First off, a lot of college teams might be 0-4 after the opposition the Wildcats have faced — road series at No. 15 Massachusetts and No. 16 Ohio State.

Secondly, NMU has been within one goal of these strong opponents at least through the latter stages of the second period in every game — and in two cases, the final three minutes of the final period.

Thirdly, Northern’s goaltending has been so good it’s netted two different netminders a CCHA player of the week honor.

Junior transfer from Wisconsin William Gramme set all kinds of program records for saves in the opening series at UMass, making 34 saves in the first period of the first game — and giving his team the lead at that time — 65 saves in the game and 107 saves for the weekend.

Northern Michigan University goalie William Gramme, center, makes a save on UMass’ Vaclav Nestrasil, left, with the Wildcats’ Nicolas Ardanaz hovering near the goal during in Amherst, Mass., on Oct. 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

That earned him the CCHA Goaltender of the Week honor last week.

Then when Gramme had some troubles in the opener at OSU — maybe he was still fatigued from the previous weekend — second-year head coach Dave Shyiak inserted freshman Oliver Auyeung-Ashton in relief.

All he did was stop all eight shots he faced over almost one full period, then another 45 of 47 shots the entire game the next night to snag the CCHA Rookie of the Week honor this week.

“It’s another indicator that I think our staff did a great job of recruiting,” Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this weekend. “We have guys coming in right now performing at a high level, and I think (Oliver) did that. He set himself up for success by how hard he works in practice, along with the other goaltenders. 

“When I pulled (Gramme), it was more of a mental break; he’s stopped a lot of rubber.”

He noted that Gramme now has 136 saves, No. 2 in NCAA Division I.

“(Oliver) went in (on Friday), stopped all eight shots and looked good, and I thought he earned the opportunity to start (on Saturday),” the coach said. “He went in and played outstanding. He gave us a chance to win, and didn’t look like a rookie; he was calm, cool, collected and he was really good at puck-handling.

“He made some big saves to keep the game tight, and I think that is an example of giving an opportunity to a kid who deserved it…. It’s going to give us a hard decision to make (this) Friday, but it’s nice as coaches for us to have two goalies performing at a high level this early in the season.”

After all those trials and tribulations, the Wildcats come back to Marquette and the Berry Events Center for two straight weekends, starting with Friday’s 7:07 p.m. season home opener against No. 19 or No. 20 (depending on the poll) Colorado College.

Saturday’s game is at 6:07 p.m., while the following weekend, No. 3 or No. 4 Michigan State is here with the same game times.

This weekend’s games will be video broadcast online on MidcoSports+ and on the radio at Marquette station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Or 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, Blue Line Luncheon info and a preview.

By the way, the Friday, Oct. 24, series opener vs. MSU will be televised on WLUC-TV6, apparently the MidcoSports+ feed that will also be shown by at least one downstate TV station, too.

Last weekend, the Wildcats apparently needed their quality goaltending to stay close, since they were outshot 42-15 in a 5-2 opening loss and 48-24 in a 3-1 Game 2 setback.

But Shyiak said statistics can be deceiving.

“You can look at the shot count, that’s one thing, but if you look at the quality of play and the number of quality chances, it was a little tighter than you think,” he said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this weekend. “Playing on the road in our first game on a regulation ice sheet, I liked four of our six periods.

“We’re one of the youngest teams in the CCHA and all of college hockey, so there are going to be some ups and downs and growing pains. (As a coach), all you’re asking is habits and systems and to do it with effort and competitiveness, and I thought our guys did a really good job against some really good teams.”

Over the first two weeks, Northern has been called for 18 penalties totaling 44 minutes, compared to the opposition’s 10 for 20 minutes.

NMU has been outscored 17-7 over the course of the four games, which includes the Wildcats giving up four empty-net goals in the final minutes of close games. Shyiak says these are “areas I thought we could have done a little better on” last weekend.

“Discipline was No. 1; we talked about that as a team,” he said. “And then we need to find a way to create a little more offense when we have the puck, and that takes time as a young team.

“It’s not easy to score at our level. You have to get to the interior part of the ice, have to get bodies to the hard areas. That’s something we discussed (Monday), and (we) had a really good practice with that.”

And he has to be pleased with his goaltending, considering every goaltender on last year’s roster is gone either through eligibility ending (Ryan Ouellette) or departures through the NCAA transfer portal.

“I thought both goaltenders played really well, and then we made some changes on Saturday night and put some guys in for their first game, and they came away passing the test,” the coach said.

Four players getting their first start on Saturday night were forwards Landon MacDonald and Tyler Stern, defenseman Evan Johnson and the goalie, Auyeung-Ashton.

In addition to Auyeung-Ashton’s player-of-the-week performance, MacDonald scored a goal that night and Johnson had the game-tying one right after until a Buckeyes’ challenge negated it.

“You absolutely want to win, but it’s about the process of continually getting better,” Shyiak said. “(Our nonconference) schedule is tough, but it’s only going to make us better in the end. As we use these games to continue to get better and grow, it’s really going to help us.

“(UMass and Ohio State) are good teams, they play hard and play the right way, and we’re right there.”

This weekend’s games are the return series after the Wildcats opened the Shyiak era in Colorado Springs last October with 4-3 overtime and 6-1 losses.

“Our guys are really excited about it,” Shyiak said. “Our focus is to learn and move on to the next game, and (Monday’s) practice was highly energized and highly competitive.

“I think we know (Colorado College) well after playing them last year…. They’re fast, they’re big, they’ve got some younger guys up front, but we’re going to plan for us to get better.

“Obviously, we’ll have a plan in place for how we approach playing them, but overall, we’re still concentrating on how do we get better.”

Current team members Grayden Slipec and Joe Schiller potted two assists apiece during the weekend at CC. 

After getting their feet wet in Colorado a year ago, NMU returned home the next weekend and defeated Alaska-Anchorage 2-1 in the season home opener.

“We want to be a tough team to play against — not making it easy on the opponent, we want to be on the attack and defend hard, and as always, we want to be good on special teams,” Shyiak said. “If you do those, that should give us a better chance to win some hockey games.

“We have to come out with a good start and put a complete 60 minutes together.”

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