NMU Sports

Record-tying night

Tolvanen matches NCAA?record with 5th straight shutout as Wildcats win 2-0

MARQUETTE -- Northern Michigan University goaltender Atte Tolvanen accomplished something phenomenal Saturday night.

The sophomore netminder made 48 saves and tied the NCAA record with his fifth straight shutout, while the Wildcats won their sixth game in a row as they took down Alaska-Fairbanks 2-0. With the victory, NMU vaulted into a tie for sixth place with Lake Superior State in the WCHA.

But when asked about his achievement, Tolvanen continued to take the focus off of himself and put it on the team.

"I feel pretty good," he admitted with a chuckle. "It popped in my head, but I tried to push that out.

"The guys have been great in front of me, though. They've collected all of the rebounds that I've given up, so this was a whole team effort. They've been helping me so much."

NMU head coach Walt Kyle said that Tolvanen was the story of the game and wasn't surprised by how his goalie shifted the focus off him.

"That's what he should do because it's not about the record," he said. "It's about winning games.

"That being said, Atte is a wonderful kid with a great attitude. He started out with a very average first half and to be able to bounce back and keep his head to do the things that he's done. We have a close team. The guys care about him and he cares about them."

The majority of the second period was rough for the Wildcats as they spent half of it in the penalty box. That meant Tolvanen had to make some impressive saves to keep his shutout streak going. His best one was robbing Fairbanks forward Kylar Hope with a lunging glove save just after a penalty expired.

Tolvanen finally got some help on the scoreboard with six minutes left in the period. Using a screen in front of the net, Robbie Payne beat Nanooks goalie Davis Jones to the near post.

Less than three minutes later, Payne struck again, this time on the power play. After a nice shot by Brock Maschmeyer was deflected up by Jones, the junior winger tapped the puck into an open net. Payne has now scored NMU's last four goals and he says some off-ice help has improved his play.

"I think (Zach) Diamantoni tipped that first one in, at least he says he did," Payne said with a laugh. "I've been talking to my cousin and he's been giving me some life coaching and it's been good getting that off the ice."

Payne also said that even though it didn't look like the Wildcats had a chance to make the playoffs at the start of the new year, he said the team still believed that they did.

"The whole year we knew that we were a good team, but things weren't bouncing our way," he said. "It's something we knew was going to come around and it was just a process to get here."

The third period was mostly uneventful with both teams continually sending players to the penalty box. There was a tense moment near the midpoint as a collision between Maschmeyer and Nanooks center Josh Erickson ended up involving Tolvanen and knocking him to the ice. After a few seconds, though, the goalie slowly got to his feet and was back to his old self.

The first period was was full of hard hitting. Neither team generated much offense, but players were frequently slammed into the glass. Even one of the linesmen got crunched at one point along the far boards.

NMU had two decent opportunities, one of them coming at the midway point of the period. Jones lost his stick during a scrum in front and left a wide-open net, but none of the Wildcats could tap it in.

The other came with eight minutes left as Payne skated hard down the far boards, made a nice move around a defender and almost beat Jones blocker-side.

Tolvanen's shutout streak almost came to an end a minute after Payne's shot as a Nanooks forward slid across the crease and almost tapped the puck in, but the sophomore goalie caught it with his leg pad.

Kyle's overall assessment of the game was simple and emphasized that his team needs to just keep moving forward.

"Sometimes you win games that you don't deserve to win and if you have a good team that happens sometimes," he said. "We had some of our top players get really tired killing penalties and that happened last night, too. I give those guys a lot of credit because they bit off a lot of ice time and did a good job killing.

"In the end though, we made Atte make too many saves, but we got some good scoring from Robbie. We just have to stay out of the box if we want to have success.

"We have a two-hour rule where you have two hours to enjoy it. After that, you have to move forward. We want to have a big finish, grow our game, make the playoffs and have success there. We just need to move ahead and get better."

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