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Primed and ready: Northern Michigan University hockey team looks forward to big season

By Ryan Stieg 5 min read

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series previewing the Northern Michigan University hockey team for the 2018-19 season. Today's first part is an overview about the upcoming season. Tuesday's second part will look in depth at each position and the players expected to make the biggest contributions.

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MARQUETTE -- Last year was an unexpected and almost magical ride for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

Picked to finish in bottom half of the WCHA at the start of last season, the Wildcats started slow, but gained momentum as they began reaching their full potential in the second half.

NMU went on an eight-game unbeaten streak in January and took over first place in the conference before ultimately getting edged out for the regular season title by Minnesota State-Mankato.

In the postseason, Northern held off upset-minded Alabama-Huntsville in the first round before defeating Bowling Green State in a best-of-three series on an exciting overtime goal in the deciding game by Troy Loggins.

Over the season's last month, attendance at home games rose and reached its peak with a sold-out Berry Events Center for the WCHA Championship game against Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech.

Though the Wildcats fell to the Huskies to just miss making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years, the season was seen as a success in many people's minds.

NMU head coach Grant Potulny also sees it that way, but says he's taking a new approach this season when standing on the bench.

Last year, he was more focused on getting the team to connect and gel in his fast-paced, improvisational offense. This year, he knows what he's going to get from his players and he can get them going right away.

"I have a better idea of what guys are capable of," he said. "I didn't know a lot of the personnel here. You can look at numbers, but sometimes, they don't tell you the whole story.

"(Team captain) Denver Pierce is probably a great example of a guy that had a great freshman year, kind of had the sophomore slump and found his way out of it.

"This year, coming into the year, I have a much better idea of where we're at as a team.

"We're farther along in the fitness level that is required to play the way we want to play. It was all new last year for everybody. I think as an athlete, you think you're in great shape until maybe you start practicing. You didn't know the shape you needed to be in to play the style we want to play.

"That's not the case this year. Every one of the returners is in phenomenal shape and they're going to allow us to be able to push harder in practice and just the mindset is the biggest thing. We're going to play on our toes and we're going to make plays and we go into games this year with an expectation that being competitive is not good enough.

"You play the game to win the game."

Last season's success also helped rejuvenate interest in the program and Potulny has noticed that.

However, this season, the expectations are also higher. The Wildcats kind of snuck up on teams last year, but with a strong group of upperclassmen and newcomers, the spotlight is fixed directly on them.

When asked if he likes it that way, Potulny said that he has mixed feelings on that, but thinks that his squad is thinking differently now and they don't just expect to compete, but to win each game.

"We got to sneak up on some people early in the year," he said, "but I also don't think the mindset of our team was the way it is now, where you expect to win. The preparation you put in and the price you are willing to pay to know that the payoff can be victory.

"To be honest, what I was nervous about, was are they willing to come back and work the way they worked to get to that point. I don't have any concern with that. They've worked every single day and they're hungry.

"They're disappointed with how it finished and I think they've got a little bit of unfinished business where they feel that they were very close and we were very close. We talked about … that, but until you can knock the teams off the top, they're still kind of the king of the hill.

"Even though we're improved and people have given us some preseason accolades, you've still got to win the games. You've still got to knock off Minnesota State or Tech or Bemidji (State) or Ferris (State), the teams who have won. We haven't won yet.

"I think our guys have that mindset that we want to join that group of so-called elites and add a championship to our program."

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

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