Northern Michigan University’s Troy Loggins, front, takes a pass as he breaks away from Michigan Tech’s Dylan Steman and toward the Husky net in their game played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on March 2. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

MARQUETTE — Almost 400 years ago, the Pilgrims embarked on a historical voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and established Plymouth Colony.

On Saturday, the Northern Michigan University hockey team will voyage across the Mackinac Bridge downstate to the city of Plymouth.

It’s not quite the same type of journey that the Pilgrims made, but Plymouth will be the starting point for the Wildcats’ season as they will suit up for an exhibition game against the United States National Team Development Program Under-18 team.

NMU head coach Grant Potulny said the idea for playing the game came out of an agreement he made with then-USA Hockey assistant executive director Jim Johannson before he died in January 2018.

“J.J. was a friend and a mentor of mine,” Potulny said Tuesday. “I’d known him a long time, since when I was in my teens. He helped me out a lot along the way and was instrumental in progressing my career through USA Hockey, giving me opportunities to coach different USA teams and World Junior teams multiple times.

“We were in Buffalo and he asked me ‘Would you bring your team down to play us?’ He said it would mean a lot if you guys would come down to play in Plymouth because there hadn’t been a lot of people doing that yet.

“So I said I’d do that for sure. He passed away about a month after we had that conversation. So I called them and I said I made a promise to that man and he was a mentor of mine. I’m going to keep my promise, so we’re coming to play you next year.”

Coaches have differing opinions about the importance of exhibition games to start the season, but Potulny thinks that this type of game against a high-quality opponent will be beneficial to his squad.

He says everybody will play, including goalies Nolan Kent and John Hawthorne, and that it’ll be a good dress rehearsal for the season.

“When you reflect on the start of the last two seasons, the first year we started at Lake (Superior) State and you can kind of maybe throw that out,” Potulny said. “New team, new coach, new environment. We didn’t play very well that game.

“Going into last year, I thought we actually had a good camp, but the first game of the year, we just weren’t battle-tested. It took us half of a game to kind of find our legs.

“So I’m looking forward to this game. We’re playing a team that if you make a mistake, they can make you pay. They’re talented.”

The U-18 team is well known for pulling upsets, and nobody knows that more than Potulny. When he was an assistant coach at Minnesota, the Golden Gophers took on the U-18 team at their home Mariucci Arena back in 2014 and were dealt a surprising loss.

“I was running the ‘D’ and we were playing (future NHL players) Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews and that crew,” Potulny said. “We had, before the game, decided that we were going to play a certain set of ‘D’ against them. They were just getting rag-dolled by those guys and we were winning.

“In the third period, I kind of changed the ‘D’ and the next set of ‘D’ went out and didn’t do any better. So I changed it again and the next set of ‘D’ went out, and they ended up beating us in overtime.

“They’re talented. That group’s good and you see (that) every year. Last year, they had eight (NHL) first-round picks. There’s not a team in the history of college hockey that’s had eight first-round picks. It’ll be a good challenge for us.”

The challenge for Potulny is to start piecing together his special teams and line combinations.

For Saturday, though, he just wants to see his players “compete” and “execute,” and hopefully after playing that game, they’ll be ready for the regular-season opener against Michigan State.

He also said that he thinks his incoming class will be making large contributions this year.

“I think all of them are going to have a big impact on our team, especially some of the defensemen,” Potulny said. “We had kind of a mass exodus back there.

“Some of those guys coming in have played a lot of minutes in junior hockey. Some of those guys have looked good.

“The players up front, (Andre) Ghantous and (Jett) Jungels, are kind of different players. Ghantous had a couple years in junior hockey and Jett’s coming out of high school.

“But both of them, they just make a lot of plays. That’s something you can never do too much of. They’re going to have opportunities to play. They’re going to be on the power plays and they’re going to play big roles on our team.”

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Saturday in Plymouth. The Wildcats host the Spartans on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12, at the Berry Events Center in Marquette to open the regular season.

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