Northern Michigan University’s Peter Cisar, right, gets a pass around Lake Superior State's John Herrington during their CCHA hockey game played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette last Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Writing the Wildcats’ epitaph in playoff hockey was a bit premature by this writer on Monday, who pronounced the Northern Michigan University hockey team’s postseason chances to be all but dead.

Actually, the Wildcats do have a faint pulse in its pursuit of a playoff berth in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

It seems a bit convoluted even if it is actually a straightforward proposition.

First off to have any chance, the Wildcats will need a “full” sweep — as in two regulation victories — at nationally ranked No. 18 Minnesota State-Mankato this weekend. Game times are 8:07 p.m. EST today and 7:07 p.m. EST Saturday.

That would net NMU six points to bring their season total to 18, the same that Ferris State has right now. The Bulldogs are at Lake Superior State, actually starting the series Thursday night and finishing it this evening.

If Ferris is swept by LSSU, then Northern and Ferris would be tied.

And because those two teams only played two games against each other this season — each at Ferris’ rink in Big Rapids — rather than the traditional two at each school’s rink for a total of four head-to-head games, their season series against each other isn’t allowed to be used.

That was my mistake, assuming the Bulldogs’ two-win sweep doomed Northern.

The next tiebreaker goes to the team with the most regulation wins, and if NMU pulls off the sweep, it will have five wins, all in regulation, in the league. By comparison, the Bulldogs also have five wins in the CCHA, but one of them was in overtime, only giving FSU four regulation wins.

So there it is, nothing short of a Wildcats’ sweep at Mankato and Lake State sweep of Ferris will get Northern in the CCHA postseason.

A tough hurdle for NMU may prove to be Minnesota State-Mankato’s motivation. The Mavericks are in fourth place with 46 points, locked in a tight battle among the league’s top five teams.

Mankato would seemingly have little chance of catching first-place Augustana with 50 points, except that the CCHA’s second-year team is the squad that’s on the bye this weekend, and therefore will pick up no points.

And Minnesota State is only two points behind a pair of teams tied for second place with 48 points, Michigan Tech and St. Thomas. MTU hosts fifth-place Bowling Green State, which is still in the hunt in fifth with 44 points, while St. Thomas is at sixth-place Bemidji State.

It seems quite possible that Bemidji would like to give the Tommies, their in-state rivals, a rousing sendoff — read that as a debilitating sweep — from the CCHA as St. Thomas is jumping to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference next season.

Though the challenge seems severe, NMU head coach Dave Shyiak has no qualms pumping that up as a possibility even as Mankato seeks its fourth MacNaughton Cup regular season championship in the five years since the CCHA has re-formed.

“That’s the message with the guys; we’re not out of this yet,” Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the series. “We need to do our job and try and win (today), and see what happens in the (Ferris) series.

“We’ve got good kids, they give us everything they have, but it’s just not enough. We need to find a way to get a win.”

This weekend’s games are available for streaming online at Midco Sports Plus, while fans can tune into Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. They can also visit the NMU athletics website at www.nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to live audio, live statistics and a preview.

Shyiak knows his team’s challenge. Minnesota State is 33-9-5 all-time against the Wildcats in games dating back to the 2013-14 season, including 7-1-2 in its last 10 against NMU.

In November, the Mavericks swept the Wildcats in Marquette 3-2 and 4-0. Mankato is also 19-4-2 at home vs. NMU and averages 3.64 goals per game.

“They’re a good team and they’re playing for a championship,” Shyiak said. “There’s five teams that could win the (MacNaughton Cup) this weekend, that’s how tight our league is right now. They’re going to play their best game to try and win a championship and potentially earn a spot into the NCAA Tournament, so they’re going to give us their best game.

“We need to play for pride, play for each other, do our best to win the game, and hope that Ferris doesn’t win the first game.

“Our mindset has to be right. The season’s not over, we’ll prepare the same way as a coaching staff, and the guys know how they have to play, it’s just being consistent.”

Yet another hurdle for the Wildcats to overcome is an injury to sensational freshman goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, who was out last weekend.

Freshman Max Weilandt, who joined the team at the same time as defenseman Olivier Beaulieu at the beginning of January, got his first start last weekend vs. LSSU.

“I thought he played good,” Shyiak said of Weilandt. “He had (previously) played in three games in tough situations coming in after we’ve changed the goalie, and he’s done really well (in those instances). He’s a great kid, he prepares accordingly, a good teammate and culture driver … and I thought he did pretty good going in for his first game.

“He deserved the opportunity, and we gave him a start to see what he could do.”

Last weekend, NMU achieved its highest single-game goal output of the season, but still lost 7-5 in the opener. Weilandt came into that game in the third period in relief of William Gramme before working the entirety of Saturday’s game, a 5-2 loss that included a late empty-net goal.

After playing the first two series of the season, freshman forward Peter Cisar missed the next 18 games due to injury. As he’s returned, he’s found a spark with the season winding down.

Cisar has seven points in his last eight games after posting two points in his first 10, including goals in back-to-back games and three points last weekend.

“He’s a really intense kid, highly competitive … and he’s done a really good job of putting it in (as of late),” Shyiak said. “He is a freshman, he’s going to have his moments where he makes mistakes, but as we’re building this program and have only had one year to recruit, he’s one of those kids for us who we think will continue to grow and get better.”

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.