Wisconsin goalie Kyle Hayton, left, stands dejectedly in front of his goal as the Northern Michigan University hockey team celebrates the overtime game-winning goal scored by Denver Pierce with just 17 seconds remaining in the extra period on Oct. 20 at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy Gabe Appleton)

This weekend: Minnesota State at Northern Michigan University, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Berry Events Center; Radio: WUPT 100.3 FM

————————–

MARQUETTE — Halloween was over on Tuesday night, but if you look at some of the statistics around the WCHA, you might think something scary is coming to the Berry Events Center this weekend.

WCHA preseason favorite and currently nationally ranked at No. 9, Minnesota State (5-2, 3-1 WCHA) comes to Marquette after a dominant sweep over Michigan Tech. The Mavericks also swept No. 12 Boston University on the road earlier this season, so they have shown why they were predicted to hoist the MacNaughton Cup in March.

“They went out to BU and swept them at home,” NMU head coach Grant Potulny said. “That’s a tall task. They do a lot of things really well.

Their D(efense is) really active, so we’ve got to be aware of them. They do some things in the zone that can cause you a bit of trouble.

“The No. 1 area for me is that they just outwork people. If there’s a 50-50 puck, they come out with it. We’re going to have to match that intensity.

“If you do that, you can put a little wrinkle into what they are trying to do. The way that they do kind of predicate everything is in those 50-50s. We’ve got to make sure that we do a good job of that.”

Minnesota State is truly talented in all areas. The Mavs are No. 15 in the nation in total offense and No. 18 in total defense with two of its players earning WCHA awards this week.

Forward Zeb Knutson was Offensive Player of the Week after a five-point weekend against the Huskies and defenseman Clint Lewis earned Defensive Player of the Week thanks to two assists and a plus-3 rating, tops in the league among defensemen.

If that wasn’t intimidating enough, forward Marc Michaelis and defenseman Daniel Brickley were both co-preseason WCHA Players of the Year and are off to solid starts.

The good thing is that the Wildcats are well rested coming off a bye week after earning a split with No. 7 Wisconsin in Green Bay. The Wildcats picked up an exciting 5-4 overtime win on Friday before getting shut out on Saturday. Potulny didn’t have a whole lot to say about the series with the Badgers and said his thoughts haven’t changed since last week.

“I have the same feelings,” he said. “We were emotionally spent after Friday night. We didn’t have our whole lineup in that Saturday game. I don’t think we managed the puck very well. We didn’t match their intensity to start the game.

“They have a good team, too, and their coaches are going to coach them up. They came out of there to get a split and they did on Saturday. When you win on Friday, you feel pretty good about yourself going into the next night. If you’re on the losing end, you’re kind of spitting nails and you want another crack at it. That’s human nature.

“That’s part of it for us, too, learning how to do that weekend after weekend with back-to-back really good performances. It’s going to take that this weekend to come out with two wins.”

One thing that did stand out to Potulny was the play of forward Denver Pierce. Pierce scored twice in the Friday win over the Badgers, one being a short-handed goal and the other the game-winner in overtime.

Potulny said that Pierce has become more confident as a shooter and that helped him be willing to attempt the game-winner instead of just waiting for an opportunity.

“When you think of Denver, he’s a hard-working, blue-collar kid and he’s kind of like the identity of our team,” Potulny said. “But he’s got some offensive confidence back again. We’re still working with him on it, but he does have the ability to make some plays. He can make some wall plays and those are areas where early in the year, he wasn’t even trying to do.

“With the game on his stick with 15 seconds left in overtime, that he has the confidence to go bar-down far side. I don’t think that Denver would’ve made that shot previously. He would’ve played for a rebound. He feels better about his game and just like the rest of guys, we’ve been encouraging that.”

Heading into a potentially difficult weekend, Potulny said the focus was to get his team rested up and he feels that they did that during the bye week.

“No. 1 was we had to get our energy back,” he said. “We play a lot of guys a lot of minutes and we gave them Wednesday (last week) off. On Thursday, they had a lot of pop again, then they were off Saturday and Sunday and we had a really good practice (Monday). That was the thing just getting our energy back.”

Friday’s and Saturday’s games are at 7 p.m. at the BEC.

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