Battle with the Big Red: After strong defensive showing at BGSU, NMU hosts No. 17 Cornell

MARQUETTE -- Heading into this season, when people thought of Northern Michigan University hockey, the talented offense is probably the first thing that came to mind.

However, it was the Wildcats' defense that was the story of last weekend's series against now-No. 10 Bowling Green State. The Falcons (6-2-1, 1-1 WCHA) came in to the series with the nation's highest-scoring offense, but NMU (3-5, 2-2) held them to only three goals on the weekend and shut them out on Saturday behind some strong goaltending from Atte Tolvanen, who was named WCHA Goaltender of the Week.

Northern's penalty-killing unit also caused BGSU's potent power play to go 0 for 12 on the weekend, so even though the Wildcats only got a split with the Falcons, it was still a solid series for them.

They'll definitely need another weekend like that this week as the Wildcats will host No. 17 Cornell. The Big Red were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament last year, and in some minds, are seen as a lock for this year's tourney.

"They're good," NMU head coach Grant Potulny said. "They probably play a very similar style to Bowling Green. They're heavy and they're big, but I do think that they have a little more high-end (scoring) than Bowling Green did. Their top power play is really dangerous. To be honest, they're 2-2 but they've really outshot everybody big time. The Michigan State games, (goaltender John) Lethemon played great for Michigan State (the Spartans swept Cornell). I haven't looked at the games, but he obviously played well and they (the Big Red) outshot them almost 2-to-1 both nights.

"Teams like this, you have to get up early on them because it's hard to chase these guys. They're so structured and they're such a good defensive team and they don't beat themselves. So you've got to try to get them out of what they want to do and get out of their structure because they've got to score. Then you can have some chances for success."

Northern's defense obviously found success last weekend, part of that was due to the play of Tolvanen who made several flashy saves to preserve the shutout Saturday, but the other part was the Wildcats' strategy of using several things to slow BGSU down.

"I think sometimes as a team, you can get into a roll and things can go pretty well for you," Potulny said. "I think everything had gone as well as it could've possibly gone for them (the Falcons). We were concerned about the offensive output they had and we spent a lot of time on man-on-man situations, lots of time working on physicality and defending and it pays off in the games. The part of it that you miss a little bit is you've got to work on your sticks.

"We probably had some chances offensively that we just didn't finish, but we only turned the puck over 11 times and that number is the lowest we've had, probably by 10, in two years. So (we had) really good puck management and great physicality. We were just really emotionally invested in the game.

"It's funny because when you're emotionally invested, everything is good. Your forecheck is good, you're breaking pucks out well, your penalty kill is good and your power play is good. When your power play is good, it's usually a good sign because those are the guys that you need to be the engine to drive you and they're usually the indicator of if you have success or not. I'm glad to see those guys have a good weekend, I'm glad to see Troy (Loggins) score and Phil (Beaulieu) score. Then you start to see these guys coming out of it because they're too good of players to be held down that long if they're going to work the way they did."

Not only did Potulny like the fact that some of Northern's top offensive players were starting to break out of their early slumps, but also that everybody contributed to the overall effort, especially on the back end.

"Everybody played well and it starts with getting out of our end with speed," he said. "Playing defense is a tough position because you're accepting the rush and you're skating backwards. If they put the puck behind you, you've got to turn and burn and get to it and touch it first. You're just trying to move it three feet, so you can move it to the next person. If we can get two in there quicker and then we can get up the rink. That was kind of the staple of our team last year was the ability for us to get out of our end in a hurry.

"Then you don't have to spend any time there.

"It was one of the best games we've had probably ever. They're (the Falcons) a good team and they were the No. 1 offense in the country going into the game and they'd just beat Ohio State 8-2. (Their) power play was 33 percent and they were 0 for 12 on the weekend. It's kind of starting to come together for us a little bit."

NMU will try to keep coming together this weekend when the Big Red comes to the Berry Events Center. The puck drops at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday.