The Wildcats sit sixth in the eight-team conference with 27 points, trailing the all-important fourth-place team — Bemidji State — by seven points with four games to go, including tonight’s and Saturday night’s contests against Ferris State.

It just happens that Ferris is between NMU and the fourth spot, sitting in fifth nestled right behind, as in a single point in arrears, to Bemidji.

Bemidji has 34 points, the equivalent of two-plus victories in front of Northern as regulation wins are worth three points in the league nowadays.

And Ferris has 33 points as the Bulldogs’ six-point advantage on the Wildcats is exactly what two of those regulation victories are worth.

From right to left on the ice, Northern MIchigan University's Josh Zinger, Joey Larson and AJ Vanderbeck receive glove slaps from their teammates during a game earlier this season played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy NMU)

So if NMU can sweep Ferris — something they haven’t done to any team since the first weekend of November — they’ll catch the Bulldogs with one weekend to go.

Bemidji might be ripe for a bad weekend, too, considering the Beavers are hosting the second-place Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks, the defending NCAA runners-up who trail league-leading Michigan Tech by two points but also have two games in hand on the Huskies.

Tech doesn’t play this weekend, nor does third-place Bowling Green State.

The three upper echelon teams are too far ahead for the Wildcats to have even a prayer of catching. Instead, they have to concentrate on Bemidji, Ferris and St. Thomas, which is in seventh place and just a single point behind Northern.

Each of those four teams between fourth and seventh places has a full complement of four games remaining.

This is also the Wildcats’ final home weekend of the regular season, with a trip to Bowling Green, Ohio, awaiting them after the Ferris series is over.

Just before the start of Saturday’s game, NMU will honor its eight seniors — captains AJ Vanderbeck and Tanner Vescio, along with Vincent de Mey, Alex Frye, Andre Ghantous, David Keefer, Jett Jungels and Michael Van Unen.

Tonight’s game has been touted on Facebook as the Spartan Strong game by the NMU Puckheads organization. Everyone is encouraged to wear green and Michigan State Spartans apparel to support MSU after the tragic multiple-fatality shooting that happened there this week.

Back on the ice, the Wildcats are 14-16 overall and 10-12 in the CCHA. They don’t have the full complement of 30 points that 10 three-point wins would seem to indicate. That’s because three of those wins are overtime victories, which are only worth two points to the victor and one point to the vanquished. And Northern doesn’t have an OT-SO loss that would garner them an extra point there, either.

That’s why Ferris, at 12-14-4 overall and 9-10-3 in the CCHA, can have fewer wins but six more points than NMU. The nine wins start out as 27 points, plus three “ties” (games that go to a shootout) is another three points for 30. The Bulldogs actually have three shootout wins, each adding a point to the total, while they have an OT win that subtracts a point and an OT loss that adds a point.

It’s a confusing system, but there’s plenty of people at every school and the league office that have made sure each team has its full complement of points — and not one point extra.

While the Wildcats control their own destiny with Ferris, they’ll need some help to catch Bemidji. To pull into a tie with the Beavers, NMU would have to win all four remaining games in regulation and hope Bemidji took five or fewer of their possible 12 remaining points.

That might be the extreme case, but regardless, it would have to be a combination where Northern would earn at least seven more points than the Beavers, and that would almost certainly require a sweep this weekend.

If the Wildcats split with a regulation win and regulation loss against Ferris, not only are they giving up three of their potential points, but NMU would pick up no ground on the Bulldogs and remain six points behind them with two games to go.

Faceoff times are 7:07 p.m. today and 6:07 p.m. Saturday at the Berry Events Center, with the games to be broadcast on WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Fans can also follow these Wildcats @NMUHockey on Twitter to get updates at all times. A visit to the NMU athletics website at www.nmuwildcats.com and going to the hockey team’s schedule page includes links for video, live statistics, tickets, the weekend program, game notes and a series preview.

Last weekend, Northern split at second-year NCAA Division I program St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, winning the Friday opener 3-0 before falling 4-2 on Saturday.

In the win, de Mey scored twice, including a shorthanded goal, to bring his season goal total to six, while Ghantous also netted a goal for his sixth this season. Getting assists were Aiden Gallacher with two and one each for Keefer, Artem Shlaine and Simon Kjellberg.

And freshman goalie Beni Halasz turned away all 29 shots he faced for his second collegiate shutout that was a major reason he was named CCHA Goaltender of the Week. It was his fourth league award this year, but first that wasn’t a rookie award.

On Saturday, NMU freshman Joey Larson scored his ninth goal and Michael Colella his fifth as Keefer, Connor Eddy and Colby Enns all got assists. Halasz stopped 30 shots.

Vanderbeck remains among national leaders in a number of categories, most notably tied for first in shorthanded goals with three, according to a series preview from NMU Sports Information. He’s also tied for third in shots with 119 and tied for 19th in game-winning goals with Keefer as each has three.

Ghantous is tied for 31st in assists with 19.

Vanderbeck and Ghantous are up for the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey’s highest individual honor, as two of 82 nominees that include 10 from the CCHA.

Fan balloting continues through March 5. Visit https://hobeybaker.com/awards/vote-for-hobey/ to vote.

As a team, Northern is fourth nationally in faceoff win percentage at .544, tied for fourth in shorthanded goals with six, 12th in penalty kill percentage at .838, 16th in power play goals with 26, 22nd in power play percentage at .215, tied for 25th in shooting percentage at 10.0 and 28th in goals scored with 83.

The Wildcats have historically dominated Ferris, leading the all-time series 72-32-6, and are 8-2 in their last 10 games and 18-2 in their last 20 vs. the Bulldogs. Home ice has also been good for Northern in this series, with NMU 15-6-2 dating back to 2010 and 9-1 in the last 10 games at the Berry.

Larson is the hottest Wildcat scorer lately with four goals and five points in his last five games. Shlaine has four points, including three assists, and Ghantous three points, two of them goals, in their last five contests.

Meanwhile, Keefer has a three-game point streak, getting an assist in each of those games.

The first time these teams played, a 5-2 Ferris win on Dec. 9 and a 5-2 NMU victory on Dec. 10 in Big Rapids, Kristof Papp earned CCHA Forward of the Week when he had three goals and an assist, tops in goals and points in the league that weekend.

Halasz has a 1.35 goals-against average and .947 saves percentage in his last three games.

And the Wildcats as a whole have killed 22 of their last 23 shorthanded situations, a .956 success rate, over the last seven games.

NMU is 6-0 when leading after one period and 7-0 when leading after two, along with 5-2 in one-goal games and 3-0 in OT. Scoring first, Northern is 10-5 but only 4-11 when giving up the first goal.

And they’re 13-3 when scoring three or more goals but just 1-13 when putting up two or fewer.

Ferris is coming off a home split vs. Bemidji, winning 3-2 and losing 6-2, as the Bulldogs are 3-5-2 in their last 10 games.

Stepan Porknoy leads FSU scorers with 20 points, including six goals, while Jason Brancheau leads the team in goals with 11 as he has 19 points.

Likely starting goalie Noah Giesbrecht has a 2.69 GAA and .919 saves percentage in 26 games.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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