But now that it’s the start of autumn, it’s also the start of hockey season as the Northern Michigan University hockey team begins its six-month-long campaign in Amherst, Massachusetts, to take on UMass Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Before they make the trek east for the first of four consecutive nonconference series, the Wildcats named their four captains on Monday, two “regular” captains and two alternates.

Wearing the “C” on their jerseys will be two defensemen who were part of the new crop of players in the 2024-25 season who joined the team not long after Dave Shyiak was named head coach in June 2024.

Junior Tynan Ewart wore an “A” as an alternate captain last year and now dons the “C,” while senior Nicolas Ardanaz also gets a “C.” Both happen to hail from British Columbia, but more importantly, were part of established U.S. college programs before joining the Wildcats a year ago. Ewart came from St. Cloud State, where Shyiak had also been coaching, while Ardanaz came from RPI.

Wearing the “A” as alternate captains are two seniors, forward Caiden Gault and defenseman Zane Demsey. Gault is just now joining the Northern team after three years at CCHA foe Ferris State, while Demsey is in a similar situation after being with Miami (Ohio) of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference for three seasons.

“We really like our leadership group and the experience they bring, and they’ve done a great job in building our culture over the course of the last six weeks,” Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release announcing the choices. “With 16 new faces (on our team), our captains have led by example on and off the ice, and it doesn’t surprise our coaching staff that the players voted for Tynan, Nick, Caiden and Zane.

“They all have an understanding of what our standards and expectations are on a day-to-day basis.” 

The Wildcats went through a whole lot of growing pains in the 2024-25 season, with all but four players on that roster being brand-new to NMU due to graduation, but mostly due to transfers out both before and after previous head coach Grant Potulny announced he was leaving for the pro ranks the previous middle of June.

It’s become part of the landscape of major college sports, which Northern is part of in NCAA Division I hockey. A transfer window is open for all players to change teams from late March to mid-May, and when Potulny announced his departure, all Wildcats players also had the choice to leave for 30 days after that.

Not so surprisingly, NMU struggled to a 1-16-1 start, and despite losing twice at the Great Lakes Invitational in Grand Rapids in late December, it seemed to spark them for the rest of the season. Northern put up a valiant fight in a 2-0 loss to national No. 1 Michigan State to open the GLI, then fought Michigan Tech to overtime before falling 4-3 in the GLI consolation.

After that, the Wildcats immediately won three of four games and finished that half of the campaign at 4-9-1 for an overall mark of 5-27-2.

Things ought to be looking better this year, and the four captains can lead — or at least begin — that turnaround.

Ewart, from Duncan, British Columbia, was one of three Wildcats to skate in all 34 games last season and led the team’s defensemen not only in ice time at just under 25 minutes per game, but also in assists, points and blocked shots.

He was a two-time CCHA Defenseman of the Week and is in his third year with Shyiak, who was associate head coach at St. Cloud for several years before coming back to NMU, where he was a leading player on the 1991 national championship team.

Ardanaz is from Surrey, British Columbia, and had two years at RPI before heading to Marquette a year ago. He’s been in 64 games over three collegiate seasons, including a career-high 26 with Northern last season. While he was fourth for the Wildcats in blocks and averaged 19 minutes per game, he was also named an American Hockey Coaches Association Krampade All-American Scholar.

Gault is from Oakbank, Manitoba, and a Hobey Baker Award nominee last season at Ferris. He posted a career-high 25 points in a career-best 36 games, which led the Bulldogs and put him fifth in the CCHA with 15 goals and second in the league with five game-winning goals. Overall, the 6-foot-1 left-shot has played 75 collegiate games.

Demsey, a native of downstate Harrison Township, played in 79 games over three seasons with Miami. This left-shot blueliner was recognized as an AHCA Krampade All-American Scholar in 2024 and is a three-time NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete and NCHC Academic All-Conference pick. 

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the naming of the hockey captains

. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.