That’s exactly what the hockey team at Northern Michigan University will do this weekend when the Wildcats host national No. 1 Michigan State at the Berry Events Center.

Faceoff times are 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday.

On Friday night, fans can watch the game on WLUC-TV6 or listen on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Both nights, games will also be shown on MidcoSports+ and available on The Point. In addition, fans can visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to ticket information, live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview.

Northern Michigan University goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, center, waits for a possible shot from the side of his net from Colorado College’s Klavs Veinbergs, left, as the Wildcats’ Joe Schiller, second from right, and the Tigers’ Gavin Lindberg also await the play during at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

Northern has had no luck beating a ranked team so far with an 0-6 record. It’s not for lack of trying as the Wildcats have been within a goal at least until the latter stages of the second period of every game but one, and actually within a single goal until the final minute of three of its losses.

And NMU has played nothing but nationally ranked squads, playing at No. 15 UMass to open the season, then traveling to No. 16 Ohio State before hosting No. 19 Colorado College last weekend.

The Spartans will already be the second Big 10 team the Wildcats have faced, MSU sporting a 3-1 record so far this season. The Spartans split at home vs. New Hampshire to open its regular season two weeks ago, then impressed the nation with a sweep, 4-2 and 4-3 in overtime, at then-No. 1 Boston University last weekend.

Northern shouldn’t be bowed by MSU, however. They’ve met more than 70 times since 1980, many of those when both teams were in the CCHA.

The Spartans hold a rather narrow 38-32-4 advantage as the Wildcats have a 15-12-1 edge at home playing Michigan State. The last MSU came to Marquette in October 2019, the teams split, the Spartans winning 5-3 and NMU taking a 2-0 victory.

Northern Michigan University’s Joe Schiller, center, watches from in front of Wildcats goalie Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, top, as Colorado College's Owen Beckner lines up a shot at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Just last December, the struggling NMU squad — it had one win and one tie at that time — traveled to the Great Lakes Invitational in Grand Rapids and gave then-No. 1 MSU all it could handle before succumbing 2-0 in a semifinal contest. The Wildcats followed it up with a 4-3 OT loss to Michigan Tech the next day that spurred Northern to more success in the second half of the season.

In addition to having the Spartans in town, NMU will also celebrate Halloween at the Berry Events Center during Saturday’s game, which will include a costume parade across the ice during the first intermission and trick-or-treating in the suites around the rink at the second intermission.

The night won’t end at the Berry, with the season’s first 4th Period Party hosted by Slabz Bar and Grill at the Ramada Inn downtown.

Last weekend’s home debut didn’t go quite the way head coach Dave Shyiak would’ve liked, with CC take a 2-1 overtime victory on Friday as Northern led for nearly two full periods before giving up the tying goal in the third period and the Tigers’ winning goal more than three minutes into OT.

The Wildcats were outshot by a wide margin, 45-17, but freshman goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton literally stood on his head for the second straight game, making 43 saves, including 41 in regulation while giving up just one goal.

The second night, the NMU skaters really showed some life, only getting outshot 34-30. But CC got a pair of goals in the game’s first 10 minutes on another netminding standout, William Gramme, and forced Northern to play catchup the rest of the night.

Auyeung-Ashton was named CCHA Rookie of the Week a week ago after he stopped 45 of 47 shots in about four periods of action vs. Ohio State. And Gramme earned CCHA Goaltender of the Week the previous week after setting Northern records with 34 saves in a period, 65 saves in a game and 107 saves for a weekend at UMass.

His 34 saves came in the opening period of the season as he still staked the Wildcats to a 2-1 lead after that period when the Minutemen rifled 35 shots at him.

“First of all, give credit to Colorado (College); they were probably the fastest team we played (this season),” Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this weekend’s series. “They’ve got some really good players. They certainly have an identity, and I thought our team did a really good job of taking away the rush play and their transition play for the most part.”

In the opener, Medrick Bolduc gave Northern the early lead that held up until nine minutes were left in regulation. Among things Shyiak liked was the Wildcats’ penalty killers staving off all three shorthanded chances.

“We are getting better in our (defensive) zone and starting to tighten it up,” he said. “(Auyeung-Ashton) was really, really good in net…. The penalty kill was really good, for the most part we took away the rush game … and I think the game was there to be won.”

The Wildcats had a chance to take victory in overtime, as Bolduc had a partial breakaway and forced CC goalie Kaidan Mbereko to make a big save, but the game-winner came from the stick of Ryan Koering, who finished off his end-to-end rush after a Wildcat turnover.

“When you get beat like that at home, it takes a toll on you emotionally, because you played so well and you thought you were right there to beat a really good team,” Shyiak explained. “And that’s the disappointing part, and that’s the hard lesson part that we got to learn, that every puck matters, and it comes down to fundamental and situational games where you can’t afford to make mistakes like that in terms of where we’re at in our growth and development. So we addressed that a little bit.” 

Freshmen Mathew Ward and Tobias Pitka each picked up their first collegiate goals on Saturday, and while Ward’s came on the power play, so did two of the Tigers’ goals.

“(Saturday) was a little too much up and down for me,” the NMU coach said. “(Auyeung-Ashton) got hurt, and (Gramme) has done really well for us, so we put him in.

“It was one of those things where our power play was good and our penalty kill wasn’t good.”

“We needed to get that next goal,” Shyiak said after CC made it 3-1 in the middle of the second period. “(CC) got the fourth goal, and I think that put it away for them…. I thought the goals (on the power play) they got were way too easy and uncharacteristic goals that our penalty kill gave up… so that was a little disappointing for us.”

He did like the physicality of the Wildcats’ play, including one play by Kyle Bettens when he laid a massive hit before collecting his first point at Northern by assisting on Pitka’s goal.

“This series was physically demanding, but I thought we dictated (the physical play),” Shyiak said. “I thought it took away from their game, knowing that we were in their face … our hits were impactful, which led to a couple of our goals.

“The one that comes to the top of my head, (the Pitka goal), that started from a big hit from Bettens, who had a great weekend, physically. Usually, hits lead to turnovers, and you can collect pucks and go the other way, and that’s what happened. We have to do more of that on a repeated basis without taking penalties.”

Ward is a freshman who joined Northern from the Canadian Hockey League after the NCAA implemented a new rule to allow players from the major Canadian junior leagues to become eligible for the NCAA. He notched two points Saturday as Shyiak she’s making good progress transitioning to the NCAA.

“It doesn’t matter from what league you’re in, the transition has always been the pace of the game, the speed of the game and the strength of the game, because the guys are older and stronger,” Shyiak said. “It really comes down to moving your feet and allowing your skill to take over, and (Ward) has a high skill level. He can make plays, he’s got real good vision, and he has some real good tenacity when he gets on pucks.”

Head coach Shyiak said the key word for this troops is consistency.

“There are some areas that we have to clean up, and we have to buy into that, and it’s got to be consistent,” the coach expounded. “We’re six games in. Are we doing some good things? Yeah, (and we will) continue to build on the good things.

“But you need both special teams clipping at the right speed together, and not give up easy goals. We got an opponent coming in who’s the best team in the country right now, there’s not a lot of holes to their game, so we’ve got to focus on getting better in the areas that we need to get better at and make sure we’re able to execute.”

In his second season at the head of the program after scrambling together a roster last season, Shyiak still emphasizes “sticking to the process of getting better” as one of the most important points at this stage. 

“We started from scratch last year,” he said. “You can’t fast-track the growth and development, and when you combine that against playing the best teams in the nation, it’s not always going to go your way, but we are getting better playing against these really good teams.”

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the games. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.