MARQUETTE — It was a roller coaster of a season for the Northern Michigan University hockey team as the Wildcats went through several ups and downs before eventually leveling out in the end.

The Wildcats started slowly before catching fire in late December, then losing momentum in the latter part of January before once again regrouping to lock down second place in the WCHA and home ice in the first two rounds of the league playoffs.

Once in the postseason, NMU had to fight off a pesky Alaska-Fairbanks squad, one that took the Wildcats to double overtime in the first game of a best-of-three series, to move on to the second round.

Then Northern hit a wall against now-No. 13 Bowling Green State, getting blown out in the first game and then falling in heartbreaking fashion in another double overtime contest to close out the year.

“We had a lot of ups and downs this year,” Wildcats second-year head coach Grant Potulny said. “We started the year 3-7 in our first 10 games. From that point on, we were 18-9.

“A lot of teams could’ve lost it at that point. There were a lot of expectations. Guys were maybe not having the years that they would’ve hoped. There’s other programs in the country that had the same type of preseason expectations and they never came out of it.

“So I give our leadership group, and especially Denver Pierce, a ton of credit. He pulled us along and got us to a point where at the end of the day, when you look back on the season and you were picked to finish second and you finished second. You were picked to have four guys on the first (all-league) team and you had three.

“You got yourself in a great position and on Saturday night (vs. Bowling Green), we played a fantastic game. We hit four pipes and not like pipes where the goalie knows it’s not going in. It’s the goalie was beat and didn’t go in.

“That’s the hard thing about playoff hockey. You get to the point where you’re playing good teams and over the last two years, we’ve played Bowling Green 11 times and it’s as even as it gets. We’ve won six and they’ve won five.

“When you play a good game, it’s disappointing when you can’t come out as the victor, but I’m proud … our guys competed and battled.

“I’m really proud of what that senior class has done in two years. They’ve really given us a chance to build off that for the future, whether it’s in recruiting or visibility nationally or expectations within the program. Those are all things that were built off the backs and the hard work of those seniors.”

Speaking of seniors, two of them earned All-WCHA Player of the Year awards at their positions.

Forward Troy Loggins earned Offensive Player of the Year and overall Player of the Year while Atte Tolvanen notched Goaltender of the Year. Junior Phil Beaulieu also picked up an award as he won Defenseman of the Year to help the Wildcats sweep the position honors.

Loggins and Tolvanen have been seen by some as potential professional hockey prospects with Loggins signing with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday. Linemate Adam Rockwood also landed a tryout with the Springfield Thunderbirds on Thursday.

Potulny thinks they’ve got what it takes to play at the next level, but their journeys might be different.

“The biggest thing I’ve talked to all of them about is that when you come out of college and you have the opportunity to be a professional, sometimes you look at a team and you look at ‘OK, what’s the money and what’s the situation right now,” he said. “The biggest thing I think that sometimes gets overlooked is what’s best for the longevity of my career. Troy is going through that with a couple of teams right now.

“I just know that over time, given opportunities, those guys have a chance. They have depth to their game.

A scorer like Troy, people don’t realize that he’s one of the best penalty killers that I’ve ever coached. Probably him and (former Minnesota Golden Gopher and current Vegas Golden Knight) Erik Haula are right at the top.

“Those are things that maybe sometimes from the outside, you just see a guy who scores, you think he just plays offense. That’s not the case.

“With Atte, he might have to take the long road there. The game of the NHL has become, for whatever reason, you’ve got to be a certain-size goaltender to get a little bit of the flash and dash coming out of juniors or college.

“At the end of the day, it’s about making saves and he does that. I think he’s going to have a chance. And to be honest, guys like Denver. Guys that make it in pro hockey and have good long careers aren’t always the scorers in college. (Current Vancouver Canucks center) Jay Beagle was an average player for Alaska-Anchorage, but he’s willing to do all things that are nasty and dirty and required to be a productive player in professional hockey and he found his way to the NHL.

“I’m not saying that they’re all going to make it there, but I do think they’re going to have good careers as pros.”

Beaulieu is the only one of the three league award winners returning next season and that experience will be vital if Northern wants to find continued success. He served as an alternate captain last year and earlier this week, Potulny promoted him to captain.

“Phil is a great representative of what we want in our program,” Potulny said.

“First and foremost, he’s a fantastic person. He’s a great student and he is probably the most engaged person in the community that we have.

“He’s an outstanding player, so he will do an incredible job of leading our team. I wanted to name him as soon as I could, because yesterday, we had a meeting and it was a whole team meeting about here’s what to expect this spring and make sure to take care of your academics and some medical things for some guys.

“But then I asked the senior class to get up and walk into the meeting room and I was going to meet with them separately for two reasons.

“One, I want to talk to them and thank them for everything that they’ve done for our program, but two, I wanted the effect on the room for the players to watch those guys leave the room. They’re gone now and there goes 45 percent of your offense.

“So we’re going to have to find a new starting goalie and all those things. They’ve been such important players the last two years and we have to start preparing ourselves for what life is going to be like without them, and the sooner I thought I could name Phil the captain. I told him ‘It’s your team now’ and I think based on him being a captain this year and some of the things that came across his plate, I think he’s very prepared and I think he’ll do a great job.”

The season may have ended faster than expected, but Potulny is feeling positive about next year and is embracing the idea that NMU may be a team that’s sitting under the radar.

“I’m probably as excited for next year as I was for this year, but in a different way,” he said.

“There was probably a lot of expectations on us this year and at the end of the day, maybe we didn’t exceed them, but we met them.

“We get to be the underdog again next year and it’s kind of kind of like it was last year. Where I’m sure, on paper, people see all those seniors walk out the door, but we have a chance to just stay focused on what we control and play the game.

“I look forward to having Phil back and I don’t know if there’s a better offensive defenseman in the country. I look forward to Darien (Craighead) having a huge bounce-back year. I think Darien is a 20- to 25-goal scorer. I think he can do the things that Troy did for us offensively. I think (Griffin) Loughran is going to take a step and (Joseph) Nardi is going to take a step.

“At Christmas time, we (will) have two transfers. One of them is A.J. Vanderbeck (from Ohio State). His last year in junior hockey, and including the playoffs, he scored 50 goals. He was the MVP of the BCHL.

“Brandon Schultz is a transfer from Northeastern, who was a very good player out of Waterloo and Lincoln in the USHL. He just kind of fell behind some guys on a really good team at Northeastern.

“We got some very good players, but we have a lot of guys in new roles.

“How quickly we get going will be how quickly those guys get acclimated to their new positions and new roles, whether it’s leadership, or power play, penalty kill or the ability to generate offense, which they’re going to be counted on.”

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