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Northern Michigan University Wildcats’ hockey team faces stiff test at No. 4 St. Cloud State

By Ryan Stieg 5 min read

This weekend: Northern Michigan University (1-1) at St. Cloud State, Minn. (2-0); 8:07 p.m. EDT Friday, 7:07 p.m. EDT Saturday; Radio: 100.3 FM The Point

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MARQUETTE -- Will the Wildcats live up to all the preseason hype?

That was the big question heading into this year for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

After a season-opening split with Michigan State last weekend, now the question is if the Wildcats keep pace with this week's opponent, No. 4-ranked St. Cloud State.

While the improved Spartans are still going through a rebuilding phase, the Huskies are at their peak. SCSU is coming off a road sweep of Alaska-Fairbanks and is a common pick for this year's Frozen Four, so NMU head coach Grant Potulny knows that his team has a challenge.

"I think St. Cloud is the most talented team in college hockey," he said. "You might argue that other teams are better, but talent-wise, their high-end is very high-end.

"When you look at their lineup, their forward group, it's like they have two first lines, a second line and a three-plus line. There's no fourth liners on their team.

"Their (defensive) corps is really deep and they have guys that are extra defensemen, who are not even playing that would be the top pair on a lot of teams in college hockey. They have a very good team and their goaltending has depth.

"It is going to be a very good challenge for us and this team I believe will be in the conversation at the end of the year for the national championship…. It's a great measuring stick for us to find out where we really are in back-to-back games.

"For us to find out where we really are, we've got to make sure we have two good performances."

Like Northern, the Huskies have also entered the season with high expectations. SCSU won the National Collegiate Hockey Conference last year and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but was upset by Air Force in the first round.

Longtime head coach Bob Motzko has moved on to Minnesota, but new bench boss Brett Larson has a stacked team. SCSU still has 42-point scorer Robby Jackson on the roster along with fellow forwards Ryan Poehling (30 points) and Blake Lizotte (27 points) and Hobey Baker finalist defenseman Jimmy Schuldt (38 points).

With all of those weapons, it's easy to see why the Huskies had one of the best offenses in the nation last year and it's also easy to see that getting two wins this weekend will be a tough task for even the high-powered Wildcats.

But Potulny liked what he saw from his team over the weekend in East Lansing. Northern got a game-winning goal Saturday from Darien Craighead, who led the country in game-winners last year, and its special teams were quite effective as the Wildcats netted two power-play goals along with a shorthanded tally by Adam Rockwood.

Potulny said that while the loss of Robbie Payne to the AHL was a bit of a blow to the offense, Craighead is more than capable of filling that void.

"You have the loss of Robbie's offense and we feel that Darien has the ability to generate that type of offense," Potulny said. "He's kind of taken his (Payne's) spot on the power play and obviously the goal on Saturday was a major-league shot. It was going in on lots of NHL goalies and that's what Darien can do.

"His consistency needs to continue to improve, but if we can get him playing the way he did on Saturday, he's going to have a great season."

NMU lost Friday after giving up a late goal and an empty-netter, but was in control for the majority of Saturday's contest. However, when leading 3-1 at the start of the third period, MSU scored back-to-back goals and Potulny was forced to call timeout.

He did it to calm his team down and it obviously worked as the Spartans didn't do much offensively the rest of the game.

"We had controlled the whole game," Potulny said. "The goals that they scored in the third period, one was like kind of a seeing-eye shot from the blue line and the other one, you win a draw and the ice was rough in a couple places and we go to clear it and it kind of rolls over our stick and it's a slam dunk. We had played so well and it wasn't like we had got seamed or we had a breakdown, it was just two quick goals.

"I just wanted to get us refocused again because I did feel we were playing a very good game and I didn't want the momentum they had got from those two goals and with that energy in the building to get to the point where they got another one.

"From that moment on, they actually didn't have another scoring chance the rest of the game. So the guys responded."

Potulny said his squad was disappointed with Friday's performance and it was difficult to analyze as a coach because it was the opener, but he think's Saturday was a good example of where NMU currently is.

"No. 1, you haven't played any games yet, so you don't know where you stack up against your competition and I just thought we played, and they did too, so poorly that you don't know how you even evaluate your team," Potulny said. "It was just a weird game. Saturday looked more like us. We had much more energy, we were quicker, we were winning races, we had physicality."

The puck drops in Minnesota at 8:07 p.m. EDT Friday and 7:07 p.m. EDT Saturday.

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

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