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MARQUETTE — Artem Shlaine on Friday night and Michael Colella on Saturday provided the pivotal offense that Northern Michigan University needed for a home-and-home series sweep of Michigan Tech over the weekend.

In actual terms, the Wildcats finished their season series winning four of their five games against the Huskies, though in the record books it only goes down as a 2-1-1 advantage.

That’s because Saturday’s victory in Houghton came via a shootout, putting the official result as a tie that Colella created with his late third-period goal and as a league win after he scored the shootout clincher.

Northern Michigan University's Kristof Papp, left, celebrates teammate Artem Shlaine's goal during the Wildcats' game against Michigan Tech played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

In addition, the middle game of five played Jan. 6 at the Berry Events Center was an exhibition 7-2 victory for NMU (9-13-4 overall) that didn’t count for either team as a CCHA nor even nonconference game.

However, players, coaches and fans will always remember picking up four victories this season in this heated Upper Peninsula series.

The five-point weekend also helped the Wildcats in the CCHA standings, even if there isn’t much change at first glance. Northern remains in sixth place, but it’s a much-improved sixth.

NMU’s 25 points with a 7-9-2 league record trails the pair of teams in fourth place, MTU and Bemidji State, by only two points. And the Wildcats are only three back of Lake Superior State’s 28 points and even only nine points behind league leader St. Thomas’ 34.

There isn’t even much of a downside in the games-played department — of the teams ahead of Northern, each has played 18 games like NMU except for LSSU with 19 games and Bemidji with 16.

Bemidji will make those games up when other league teams get a week off between now and the end of the regular season during the first weekend of March. The Wildcats’ off week comes in two weeks on Feb. 16-17.

Before they’re off, NMU hosts Bemidji this week at 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday. Northern’s final two series are on the road at last-place Ferris State on Feb. 23-24 and at home against seventh-place Bowling Green State on March 1-2.

Here is a look at the series vs. Tech:

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NMU 4, Michigan Tech 1

On Friday in Marquette, Shlaine had a hand in each of the Wildcats’ final three goals, scoring the second one — considered the game winner — and the final one, both on power plays, while assisting on the one between them.

This was Shlaine’s fourth multipoint game this season as his scoring totals all rank in NMU’s top three — he leads the team in goals with eight, is third in assists with 13 and is second in points with 21.

Beni Halasz made 21 saves to register the win in the Wildcats’ net, while Michael Van Unen blocked two shots to bring his career total to 300.

Northern could’ve gotten frustrated in the opening period, when they outshot Tech 21-7, before the Wildcats finally broke the scoreless tie with 6:43 left on a Michael Mesic goal, his fourth goal and sixth point of the season.

He pickpocketed an MTU defender before he and Mitch Deelstra broke out of their defensive zone, according to a game account from NMU Sports Information. Mesic slid a pass to the left offensive zone circle to Deelstra, who waited for Huskies goalie and Hobey Baker Award nominee Blake Pietila to commit. Then he slid the puck back to Mesic, who buried it.

Deelstra recorded his second assist and third point of the season on a goal that might’ve broken the logjam as Northern would score twice more in next 15 minutes of game time.

Less than five minutes after Mesic’s goal and with the Wildcats on a power play with 1:45 left in the first, Shlaine had his back turned to Pietila while coralling a loose puck at the edge of the goalie crease and spun around to beat the netminder, according to NMU SI.

Kevin Marx Noren picked up his first of two assists on this night while Josh Zinger got the other. Marx Noren is at eight assists and Zinger at 14 after this game as each also has three goals this season.

With just over eight minutes elapsed in the middle period, NMU’s Rylan Van Unen took a pass from Shlaine at center ice and raced past a Tech defender down the left side, and when he got below the hash marks, he roofed a wrister over the blocker hand of Pietila to make it 3-0, according to NMU SI.

It was Rylan Van Unen’s second goal and eighth point of the season as Shlaine and Matvei Kabanov earned assists, Kabanov getting his third point in five games and bringing his season total to six points that includes three goals.

The Huskies needed about 4 1/2 minutes to get it back to a two-goal game when Matthew Campbell sent a seeing-eye shot from the point through heavy traffic and past Halasz.

Shlaine then put the exclamation point on the victory with the only goal of the third with 14:03 left on a power play with tic-tac-toe passing from Kristof Papp to Marx Noren to Shlaine.

Papp got his first point in eight games as he now has 11 assists and 15 points for the season.

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NMU 3, Michigan Tech 3 (OT)

On Saturday in Houghton, Colella scored the final goal of regulation and the final goal of the shootout to turn what was looking like a zero-point night into a two-pointer for the Wildcats.

The senior forward broke what had become more than full period of no scoring by either team when he notched the game-tying goal with 4:52 left in the third.

With the shootout goal not counting in the stats department, Colella is still tied for second on the Wildcats in goals with seven as he has 10 points, too.

With time starting to run down in regulation, Colella found a loose puck in the crease and poked it past Pietila, according to NMU SI.

On that goal, Marx Noren picked up his second of two assists on the night, giving him a four-point weekend with the same numbers on Friday. Viking Gustafsson Nyberg also got an assist, his first of the season to go with two goals.

After a scoreless overtime that included at least one shot that rang off the post behind Halasz, the teams went to a three-round shootout.

Kabanov shot the puck past Pietila in the second round to tie it 1-1, then after Halasz stoned Tech’s final shooter, Colella came in to insure no more shots would have to be taken.

Halasz was much busier on this night, making 31 saves, including 13 in the first, 11 in the second and four in OT. Pietila had 31 stops, 10 in the second, 11 in the third and three in OT.

Earlier in the game, each team had a lead as it was tied 1-1 and 2-2 before Colella made it 3-3.

Northern opened the scoring for the second consecutive night when Connor Eddy bagged the opener with 13:44 remaining in the first. Mesic made a great play to enter the zone, though it was a 1-on-4 vs. the Tech gang, according to NMU SI. He found a trailing Zinger, who used his speed wide around the right circle before wrapping the puck around the other end.

The puck landed on Eddy’s stick, who buried it for his fifth goal and 11th point of the season. It was Zinger’s second assist in two nights and 18th point of the year, while with his goal on Friday, Mesic had two points in the series for seven total.

Tech, now 11-12-6 overall and 8-8-2 in the CCHA, answered with not only the tying goal, but the go-ahead one in a span of just over 2 1/2 minutes later in the first with scores by Arvid Caderoth at 9:24 and Isaac Gordon at 11:57.

Caderoth’s power play goal was the first of three between the teams on the night, interesting as there were only three minor penalties called the entire game — meaning each one turned into a goal.

With the Wildcats trailing entering the second, it was NMU’s job to retie it, which is just what

Papp did with 12:26 left on Northern’s only power play of the evening. He gained the zone and dished a backhand pass to Marx Noren on the right half-wall, according to NMU SI. Papp took off for the net and gathered in a pass from Marx Noren and deflected it off his stick for the goal.

Papp’s goal was his fifth this season but first in 15 games as he was another Wildcat with a two-point weekend. Andre Ghantous, who hadn’t registered a point in this series before this, got the second assist for a team-leading 17 assists and 24 points this campaign.

Tech didn’t go down, though, retaking a 3-2 lead about 7 1/2 minutes later on a Ryland Mosley seeing-eye shot from the right circle that went through Halasz’s five-hole on the Huskies’ other power play.

That set up Colella’s heroics, first in the third period and then in the shootout.

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