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Northern Michigan University Wildcats hockey team hosts Lake Superior State this weekend

Northern Michigan University’s James Vermeulen, left, beats out Minnesota State’s Ty Readman to the puck on Jan. 25 at the Berry Events Center. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

MARQUETTE — If the Northern Michigan University hockey team played its biggest game of the season earlier this month, this weekend could be arguably its biggest series.

There’s a lot on the line for the Wildcats (15-14-2, 14-8-2 WCHA) as they take on No. 18 Lake Superior State (20-8-2, 15-7-2). Some of it may involve scoreboard watching, too.

A sweep of the Lakers moves NMU up to third place in the WCHA, and depending on how No. 15 Bowling Green State performs against Bemidji State, potentially that could become second place.

However, if Northern were to get swept, the Wildcats’ chances at hosting a first-round playoff series would become increasingly slim.

Not to mention the Cappo Cup is also up for grabs.

The Wildcats are also finding themselves in unfamiliar territory as for the first time in a quite awhile, they look like an underdog to the Lakers.

“(The Lakers are) a great hockey team,” Wildcats head coach Grant Potulny said. “The first time we played them, it was still early in the year and I think everybody was still trying to find their footing.

“They have the best line in the league. They’ve got a great power play, they’re getting good goaltending, and to be honest going into the weekend, I for sure think they’re the favorites. We’re an underdog.

“They’ve earned everything that they’ve gotten this year. We’ve got to find a way to fight, claw and scratch because we’re playing for a trophy, and when you play for a trophy, you’ve got to lay it all on the line. You don’t get many opportunities to do that. For us, we’re going to have to go to work.”

To many, Lake State has snuck up on the powers of the league as few probably thought they would be in contention for second place in the conference at this point in the year.

But LSSU’s returning talent, including Diego Cugglietta, Anthony Nellis and WCHA Forward of the Week Max Humitz, have helped prove doubters wrong.

“I think their confidence is sky high,” Potulny said. “Confidence is a funny thing. In hockey when you have it, you just expect to win. The buy-in factor for their guys is really high right now.

“They’re blocking pucks and they’re physical and they put pucks in great areas so they can continue to play offense. They’re in a spot right now where I’m sure they’re very confident and I’m sure they feel great about their game and they’ve earned that.

“They’re 14-2-1 in their last 17 (games) and those are real numbers. To me, they’re the hottest team in college hockey.”

NMU, on the other hand, has really struggled offensively. That was pretty clear last weekend on the road at Bemidji as the Wildcats made crucial mistakes in both games and were shut out on Saturday.

“I think we beat ourselves,” Potulny said. “Any team at any sport at any level, teams that beats themselves, they have a real hard time generating anything positive in the game…. You start going the right direction, whether it’s a penalty or a turnover or things that are completely within our control, we’ve got to find a way to clean that self-inflicted-wound side of our game up.”

When asked about his team’s offensive woes, Potulny said that it’s kind of summed up the Wildcats’ season so far and that they just need to keep at it and go into tough areas to get goals.

“It’s kind of been the theme of our season,” he said. “I listened to (NMU women’s basketball head coach) Troy (Mattson) talk about generating offense and it’s the same for us.

“You’ve just got to stay with it. There’s nothing worse that a coach can do than be upset at his players for not scoring. We’re going to practice it and we’re going to keep working on it. That’s the side of the game that people like to work on and get better at.

“The other side of it is that there’s two ways to score. I think the way we’ve scored, if you look how we’ve scored, our goals for the most part, are beautiful and works of art.

“But, like a player, they don’t ask how you score, it’s how many. We’ve got to find a way to get more deflection goals and rebound goals. Goals that come through old-fashioned hard work.”

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

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