Northern Michigan University’s Medrick Bolduc, left, and Tobias Pitka, top right, celebrate a goal scored by teammate Joe Schiller, not shown, during a game played against UMass in Amherst, Mass., on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Early returns show some similarities to last season for the hockey team at Northern Michigan University.

That might not be great news, considering the year the Wildcats had — a 1-16-1 start leading to a 5-27-2 season — but optimism should spring eternal for head coach Dave Shyiak having had an entire year, including a full offseason, to improve his players and his team.

Last year, NMU was badly outshot early in the season, spending somewhere in the neighborhood of two months being outshot 2-to-1 before those numbers improved.

But Northern also had a goaltender who was up to the task, Ryan Ouellette, who had one of the best saves percentages in the country at .917 by season’s end.

Through just one weekend this time around, and facing the No. 15 team in the nation at the University of Massachusetts, the Wildcats were outshot exactly 2-to-1, 116 to 58.

And new starting goalie William Gramme almost literally stood on his head, stopping pucks at a .947 rate even as Northern lost 5-3 and 4-1.

It won’t get any easier this weekend as NMU might face arguably an even tougher opponent on the road, No. 16 Ohio State.

Back in the first quarter century of the Wildcats’ program, the Buckeyes were regular opponents of Northern when both were members of the CCHA. Now, though, Ohio State has moved onto the Big 10 when the league organized for hockey about 10 or 15 years ago.

This will be the Buckeyes season-opening series, with games at 6:30 p.m. today and 5 p.m. Saturday.

Northern and OSU haven’t faced off since the 2012-13 season when the Buckeyes were still in the CCHA. They split that series, and the last time the teams met in Marquette, the Wildcats pulled off a sweep.

This weekend’s games at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, will be streamed on B1G+, the Big 10 Network’s online service, while they will, as always, be broadcast on local radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Make sure to follow @NMUHockey on X, formerly known as Twitter, to get updates throughout the week leading up to the games and for live updates while the ‘Cats are on the ice. 

Or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview.

Gramme, of course, was the story of last weekend, and it was only fitting that he was named CCHA Goaltender of the Week.

Gramme, a transfer from Wisconsin, hadn’t played since Nov. 9, 2024, in a 3-2 loss to Michigan when he made 39 saves, his old collegiate high until the 65 he had in the UMass opener, which included 34 saves in the opening period on 35 shots on goal as Northern amazingly assumed a 2-1 lead at that point.

“Coming into the season, (goaltending) was an unproven position for us,” Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this weekend’s games. “(Gramme) had the most (NCAA) experience out of our group, and he did a heck of a job.

“He gave us a chance to win, and he was probably the best player on the ice in both games.

“He’s big, he’s athletic, he’s a competitor, he has a great work ethic … and he came up with key saves at the right time to keep games tight.

“Obviously, it’s still early in the season, but he gives us confidence.”

NMU SI reminds us that in last year’s season opener, Ouellette made 45 saves at Colorado College. Shyiak then tried freshman Ethan Barwick for the second game at CC, but this time around, the coach stuck with Gramme for Sunday’s second game, a decision Shyiak said “all depends on how (the goalie) feels.

“We talked to (Gramme) after the game and then again on Sunday morning to make sure he felt good and his level would be the same, and he said he was good,” Shyiak said. “When a goalie is playing well, you don’t want to mess with that, and he was able to give us our best chance to win both nights.”

Despite the sweep, Shyiak said it’s all about the process of getting better for his young team, and he had high praise for some of his young players. 

“Some guys played real up for us. (Freshman Tobias) Pitka was really good for us, (Medrick) Bolduc took another step, and Mikey Burchill was up and down the lineup, and did his thing.”

Pitka earned his first two collegiate assists, Bolduc was elevated to the first line on Sunday after getting a chance on the first line and scoring to give NMU the lead on Saturday, and Burchill averaged the second-most time on ice over the weekend among Wildcat frosh, NMU SI noted. 

Joining Pitka with multipoint weekends were newcomer Caiden Gault from Ferris State, who bagged a goal each night, and returning leading scorers Jakub Altrichter and Grayden Slipec, each with two assists.

After an injury at the end of November last season, sophomore defenseman Joe Schiller returned to the lineup, scoring in his first game back.

Shyiak said he was pleased with how the team executed the goals they set for themselves in the season opener.

“Going into the weekend, we put a major emphasis on four things — our special teams (power play and penalty kill), our conditioning and our goaltending, and I thought we were excellent in all those,” said the second-year head coach who also played on the 1991 NMU national championship team. “We didn’t look fatigued, our special teams were outstanding, and … our goaltending was great.

“You wanna build on the positives, which we’ll do, and we’ll have a game plan for (another really good opponent in) Ohio State.”

The special teams killed eight of nine shorthanded situations while scoring once in four power plays, two PPs being quite short.

Last season, Ohio State reached the Big 10 Tournament championship game, losing to No. 1 Michigan State for that title, then bowed out in the NCAA Tournament to No. 8 Boston University in the opening round.

“(Ohio State was) another team that was in the national tournament (last year),” Shyiak said in noting that UMass was also in last spring’s “big dance,” knocking off Minnesota before falling to eventual champion Western Michigan. “(Ohio State is) loaded with talent, and I think (head coach) Steve Rohlik, who’s a good friend of mine, does a heck of a job with that program.

“They’ll be well prepared, they come at you hard, they’re really good off the rush, and we’ll have to protect the puck and manage it the right way.”

Interestingly, the Wildcats will have seen three different-sized ice sheets in the first two weeks of the season, including their own at the Berry Events Center that they practice on.

The Berry’s sheet is a hybrid size after renovations several years ago brought the rink down from Olympic size to closer to NHL regulation size. Meanwhile, UMass still skates on an Olympic-sized rink, while OSU has an NHL regulation sheet.

“This will be a bit of an adjustment for us playing on the regulation ice sheet,” Shyiak noted. “You practice on the bigger ice here (at the BEC), then you go to UMass on even bigger ice, and now going to smaller ice.

“Things are going to happen a little quicker, and we’ll have to adapt to that.”

With another tough series on tap, Shyiak stressed “the process of getting better” early on against quality opponents.

“It’s another great opponent that gets us more battle-tested, and that’s part of the process,” the coach said. “Our guys battled hard this weekend. It was a hard-fought, physical series, and this series is going to be the same.

“That is going to make us better in the end…. From one night to the next, and throughout the weeks, you want to get better, and our guys have done a nice job of that.” 

After this weekend, the Wildcats return home to face two more nationally ranked squads before jumping into the CCHA part of the season.

Next weekend, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 17-18, NMU hosts No. 21 Colorado College, then another week after that, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24-25, the Wildcats take on No. 2 Michigan State at the Berry.

Each Friday game starts at 7:07 p.m. and each Saturday contest at 6:07 p.m.

NMU SI noted there will also be a Blue Line Luncheon next Friday before the home opener. Doors open at 11:45 a.m. with lunch served at noon and the program beginning at 12:15 p.m. at the Ramada Inn of Marquette on West Washington Street.

Admission with lunch included is $25 per person, with NMU encouraging advanced ticket purchase as seating will be limited. Visit NMU Tickets online at nmu.universitytickets.com to reserve a spot.

There will only be one other Blue Line Luncheon, on Jan. 9, with NMU athletic director Rick Comley, Shyiak and select Wildcats players expected to speak at each.

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.