Northern Michigan University goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, left, stretches to the max to block a shot with Wildcats defenseman Joe Schiller hovering close by during a CCHA hockey game played against Bemidji State at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — It couldn’t be described as the best of all weekends, but yet, it still had to be at least a successful building block for the hockey team at Northern Michigan University.

Mired in last place all season with just two wins in 26 times out, the Wildcats opened against Bemidji State on Friday night with their first victory at home this season.

On Saturday, though, NMU matched its worst loss of the season, a six-goal setback to the sixth-place Beavers.

So Northern’s 2-0 victory — its first shutout this season after being shut out five times themselves — and 7-1 setback propelled Northern past Ferris State, which was swept at Minnesota State-Mankato 6-1 and 4-3, in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings and into eighth place, the final spot in the upcoming league playoffs that start in early March.

NMU has 11 points with its 3-17 CCHA and 3-25 overall records, while Ferris stays stuck at nine points also at 3-17 in the league and 4-24 overall.

Bemidji is a rather isolated sixth-place team in the league, eight points behind fifth-place Bowling Green State but also eight points ahead of seventh-place Lake Superior State. The Beavers are 8-9-3 in conference and 10-15-3 overall.

Before taking this weekend off with three more two-game series to end the regular season, the Wildcats will host an annual community event, Skate With The ‘Cats, at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Berry Events Center.

No reservations are required on Tuesday, but those participating should note they need to bring their own skates and a helmet, while pucks and sticks aren’t permitted. NMU Athletics will provide team posters for players to sign, with photo opportunities and actual skating with the Wildcats team part of the festivities.

Interestingly, Northern’s next series will be at now-last-place Ferris in Big Rapids on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20-21, their only meeting this season. It certainly looks like this series will decide who gets the last spot in the Mason Cup playoffs, though Ferris also gets a crack at Bemidji State this weekend and a chance at some league points.

Here is a look at Northern’s series vs. Bemidji:

NMU 3, Bemidji 2

On Friday night at the Berry, freshman goaltender sensation Oliver Auyeung-Ashton lived up to his reputation, posting a 38-save shutout, the third most saves among all NCAA Division I freshmen netminders in a shutout this season.

NMU squeezed out a win while getting outshot 38-17 as the Wildcats hung a couple first-period goals on Beavers netminder Max Hildebrand. Bemidji also had a huge 87-31 advantage in all shots taken.

Auyeung-Ashton, a Hobey Baker Award nominee who has made the Mike Richter Award “watch list” for the award for goalies, stopped 18 shots in the third period when Bemidji took 46 overall shots and spent nearly five minutes with its goalie pulled.

This marked Northern’s only winning streak of the season after the team came off a 3-2 victory in Houghton over Michigan Tech the previous Saturday night.

“Being able to build off of the momentum that we gained last weekend was huge,” Auyeung-Ashton said in a postgame press conference as relayed in a game account from NMU Sports Information. “Getting a win against our rival in their arena was big for our team, and the goal at practice this week has been to keep (that momentum) going into the game (Friday night).”

Coach Dave Shyiak also raved about his goaltender. 

“Bemidji was very good; they’re fast, they counter really well, they’re good off the rush, but I think the difference in the game was that Oliver was outstanding in the net,” the second-year NMU head coach said in his postgame comments. “He was the best player on the ice.”

While the goalie got the spotlight, he had teammates blocking shots and getting into shooting lanes also contributing to the shutout.

Tynan Ewart and Mathew Ward led all skaters with four blocked shots, while Joe Schiller, Nicolas Ardanaz, and Kyle Bettens recorded three apiece. Overall, Northern blocked 28 shots, the seventh-most by the team since 2012 while setting a new season high.

“It was good to see the guys sacrificing the body and blocking shots down the stretch there,” Shyiak said. “(The Beavers) know how to work the offensive zone, and it’s really helpful when our guys sacrifice their body (to block shots).”

The ‘Cats jumped out quickly, scoring on the first shot of the game off a point shot through traffic from the stick of Warren Clark just 54 seconds in. It marked Clark’s second goal and fifth point this season, tying him for the team goal lead among freshmen.

It was assisted by Peter Cisar and Matthew Argentina, each extending their point streak to three games. Argentina was credited with making a great forechecking play to drive to the corner, setting Cisar up to rim the puck back up the boards to Clark, who let go a seeing-eye shot from the point.

Then Tobias Pitka capitalized off a Beaver turnover in the neutral zone and made it 2-0 with just over three minutes left before the first intermission. Pitka moved into sole possession of second place for Wildcats’ goals as he scored in back-to-back games.

The goal was unassisted after taking advantage of the turnover in the neutral zone by firing a wrist shot under the stick of the last defender and past the blocker hand of the goalie on the far side.

