NMU Sports

Triumphant return: After 4-0 record in Alaska, Wildcats get extra week to prepare for WCHA leader Minnesota State

MARQUETTE -- Things must be dark with days so short in the Last Frontier this time of year.

Bu over the last two weekends, the Northern Michigan University hockey team found only light.

After a slow start to their season, the Wildcats opened up 2019 with back-to-back sweeps at Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska-Anchorage. With a sweep of Ferris State just before the holiday break, NMU has a six-game winning streak and is in second place in the WCHA.

During the Anchorage series, the Wildcats jumped out to an early lead Friday night to get the win, but for the second straight Saturday, they needed a third-period rally to complete the sweep. In a Tuesday interview, Northern head coach Grant Potulny said he was proud of how his team gutted out Saturday's win against the Seawolves.

"I didn't think we played very well on Friday," he said. "The score didn't indicate that. We just made plays when we had an opportunity. I don't think we played great.

"I thought Saturday was a really good effort. We just didn't score early, then kind of in the second period, we were really playing well and got in some penalty trouble. We just stuck with it and finished off a hard sweep.

"It's not easy to go up there and stay fresh all week and be able to be mentally tough enough to come through that. So I was proud of the guys."

Even though a late comeback was necessary once each weekend against two struggling programs, Potulny said he didn't feel that it was a bad sign.

"I'd be concerned if we weren't playing well," he said. "I thought we played well both (Saturday) games, our offense was starting to come. Just to have the ability to stay with a game like that is just challenging.

"What ends up happening a lot of times is you get out of your structure and you start to press, and all of sudden, you're giving up odd-man rushes because you're pressing too much.

"They just stayed with it. It's a hard thing to do in hockey, so to be able to do it two weekends in a row and score three goals and get an empty-netter to make it four, both Saturday nights (were) good to see."

Another thing that Potulny was happy to see was the play of freshman Griffin Loughran, who was named WCHA Rookie of the Week on Monday. Loughran recorded three assists last weekend, with his two assists Friday night giving him his third multipoint game since Dec. 15.

In addition to that award, Wildcats defenseman Phil Beaulieu was named WCHA Defenseman of the Week for the second straight week.

"We've asked some of those freshmen to kind of come out of their shell a little bit because they've been recruited to score here, and kind of after Christmas, there's no such thing as a freshman anymore," Potulny said. "Griff is really paying well. He has eight points in his last five games and he's just involved. He's playing on the inside and all the things we saw in recruiting are starting to come through now."

Northern is off this week before it has a home showdown with first-place Nos. 6/7 Minnesota State, who it split with in Marquette last season.

The Wildcats may give up some ground in the standings this weekend, as the other top programs in the league -- Bowling Green, Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State -- play league games and add to their point totals while Northern won't. But each of those teams has a week off later in the season when NMU will be able to recapture those points.

Potulny said that this is a crucial stretch, as a sweep in the Minnesota State series could potentially launch NMU into first place, whereas getting swept could affect playoff positioning.

Not only that, but third place No. 9 Bowling Green State comes to town the following week, so things don't get any easier for the Wildcats.

"We're within striking distance and you have to think that they're (the Mavericks) going to continue to play at a very high level," he said. "Having them in our building in two weeks is going to be very important. To be honest, kind of where the standings are, there's four of us bunched up there. We have a chance to play everybody, five of the six games are in our rink. That's an area where we've been good.

"We need to make sure that we continue to play well at home, and that will go a long way in deciding the ending standings."

When asked what the vibe inside the Wildcats locker room was, Potulny said that they were quietly confident.

"You feel good about where you're at, but you know there's a lot of hockey left too," he said. "I think guys are excited about the stretch run and excited that we're kind of reaching our stride a little bit. Even though we didn't get the results we wanted early (in the season), we still liked our team as a staff. We knew that there were good hockey players in there and we just needed to get everybody kind of firing together.

"With having, in my opinion, if not the best goalie in the country, one of the top two or three goalies, (Atte Tolvanen is) going to give us a chance every single night to win.

"Now, we're getting some depth scoring and our top guys are scoring and if we can continue to get to three (goals) every night, we're going to have a chance to win a whole lot of games."

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