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Aye, aye captain: 3rd-year sophomore Tanner Latsch receives hockey captain’s ‘C,’ Marquette native Jakob Peterson an assistant captain for Northern Michigan University hockey team

From left are the Northern Michigan University hockey captain for the 2024-25 season, Jakob Peterson, an alternate captain; Matt Romer, an alternate captain for road games; Tanner Latsch, captain; Tynan Ewart, an alternate captain for home games; and Jesse Tucker, an alternate captain. (Photo illustration courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — A Marquette native will join the captaincy group for the Northern Michigan University hockey team that will be headed up by a player who had a meteoric rise last fall before an injury cut his season short.

Sophomore Tanner Latsch, actually a third-year player at NMU, will don the captain’s “C” for the Wildcats, the 56th skater to do so on a team whose history dates back to 1976.

Latsch returns looking to build on the early success he had last year when he led the nation in goal scoring for much of October after a five-goal opening weekend.

He won CCHA Rookie of the Week honors twice and CCHA Forward of the Week once in the season’s opening month, then earned CCHA Rookie of the Month last October. He was also runner-up for the national Hockey Commissioners Association Rookie of the Month honor.

But unfortunately for both him and Northern, Latsch’s season was cut short after just

eight games due to a season-ending injury. Despite the small number of games, he finished 12th among NMU skaters with eight points, which included seven goals. Every player ahead of him in team scoring — and two immediately behind him — tallied their points in at least 27 of NMU’s 34 games.

Northern Michigan University forward Tanner Latsch waits for the puck to drop during a game against Ferris State at the Berry Events Center in Marquette during his redshirt freshman season in 2023-24. (Photo courtesy NMU)

The Marquette native earning a coveted “A” on his sweater as an assistant captain is Jakob Peterson, a redshirt junior defenseman, the “redshirt” meaning this is his fourth season with the Wildcats.

Peterson played for Marquette Senior High School, where he was named a Great Lakes Conference First Team member, then played for the Drayton Valley Thunder of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and the Amarillo, Texas, Wranglers of the North American Hockey League before joining NMU.

“I’m really excited to announce our leadership group,” new Northern head coach Dave Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release announcing the five captains. “We have a unique blend of personalities and believe they can help lead this young team with many fresh faces through the ups and downs of the season ahead. They’ve all been great in slowly building our culture within and how we want to represent our university and community.”

Shyiak knows a little about team captains, as he was a captain on the 1991 Wildcats NCAA national championship team that won its title with an 8-7 triple-overtime victory over Boston University in the finals in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He has more than 25 years college coaching experience, having been head coach at Alaska-Anchorage and a top assistant coach at Western Michigan and St. Cloud State, both currently members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Northern Michigan University forward Tanner Latsch waits for the puck to drop during a college hockey game in the 2023-24 season. (Photo courtesy NMU)

The naming of captains could be an especially important facet for a team that returns just four players from a year ago, the rest of the 28-player roster being either recruits named last fall or from the NCAA transfer portal in the spring, or for the majority of the team, players Shyiak recruited since he was named coach in the early summer.

Peterson joins Jesse Tucker, a senior forward who played at Clarkson University last season and was at Michigan State for two years before that, as “full-time” assistant captains for both home and road games.

Tucker was a team captain for the Green Bay, Wisconsin, Gamblers of the U.S. Hockey League prior to his college career.

Two more newcomers will also be alternate captains, Tynan Ewart for home games and Matthew Romer for road contests.

Ewart is a sophomore defenseman who transferred from St. Cloud, where Shyiak coached most recently. Ewart played in 19 games as a freshman at SCSU, and before his collegiate career, was an alternate captain for Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

Romer, a sophomore forward who came from Arizona State, is also familiar with leadership positions, as he was captain for the Omaha Lancers of the USHL prior to college.

Though the weather still feels quite summer-like, the Wildcats open their season in exactly one week with an exhibition game against Michigan Tech in Houghton at 6 p.m. next Saturday.

The regular season begins about another week later with a nonconference series at NCHC member Colorado College on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 11-12.

Northern’s home opener is another week after that, against nonconference foe Alaska-Anchorage at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 18, and 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19.

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

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