The junior goalie who transferred from the University of Wisconsin after not getting a whole lot of time in the Badgers’ net took on the biggest of challenges on Saturday night when the Northern Michigan University hockey team began its season.

Playing at the University of Massachusetts, the No. 15 team in the nation, Gramme set records for the 50-year-old NMU program when he made 34 saves in the first period and 65 for the game as the host Minutemen pulled out a 5-3 victory.

What might’ve been the most amazing fact was that Gramme backstopped the Wildcats to a pair of leads — one for the better part of a full period.

UMass, however, found its scoring touch down the stretch, scoring three times in the final 15:02 to take the victory.

Gramme’s 65 saves is the second-most in any NCAA game of the modern era — listed as since 2004 by NMU Sports Informtion — and broke the NMU record by eight, which had been held by John Corrigan in a game against Boston College — another Massachusetts school — on Dec. 8, 1984.

The NCAA record since 2004 was set by Jocelyn Guimond of RIT with 66 saves in a 3-2 win over St. Lawrence on Oct. 10, 2005.

Northern’s record for saves in a single period had been by Craig Kowalski on Oct. 24, 2003, 27 in the second period vs. Michigan.

UMass finished with a 70-26 advantage in shots on goal on Saturday and a 95-45 edge in all shots taken.

All this was just a prelude to the teams’ wrapup to their two-game series that was held Sunday afternoon back in Amherst.

On Saturday, though, the Minutemen really didn’t take advantage of a lot of power plays as Northern was only whistled for four minor penalties and a misconduct, which doesn’t lead to a man advantage.

However, the first penalty on the Wildcats was whistled just 17 seconds in against Jakub Altrichter for a shot after the whistle, which included the misconduct.

And they killed that UMass power play, and only about a minute after it expired, Minuteman Mikey DeAngelo won a battle in the corner and found teammate Jack Musa at the top of the circle as he fired home a one-timer with 3:28 elapsed.

Between the goal and all the shots, NMU rallied and evened the game a little over 3 1/2 minutes later due to an odd-man rush. New Wildcat Warren Clark, a transfer from St. Cloud State, found a breaking Aidyn Hutchinson, who then flipped a pass to freshman Tobias Pitka on the right wing.

Continuing the teamwork, Pitka dropped a pass to a trailing Joe Schiller, a sophomore defenseman, who found plenty of time to shoot over the blocker of UMass goalie Michael Hrabal, scoring on the team’s second shot as the Minuteman goalie finished with “only” 23 saves.

Then on just his second shift after returning from the misconduct, Altrichter drew a tripping penalty on UMass after hard work in the corner.

On the ensuing power play, Altrichter worked near the blue line and found transfer Caiden Gault, Ferris State’s leading scorer a year ago, as he pumped in a one-timer from the the UMass goalie’s short side. Grayden Slipec also got an assist.

Suddenly, Northern held a 2-1 lead with a little over 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the barrage that was otherwise known as the first period.

While the shots didn’t come as often after period No. 1, they still came tough for Gramme, who made a big push to the right to deny a tough 2-on-1 chance midway through the second, according to NMU SI. On the ensuing faceoff, the Minutemen won it and a skater walked in alone before Gramme again stoned him.

UMass finally did break through to tie the game 2-2 with just over seven minutes remaining in the second. The home team’s Lukas Klecka took a pass in the slot from Bo Cosman on the right side, and Klecka used a brief breakaway to sneak the puck past Gramme’s arm.

The score remained tied until early in the third. Thanks to NMU’s hard-working forecheck, sophomore Medrick Bolduc and Altrichter forced a turnover, with the latter making some slick moves behind the UMass net. Altrichter eluded his defender to make a pass to Bolduc, who needed two whacks at the puck to get it home.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it was a shortlived lead as the Minutemen responded just 66 seconds later, with 15:02 left, when a pass from the point found Vaclav Nestrasil’s skate near the post and the puck redirected in.

Gramme broke the NMU record for single-game saves with about 12 1/2 minutes left, stopping a flurry of shots then.

Likely some fatigue by both Northern’s skaters and their goaltender, UMass scored with 6:18 left, then added insurance with 11 seconds to go in a shorthanded situation.

Francisco Dell’Elce let go with a fluttering shot from the point that weaved through multiple bodies and in for a 4-3 lead, then NMU pulled Gramme on what was already a power play called with just over two minutes to go, making it 6-on-4 advantage.

It backfired, however, as the Minutemen added an empty-net tally just before the final buzzer.

For the night, Northern stopped all four of UMass’ power plays, while the Wildcats were 1 of 2 on their own.

Altrichter won 15 of 24 faceoffs (63%), while Pitka in his debut was 11 of 16 (69%).

Clark finished with six overall shots and Altrichter led his team with four shots on goal.

Fourteen Minutemen had multiple shots on goal in the opening period, with a dozen of them finishing with at least three shots on goal, including eight by Nestrasil.

Schiller scored his first collegiate goal after he missed most of last year with injury. His most recent game for NMU was on Nov. 30, 2024.

Bolduc’s goal was just his third as a collegian after he netted two along with three assists last season at NMU.

Altrichter finished with two assists, his fifth multi-assist game at NMU in one full season plus Saturday’s game.

Hutchinson is on a two-game point streak, after his final game last season included a goal.

So is Slipec, as he actually recorded eight points in his final eight games last season at Northern.

UMass 5, NMU 3

Saturday at Amhert, Mass.

Summary:

First period — 1. UMA, Jack Musa (DeAngelo) 3:28; 2. NMU, Joe Schiller (Pitka, Hutchinson) 7:08; 3. NMU, Caiden Gault (Altrichter, Slipec) ppg 17:17

Second period — 4. UMA, Lukas Klecka (Cosman, Murray) 12:57

Third period — 5. NMU, Medrick Bolduc (Altrichter) 3:52; 6. UMA, Vaclav Nestrasil (Galanek, Murray) 4:58; 7. UMA, Francesco Dell’Elce (Lieberman, Musa) 13:42; 8. UMA, Musa (Murray) shg/eng 19:49

Penalties-minutes: NMU 5-18, UMass 2-4

Power-play opportunities: NMU 1 of 2, UMass 0 of 4

Goalie saves: NMU, William Gramme 65 (34-15-16); UMass, Michael Hrabal 23 (5-10-8)

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