NMU Sports

Looking to sink the Lakers

After sweep of Anchorage, NMU?icers try to take down No. 20 Lake Superior State

MARQUETTE -- What a difference a year makes in college hockey.

Heading into this season, the Northern Michigan University hockey team was picked to finish near the top of the WCHA in the preseason polls, primarily based on its appearance in the conference title game and the large amount of talent it had coming back this year.

Lake Superior State, on the other hand, missed out on the WCHA Tournament last year and was picked to finish near the bottom this year.

The tables appear to have turned early this year as the Lakers (6-3-1, 3-2-1 WCHA) are currently ranked No. 20 in the nation, while the Wildcats (5-7, 4-2) have been up-and-down so far and have been struggling offensively (53rd out of 60 nationally).

The positive for NMU is that it is coming off its first sweep of the season. The Wildcats took two wins from Alaska-Anchorage last weekend at the Berry Events Center, shutting out the Seawolves 3-0 Friday and getting a game-winning goal from Darien Craighead with a little more than a minute remaining in the third period to get a 2-1 victory Saturday.

Craighead got a nice feed from defenseman Phil Beaulieu and one-timed it into an open net for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.

"I felt on Friday, we played probably a C-plus game and I felt Saturday was as close to an A game that we've had all year," Northern head coach Grant Potulny said. "I think we had 28 scoring chances and we gave up nine. It's like the law of mathematics. I know some of the guys are gripping their sticks a little bit and the reality of it is that you're going to score on the amount of chances and shots you get. When you're not getting chances and shots, you can't score. When you are, and they're not going in, the law of averages always ends up making the universe right.

"I was really pleased with the resolve we had. I think at times when things have not gone our way, we've had a tendency to fall backwards in a game. We just moved forward and that was great to see. I thought Saturday was a step in the right direction. Two wins is a step in the right direction and now the trick is going to be can we replicate that on Friday night."

Lake State is coming off a split with No. 12 Bowling Green State, shutting out the high-powered Falcons 5-0 last Friday. The Lakers also split with No. 14 Michigan earlier this month, so they've shown they can keep up with talented programs.

The Lakers are ranked 17th overall offensively and are led by senior forward Anthony Nellis (seven goals, 13 points) along with defenseman Jacob Nordqvist and Gage Torrel, both of which have nine points.

Lake State is also solid on special teams as it's tied for 18th on the power play and is 14th on the penalty kill, so this could be a tough weekend for the Wildcats.

"They (the Lakers) have some high end and they have that senior class that has been productive all though their careers," Potulny said. "They've got some physicality to them. If you dig deeper, the guy (goalie) that they've played on Friday, (Nick) Kossoff, hasn't lost yet. The guy that plays on Saturday, he's (Mareks Mitens) probably closer to. 500. If they stay in that rotation, on Friday, we'll be facing a guy that hasn't lost yet.

"Their power play is good, their penalty kill is good and they're a plus 5X5 team. All the stats that kind of tell the story on how a team is playing show that what they're doing is no fluke. They're beating quality teams too. They've beaten Michigan and they beat Bowling Green in Bowling Green. We've been down there and we've seen how challenging that is and they put a 5-spot up on them. So we're going to have our hands full, and on top of that, it's a rivalry game. So I would think that we would have the full attention of the players this week."

To get two wins from the Lakers, the Wildcats will have to maintain that offensive output that they had against the Seawolves last Saturday and Potulny thinks that the offense is coming around.

"Scoring chances tell the story of the game and we had 28 of them (Saturday)," he said.

"A really good game is about 15 and when you have 28, it shows that it's starting to come. The old saying is that you don't have to be fast to play fast. I thought we looked fast on Saturday because the puck was moving. That's how we play fast. Team speed is great, but being able to play fast and being fast are two different things. I thought we looked fast and I thought pucks moved and people moved. We generated some things offensively and I thought our defense was much more active.

"All the things that we talked about trying to do from the onset of the year, they kind of showed up for 60 minutes for the first time."

The two rivals face off at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. NMU will then extend its road trip with a game at No. 8 Notre Dame next Tuesday.

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