The hockey team at Northern Michigan University welcomes Michigan Tech back to Marquette and the Berry Events Center at 7:07 tonight for the opening game of a traditional Tech-Northern home-and-home hockey series.

This Central Collegiate Hockey Association set concludes at 6:07 p.m. Saturday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton.

Both games will be telecast on WLUC-TV6 and also be available to watch on Midco Sports online, while radio coverage includes Marquette station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. You can also visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to ticket information for tonight’s game, and live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview for both games.

While the Wildcats are bumping along in the CCHA basement at 1-15 in league games and 1-23 overall, Tech is high flying as the No. 19 team in the nation in the USCHO.com and USA Hockey polls at 16-8-2 overall and 11-3-2 in conference.

Northern Michigan University’s Evan Johnson, right, picks up the puck before it gets to Wildcats goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton during a CCHA game played against Augustana at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Jan. 10. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

NMU is in ninth place in the nine-team conference with five points, but is still only four points behind Ferris State (4-22, 3-15 CCHA), which holds the eighth and final position for the CCHA Tournament that takes place in March. Northern also has two games in hand on the Bulldogs, who NMU gets its only chance at this season in three weeks’ time at Big Rapids.

The Huskies have moved into third place in the league with 34 points, just two points behind league leader St. Thomas and a single point in arrears of second-place Augustana. MTU and St. Thomas have one game in hand on Augustana.

The Wildcats were off last weekend and last played at home on Jan. 9-10, 3-0 and 2-0 losses to Augustana. NMU has lost seven in a row since posting its lone win, a 3-2 victory at Bowling Green State on Dec. 5.

Tech has won five in a row, including last weekend’s home sweep in 3-1 and 4-1 triumphs over nationally ranked Minnesota State-Mankato.

The sweep knocked the Mavericks into fifth place in the CCHA, though only eight points out of the lead.

MTU and Northern also met on Nov. 7-8, the opener in Houghton in a 4-1 Tech victory and the second game in Marquette, a 4-2 Huskies triumph.

Dating back to 1979, MTU leads the all-time series 89-81-15, posting a 46-34-9 record at home while Northern has a 46-37-6 advantage in Marquette.

While both of NMU’s goalies have admirable numbers, they can’t offset the Wildcats being outshot by exactly 300 shots on goal this season, 926-626. That’s an almost 3-to-2 disadvantage.

Freshman goaltending sensation Oliver Auyeung-Ashton came back from nearly two months off due to injury when the new year began, giving up two goals in each of Northern’s four games in 2026. Augustana got to three goals on Jan. 9 with an empty-netter in the final minute.

Auyeung-Ashton has a 2.43 goals-against average with a pretty nifty .934 saves percentage. William Gramme, who became famous with a 34-save opening period and 65-save opening game in the NMU net back in early October at UMass, has actually played about 140 more minutes than his freshman counterpart and got his team’s only win. He has a 3.83 goals-against and .904 saves percentage.

On the Wildcats’ offense, Caiden Gault continues to have some unusual numbers leading the team in production, with 12 goals — 34% of the team’s 35 goals — but no assists, still putting him three points ahead of Jakub Altrichter for the Wildcats’ scoring lead. Altrichter has three goals and six assists for nine points, while Kyle Bettens has eight points on eight assists.

Gault also has three of the team’s nine power play goals, while Altrichter has Northern’s lone shorthanded goal.

Tynan Ewart, who has all seven of his points on assists, leads the team in blocked shots with 51 as Zane Demsey, without a point, has 38 blocks and Joe Schiller and Anthony Cliche each have 33.

Meanwhile, Tech is the No. 3 scoring team in CCHA games and No. 2 in scoring defense, having a 51-31 advantage in scoring in league games only.

Like Northern, MTU has also been outshot, but only by about one shot per game.

The Huskies’ only goalie with more than 60 minutes in net, Owen Bartoszkiewicz, has numbers similar to NMU’s Auyeung-Ashton, with a 2.24 goals against average and .921 saves percentage. He also has two shutouts.

Bartoszkiewicz was named CCHA Goaltender of the Week after last weekend’s sweep of Mankato as he gave up one goal each night and had a .972 saves percentage. That included a career-high 46 saves in the series’ second game.

Teammate Luca Fasciano was also named CCHA Defenseman of the Week at the same time. The Huskies have had a dozen league players of the week this season, five times by Bartoszkiewicz.

Their offense is led by Stiven Sardarian, who has nine goals and 22 assists for 31 points, and while he has two game-winning goals, he has just one power play tally.

Next in Tech scoring is Max Koskipirtti with a team-leading 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points, while Isaac Gordon has four goals and 15 assists for 19 points. Koskipirtti and Gordon are each on five-game point-scoring streaks.

Story contents based on a Michigan Tech University Sports Information press release previewing the games and an examination of MTU’s and Northern Michigan University’s hockey websites. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.