The Wildcats came agonizingly close to accomplishing that task as they lost to Lake Superior State in the WCHA Championship game on Saturday night, also missing out on making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.

It’s also the second time that NMU has made the conference title game under Potulny, but again fell short of getting that elusive banner.

Looking back earlier this week on the game against the Lakers, Potulny said that his assessment hadn’t changed since Saturday night and that things just didn’t go the Wildcats’ way.

“I think again, you look at the playoffs as a whole,” he said in a Monday Zoom interview. “Going into the game, as a coach you go through everything you can and you walk back kind of the entire day.

Northern Michigan University's Andre Ghantous, top center, passes the puck out front near the Michigan Tech net as fellow Wildcat Mack Byers, right, and Michigan Tech's Logan Ganie, left, and Tristan Ashbrook look on during the first period on Jan. 25 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy Shannon Stieg)

“What could you have done different? I don’t know that there’s anything we would’ve changed. I thought the guys were really loose. I thought they were really motivated.

“You have a pretty good feel when you walk out of your dressing room right before they go on the ice for the game, you have a pretty good feel for how they are. You can see the look in their eyes.

“They were alive, they had light in their eyes and I just think that first goal, it was such a fluky weird deal, I think it jammed us up for a little bit. We didn’t get one break to go our way, for sure. And things were just inches too short or inches too far. It just wasn’t our night.

“It was hard to get going and then when we did, I thought we played very well. The goal that got called back and the shorthanded goal in the span of probably three or four minutes changed the outcome of the game.”

The first time Northern made the WCHA championship under Potulny, it played Michigan Tech in Marquette during the coach’s first season. Comparing the two games, Potulny said that things were just different this time around and not just because of the opponent or location.

“Here’s the thing, it’s been four years and we’ve finished second four times,” he said. “Twice in the regular season and twice in the playoffs in the championship game. We have to find a way to get over the hump and maybe the mantra comes from them.

“You learn things from getting to those games, as players, as coaches. To be honest, I think I was much more prepared to prepare them this time around than I was last time around.

“Maybe it was us being at home, maybe it was a week of kind of the circus and tickets and the whole thing leading up to it. I thought we played really tight when we hosted the championship game.

“I think you learn from it. I know that I had a much different message to the team this year than I did that year. I’m sure that those guys feel differently, too.”

Now the Wildcats have to look forward to this winter and there’s some questions remaining. One is whether any of the three seniors — Joe Nardi, Ben Newhouse and Brandon Schultz — will be returning for their extra year of eligibility they were granted due to COVID.

Potulny wasn’t sure what those players have decided.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I briefly talked to them to start the year and briefly talked to them on the bus on the way home. It’s pretty fresh for them.

“I told Joe whatever the opportunities are, if he has a good opportunity, I’d tell him to take it. But the landscape of the NHL teams not signing guys, which causes the American League not to sign guys, it’s a tough marketplace for players right now.

“No better … example of that is one of the guys that I coached previously, he’s almost a 30-goal scorer in the NHL and he took a one-year deal at 1.75 (million dollars). And he’s probably a five (year) for five (million) guy in a normal year and that just filters on through to everybody else. So we’ll see where it’s at.”

Another question has been at least partially answered with the goalies. Potulny said that Rico DiMatteo, who joined the team the second half of the year and made the All-WCHA Rookie Team, will be the No. 1 netminder.

However, he wasn’t sure if all of the other four goalies would return.

“I haven’t talked to those guys yet,” Potulny said. “Players want to play and they understand, too. Players can recognize talent and they recognize that we’ve got a pretty talented goalie. So we’ll have to have those meetings in the spring here.”

A positive for the Wildcats next year is that they’ll have some experience coming back, especially if the three seniors come back, and that’ll help on the blue line. Two key offensive players, Andre Ghantous and Griffin Loughran, will be back for sure, though, and both have the potential to have even better seasons.

Ghantous, in particular, led the WCHA in scoring despite sitting out a few games due to some health issues and was named to the WCHA All-Third Team.

“He had 11 goals as a freshman and 20-some points,” Potulny said. “A lot of those kind of came in nonconference play, which were challenging teams. The end of the year for him didn’t finish the way he would’ve hoped his freshman year.

“This year started and he looked fantastic and then COVID happened. And we were off for awhile and then he had some other complications post-COVID that kept him out for a while, too.

“I think this is who he is and I think he realizes this is who he is, which is as important as anything when you recognize what you’re able to do.

“So I’m really excited about, kind of the future of what we’ve got. Really, to be honest, we didn’t get much out of Griff this year, who was the leading scorer in the league last year. It wasn’t because he played poorly, it was because he didn’t play much. COVID and injuries and all those things.

“So we’ve got to get him back and we need a full season out of him and then you got two players on the same team that are back-to-back scoring champions. So those things are bright spots.”

When asked what he was going to remember most about the crazy up-and-down season that was 2020-21, Potulny said it was Northern’s postseason run.

“Just the way we finished,” he said. “Hey, you go down to Bowling Green (State), and besides our team, how many people thought we could win? We go into Mankato and besides our team, how many people thought we could win?

“And we didn’t just win those games. Like we didn’t eke them out. We closed out the series against Bowling Green with a 4-1 win and beat (Minnesota State) Mankato 5-1. That to me is a representation of what we’re capable of. I think it was good for the players to feel that.

“Anytime you play in a championship game, you learn from it, and sometimes you learn lessons that motivate you because you won and sometimes you learn lessons that motivate you because you didn’t win. Those are the things that I hope we come motivated and ready to take that next step.

“Like I said, four years and four second-place finishes. We have to break through. We have to get through the glass ceiling. I got to figure out what I can do and the players got to figure out what they can do.

“It’s so hard, whether it’s the regular season is just such a long grind throughout the whole year, to finish in those positions or the playoffs, it’s just so hard to get to the championship game that we’ve got to find a way to break through that and finish on top.”

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