Olivier Mantha). It’s (NCAA) Division I hockey, so there’s good players on the rink and you have to respect that.”

Anchorage looks awful statistically. Until a win over Alabama-Huntsville on Jan. 13, the Seawolves (2-18-4, 2-13-3) had lost nine in a row.

They have the worst offense in the nation (60th of 60), are next to last on the power play and in the bottom five in team defense and penalty kill. UAA’s only positive has been the play of Mantha, who has a decent save percentage of .906.

In addition to not overlooking Anchorage’s record, NMU also has to deal with long hours on flying there and the four-hour time change, which often prevents visitors from leaving Alaska with two victories.

But Potulny is just treating it as part of playing in the WCHA.

“There’s really no great way to do it,” Potulny said. “That’s the reality of where we are at geographically. We’ll probably adjust a few things next year with our travel, but it is what it is.”

Potulny seemed pleased overall with the series against the rival Lakers as the Wildcats kept the Cappo Cup, Phil Beaulieu earned WCHA Defensive Player of the Week and his team clinched a WCHA playoff spot.

However, he still feels that there is work to be done on defense, which has been NMU’s strength this season.

“To be honest, even though they scored first, I like how we started on Saturday,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t want to give up the first goal, but I liked how we were playing. Mistakes are going to happen and things are going to happen.

“That was just one of those moments where you’re playing well, you just had a breakdown. I thought we were way more focused Saturday to start the game than we were on Friday for sure.”

Now that Northern is in the playoffs, Potulny says the focus is to earn home ice, then stay at home for as long as possible.

“I expected us to be a home-ice team,” he said. “When you clinch, it’s great that you’re in, but now you’ve got to make sure that you finish in the top four. You’ve got to make sure that you get home ice.”

The Wildcats continue their quest for home ice when it faces the Seawolves at 11:07 p.m. EST Friday and Saturday.

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

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