NMU Sports

Northern Michigan University Wildcats’ hockey team still looking to lock down home ice berth in WCHA playoffs

MARQUETTE -- At this point in the college hockey season, it's all about taking advantage of the opportunities.

The Northern Michigan University hockey team had a chance to do that last weekend with the two teams it's fighting for position in the WCHA standings both idle -- Bowling Green State and Lake Superior State.

The Wildcats could've gained ground and started to build up a lead in the fight for home ice in the first round of the conference playoffs.

NMU (15-13-1, 14-7-1 WCHA) ended up coming out with a win and tie at Alabama-Huntsville, which helped them pass the Lakers and tie the Falcons for second place. Things won't get easier for the Wildcats, though, as they travel to Bemidji State (14-12-4, 12-8-2) this weekend.

The Beavers are fifth in the WCHA, but just two points behind Lake State and four behind Northern.

Wildcats head coach Grant Potulny isn't expecting anything different from the Beavers after NMU split with them earlier this year at home and he's expecting his team to take care of business this weekend.

"Teams take on the personality of their coach," he said. "(Bemidji head coach) Tom (Serratore)'s won a lot of games over a long time in college hockey and what you're going to see is a team that doesn't beat itself. You're going to see a team that is very well coached and you're going to see a team that's battle tested.

"We've got to make sure that we come out of this weekend at minimum exactly the same way we went in and I'm sure they're sitting there thinking that 'Hey, they're four points up on us, we can catch them.'

"We've got to make sure that we go in there and extend the lead that we have on them, not only in relation to them, but to keep pace with the other teams around us."

A sweep would get NMU closer to locking up home ice, but if the Wildcats were to get swept, it'd be a blow as NMU would have to fight to stay in contention.

Northern is relatively even with Bemidji on offense and defense, but on special teams, things separate. The Wildcats' power play is significantly better than the Beavers' (21st compared to 46th), but Bemidji has one of the best penalty kill units in the country (fifth overall), so things could balance out there.

The Wildcats will need to be sound both nights if they want to get a sweep as they've struggled in their last three Friday games.

"We've not been very good on Fridays the last handful of weeks and we've had our backs against the wall on Saturdays," he said. "So we've got to make sure that we change a little bit of our preparation.

"From a coaching standpoint, we're going to do a couple things differently. Our players have got to have to do some things differently to make sure that they're ready to play on Friday and that it's not a situation where we have to have some hard conversations Saturday to make sure that they come out with a good effort.

"We've got to have a good effort both nights, just to give ourselves a chance to win."

That didn't necessarily happen last week against Huntsville and Potulny had mixed feelings about that series.

NMU came back to tie Friday's game at 2-2 thanks to two power-play goals but had its winning goal waved off in overtime. Huntsville then scored the winner in the second three-on-three overtime, which gave them the extra point in the standings.

However, the Wildcats bounced back in Saturday's outing. The game was tied 2-2 in the second before Northern scored two late goals to take the lead and added two more in the third.

"To be honest, it (Friday) was disappointing," he said. "There are certain things that we talk about a lot and those things we talk about are conducive to having success.

"It's scoring first, it's managing the puck, it's playing with physicality. When we do those things and have a high number of blocks, we win. A lot of those things that are really, besides scoring first, take anything other than preparation or willingness and want-to.

"I was disappointed in that. It came down to the end and we had one that we felt went in and they reviewed and said it wasn't a goal.

"The problem is when you put yourself in a position where you're tied at the end of a game like that, those things can happen. That was the disappointing thing about Friday.

"I thought on Saturday, even though we gave up the first goal again, which is concerning, you could just feel it on the bench when your guys are really dialed in and motivated and ready to play. Even though we gave up that first one, I just had a feeling that we were going to come through."

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