“I liked our start, we got the (early) first one and were able to extend the lead, then I thought the ice tilted a little bit into (Bemidji’s) favor,” Shyiak said. “We didn’t manage the puck well and we had too many turnovers in the middle of the ice, but they’re a good team and you have to give them credit.

“I thought the last 10 minutes we did a lot of good things, and then when the game counted the most at the end when they pulled the goalie, we won a handful of key faceoffs, had some good blocks, and ‘Olly’ came up with some saves.”

Though Shyiak wasn’t 100% pleased with the complete team effort, remarking that “an ugly win is better than an ugly loss,” he emphasized that his young club has “more to give” as the season begins to wind down. 

“There were some things in the game that as a coach I really liked, but there were other segments where we have to do a better job,” he said. “We’re a team that’s learning how to win the right way; there were times where we showed a bit of panic, and we have to show more poise in all three periods.

“Bemidji is a good team, and we can’t give them easy offense by turning pucks over.” 

Northern’s last two-game win streak came in a sweep at Bemidiji last season.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of ice for us to make plays because of how quick they are and how fast they get on top of you … so we have to keep our game simple,” the NMU coach said.

Bemidji 7, NMU 1

On Saturday back at the Berry Event Center, the Beavers certainly looked determined to avoid the sweep at all costs, even though they only outshot Northern 39-37.

Auyeung-Ashton gave up all seven goals before giving way to new goalie Max Weilandt for the final 8 1/2 minutes. Auyeung-Ashton made 29 saves, 14 in the first period, and Weilandt had three stops in hit time in net.

The Wildcats were victimized by a former Wildcats, Reilly Funk, now playing for Bemidji as he scored 54 seconds apart starting with 4:10 left in the opening period.

Vann Yuhas made it 3-0 just 37 seconds after Funk’s second tally, making it three goals in 91 seconds.

The Beavers began the scoring by corralling a rebound in their own end and producing a quick counterattack, according to NMU SI, as Tony Lund sprung Alexi Sylvestre down the left boards. The speedy winger beat a Northern defender and centered a pass to Funk, who just had to redirect it.

Right after that, Sylvestre broke up a play at his own blueline and he and Funk came up ice, Funk using his speed to beat the defender wide and cut to the crease for his shot.

The third goal came after an errant Wildcat pass on an odd-man rush sprung Yuhas and Vincent Labelle for a 2-on-1. Labelle passed to Yuhas, who fired a wicked wrister.

Northern got one back from its top goal scorer, Caiden Gault, less than six minutes into the second period during a power play. Michael Burchill passed to Joe Schiller, with Gault corralling the puck in the right circle and firing a wrist shot through traffic.

Gault got his 13th goal — still without an assist — to continue to produce more than 30% of NMU’s scoring this season.

But as the final score indicated, that would be all of NMU’s offense.

Bemidji answered less than 4 1/2 minutes after Gault’s goal from Adam Flammang, with Oliver Peer’s shorthanded goal making it 5-1 after two periods. Then Luke Roelofs and Flammang added third-period tallies for the final margin.

NMU 2, Bemidji 0

Friday at Berry Events Center

Summary:

First period — 1. NMU, Warren Clark (Cisar, Argentina) 0:54; 2. NMU, Tobias Pitka (unassisted) 16:41

Second period — No scoring

Third period — No scoring

Penalties-minutes: Bemidji St. 2-4, NMU 1-2

Power-play opportunities: Bemidji St. 0 of 1, NMU 0 of 2

Goalie saves: Bemidji St., Max Hildebrand 15 (6-3-6); NMU, Oliver Auyeung-Ashton 38 (11-9-18)

Bemidji

7, NMU 1

Saturday at Berry Events Center

Summary:

First period — 1. BSU, Reilly Funk (Sylvestre, Lund) 15:50; 2. BSU, Funk (Sylvestre) 16:44; 3. BSU, Vann Yuhas (Labelle) 17:21

Second period — 4. NMU, Caiden Gault (Burchill, Schiller) ppg 5:43; 5. BSU, Adam Flammang (Peer) 10:03; 6. BSU, Oliver Peer (Thornton) shg 14:47

Third period — 7. BSU, Luke Roelofs (Flammang, Panzer) 10:17; 8. BSU, Flammang (Magnussen, Thornton) ppg 11:34

Penalties-minutes: Bemidji St. 5-24, NMU 1-2

Power-play opportunities: Bemidji St. 1 of 1, NMU 1 of 4

Goalie saves: Bemidji St., Max Hildebrand 36 (8-13-15); NMU, 14-8-10–32 (Oliver Auyeung-Ashton 14-8-7, Max Weilandt x-x-3)

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