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Northern Michigan University hockey Wildcats trio sweeps top WCHA awards

Troy Loggins

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Northern Michigan University hockey team’s season may not have ended the way the Wildcats wanted it to, but they still earned some glowing honors on Tuesday afternoon.

NMU swept the big three WCHA yearly awards with senior forward Troy Loggins earning Offensive Player of the Year, junior defenseman Phil Beaulieu being named Defenseman of the Year and senior goaltender Atte Tolvanen notching Goaltender of the Year honors.

This is the first time in WCHA history that one school has won all the player of the year awards, according to NMU’s athletics website, www.nmuwildcats.com.

Loggins, who beat out Lake Superior State’s Diego Cuglietta and Minnesota State’s Marc Michaelis in the offensive category, won the WCHA scoring title with 32 points on 20 goals and 12 assists in 28 league games. He ended his final season with 40 points and his 23 goals were tied for second in the nation behind Cuglietta.

Loggins, a two-time All-WHCA First Team honoree, also led the conference in power play goals with 10 and shorthanded goals with three. And he was tied for first nationally in both categories while leading the country in shots on goal with 155.

Phil Beaulieu

The flashy California native is getting looks from some pro teams and NMU head coach Grant Potulny thinks Loggins has what it takes to play at the next level because he has depth to his game.

“A scorer like Troy, people don’t realize that he’s one of the best penalty killers that I’ve ever coached,” the coach said. “Probably him and (former Minnesota Golden Gopher and current Vegas Golden Knights forward) 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 Loggins).”

Beaulieu earned top defensive laurels over Ferris State freshman Cooper Zech, who did win Rookie of the Year. Beaulieu led the WCHA in points by a defenseman with 28 in league play as well as assists with 22. Beaulieu was tied for sixth nationally in overall assists with 29 and has now earned an All-WCHA award for the second time.

He scored his first career hat trick by rattling off three power play goals in three minutes in the third period during a win at Alaska-Fairbanks in January and was recently named next year’s team captain after serving as an alternate this year.

Atte Tolvanen

When asked why he chose Beaulieu as captain, Potulny said it was for a variety of reasons along with his experience as an alternate.

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

Finally, there’s Tolvanen, who has racked up another big accomplishment in an outstanding collegiate career.

The Finnish native earned Goaltender of the Year and First Team honors for the second straight year after finishing on top of the league with 18 wins, five shutouts, 699 saves and 754 shots faced in league play.

He also led the country in minutes played by a little more than 90 minutes (2,374:50). Tolvanen also became the school’s all-time leader in shutouts with 13, games played with 137, saves with 3,564 and set the Wildcats’ record for most saves in a game with 58.

If that wasn’t enough, he became only the fourth player in NCAA history to score a goal off his own shot as he put in an empty-netter in a win over Michigan Tech in December.

Minnesota State senior forward Max Coatta was named WCHA Student-Athlete of the Year and Mavericks head coach Mike Hastings got Coach of the Year after guiding their team to the MacNaughton Cup as league regular- season champion. Minnesota State has also made it to the WCHA playoff championship game, which it will host Saturday night against Bowling Green State.

Loggins, Beaulieu and Tolvanen now duel with Zech for the WCHA Player of the Year award, which will be announced Thursday.

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

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