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MARQUETTE — Fans can watch from the comfort of their homes when the Northern Michigan University hockey team opens the season Friday night at Minnesota-Duluth.

That’s because Fox-U.P. will have one of their announcers, Dave Ellis, join a Bulldogs’ broadcast crew in televising the game. Saturday’s second game of the series will be streamed online at NCHC.tv. NCHC stands for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, the league UMD is a member of.

Both games, as just about all Northern games are, will also be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Northern Michigan University’s Alex Frye, center, snaps off a shot on Bemidji State goalie Mattias Sholl, right, during their CCHA playoff game at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on March 4. Following the play is the Beavers' Logan Acheson. (Photo courtesy Ron Mattson)

Though this is the Wildcats’ opening series of this season, Duluth played a single game at home against Michigan Tech last week that ended in a 2-2 tie. This U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game used a shootout to determine the winner of the Hall of Fame trophy that the Bulldogs claimed, though officially UMD now is 0-0-1.

Both of this weekend’s combatants are receiving votes in the USCHO and USA Today preseason polls and NMU Sports Information officials feel likely that a sweep by either team will vault it into the top 20, something Northern last accomplished in January 2022.

Fans can follow @NMUHockey on X (formerly Twitter) to get updates throughout the week, or they can go to the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey team’s schedule for links to live statistics, live audio, live video and game notes.

“I think we’ve had a good training camp, and we’re probably as deep of a group as we’ve ever been,” Wildcats seventh-year head coach Grant Potulny said in the NMU SI news release previewing the series and the season.

Potulny has a 116-97-11 overall record and 85-58-7 mark in WCHA and CCHA games.

That includes last year’s 21-17 overall and 14-12 CCHA marks when the Wildcats finished fourth in the league, then reached the Mason Cup playoff finals for the second time in three seasons.

NMU actually had a 2-0 lead with three minutes to go in the playoff championship game at Minnesota State-Mankato, but gave up two goals after the Mavericks pulled their goal for an extra attacker, then won in overtime just 68 seconds in to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I tournament.

But it really was no fluke that Northern advanced that far, as they surged late in the regular season with a 6-1 record down the stretch, then won three in a row to start the tournament. Before the surge began in a Feb. 17-18 home series sweep of Ferris State, NMU had only been 12-15 and without a series sweep dating back to the first weekend of November.

The tourney began with a 7-3 and 2-1 sweep of visiting Bemidji State before Northern went to Michigan Tech and defeated the Huskies 4-0. It was the Wildcats’ first shutout in Houghton since 2007 as NMU freshman goalie Beni Halasz made 44 saves and outdueled Richter Award finalist Blake Pietila.

Part of the surge could be attributed to Northern’s penalty kill, best in the nation from January on with a 94.4% success rate after the Wildcats killed 54 of 57 penalties and scored four shorthanded goals.

Four NMU players earned CCHA postseason honors, three of them returning this season — graduate senior forward Andre Ghantous earned Second Team CCHA after posting nine goals and 17 assists for 26 points in 26 CCHA games, while defenseman Josh Zinger and Halasz landed on the CCHA All-Rookie team.

The ‘Cats also succeeded in the classroom, with 15 players landing on the CCHA All-Academic team.

Ghantous returns for his fifth year also as a member of this season’s Preseason All-CCHA Team. Last year, he played in all 38 of NMU’s games, leading the team in points and assists while he was second in goals and power-play tallies.

During the late win streak, he was a huge reason for their success, tying for first nationally in power play goals, tying for third in points and tying for sixth in overall goals in the span.

He was named CCHA Forward of the Month for February and earned a league Forward of the Week award, too.

Zinger, another member of the 2023-24 Preseason All-CCHA Team, also played in all 38 contests as a freshman. He led all Wildcat defensemen in points and assists and finished with 20 blocked shots. A mobile skater on the back end, Zinger contributes in his own end and on the forecheck.

A 2022-23 All-CCHA Rookie Team member, Halasz returns after a dazzling freshman campaign. After taking over the reins, Halasz led all CCHA rookie goalies in goals-against average, saves percentage and shutouts, going 13-10. He earned CCHA Rookie of the Month honors back to back in October and November, along with earning CCHA Goaltender of the Week twice and CCHA Rookie of the Week once.

Duluth is ranked No. 17 in the USCHO poll and was picked fifth in the NCHC preseason poll. Two Bulldogs are on their preseason all-conference team, sophomore Ben Steeves and junior Dominic James. They shared for the team’s most points last season and Steeves led the Bulldogs in goals.

The Wildcats have the upper hand most recently in their meetings, sweeping the then-nation’s No. 1 Bulldogs in Marquette in December 2021 by scores of 5-4 and 5-2. Before that, their most recent meeting was in the 2015-16 season when they split with NMU winning 4-3 and UMD prevailing 3-1.

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