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Hope springs eternal: Wildcats’ fortunes only looking up with hockey season starting

Wildcats’ fortunes only looking up with hockey season starting

By Steve Brownlee 6 min read

MARQUETTE -- Hope springs eternal at the beginning of any season, but that should be doubly so this fall as the Northern Michigan University hockey team embarks on its 50th anniversary season on Friday night at the Berry Events Center.

The Wildcats open against Miami (Ohio) University from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference at 7:07 p.m. that day and at 6:07 p.m. Saturday back at the Berry.

The Northern program was inaugurated by current athletic director Rick Comley as head coach in the fall of 1976, and he would continue to coach at Northern until 2002, which included the program's only national championship won in 1991 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Along with being able to purchase tickets at the NMU Tickets website at tickets.nmu.edu, fans can stream video of the game online at MidcoSports Plus, or tune in on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. You can also visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the hockey schedule for links to live audio, live statistics and a preview.

To kick off the 50th anniversary celebrations, NMU Athletics is honoring former 1970s-early 1980s stars Don Waddell, Tom Laidlaw and Steve Bozek throughout the day Friday. Each was on the inaugural '76 team, the 1980 NCAA runner-up team or both.

It starts with a luncheon at the Holiday Inn of Marquette during the noon lunch hour, progressing to a pregame reception at the Wildcat Room in the Berry at 6 p.m., then the threesome having their jerseys raised to the rafters above the rink just before the game begins.

There may also still be tickets available for the Holiday Inn luncheon at the NMU Tickets website.

Two other promotions will also be presented this weekend -- the first 300 people in the Berry on Friday receive a bobblehead that features the three retired players, while the first 50 students on Saturday receive special winter hats. 

Current Northern head coach Dave Shyiak, who also happened to be a key member of the '91 Wildcats national champions, knows he has challenges this season trying to get NMU back to fully competitive in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. His first team in 2024-25 recorded just one win and one tie before Jan. 1, 2025, but finished much more strongly at 5-27-2 overall, 4-20-2 in the CCHA.

Last season's unit also had problems, coming in at 3-29-2 and 3-21-2, playing nothing but nationally ranked teams in the nonconference part of the schedule, with several league opponents also ranked or receiving votes in national polls.

A big base that Shyiak will rest this season's fortunes on will be second-year goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, who earned lots of accolades as one of the best freshman netminders in the country last year and comes in as the Preseason All-CCHA goalie.

Shyiak confirmed earlier this week that he is good to go, with two more returnees, Jack Fuller and Max Weilandt, also prepared at the start as backups.

"Right now, Olly is our No. 1, and the other guys are getting better," Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this weekend. "The competition's been pushed way up, and I think right now, Olly coming in, obviously, he's proven as No. 1, and then we'll kind of take it game by game.

"The goalies, they work together. They support one another. Every goalie is different; how they prepare for practice, games and their own habits. Right now, we’ve been just making sure their habits and their mindsets are in the right place, and I certainly like where our heads are at right now.

"They know Olly's the No. 1 right now, but at the same time, they're continuing to get better and push Olly to make sure he's on top of his game. And if he falters and we need one of the other two guys to step up, we have that in place."

Shyiak started out behind the 8-ball as a late offseason hire in the summer of 2024, and with the NCAA transfer portal rather new at the time, he was forced to find two dozen more players to round out what was only four returning players from previous head coach Grant Potulny's final team.

While there have been challenges in his first two seasons, Shyiak says he and his staff are excited about where the team is at this point. 

"We've built (the roster) with the players that we love, and that want to be here for the right reasons," the coach said. "We've challenged our recruiting staff to revamp what we needed to revamp, and we're better in those areas, and it puts us in a way more competitive situation.

"So our guys are excited. It's a great group, it's a young group, (they're) highly energized, I love their battles, they compete, they're really tight with 13 new faces. We're way ahead of where we've been two years ago in terms of systems, tactics, efforts and habits. So we’re excited.

"But practicing for a month now is a long time with no exhibition games. We had some really good scrimmages where the guys battled hard, and all you can do is prep them as best as you can.

"I think our leadership group's done a good job, I think our staff's done a good job, and I think our mindset leading up to this week has been really good. Now, it's going to be amped up a little bit more."

Miami will provide the kind of nonleague challenge the Wildcats have gotten used to as the team picked No. 5 in NCHC preseason and receiving votes in both major national polls, the USCHO and USA Today.

The RedHawks were 18-16-2 last season and are returning nine of their top 12 scorers under head coach Anthony Noreen, who like Shyiak is in his third year at his school.

"Miami is a great team," Shyiak said. "They want to vie for a position in the national tournament. They're fast, they're skilled, they play tough, and they do things the right way.

"Any opponent in the Big 10 and NCHC is tough, but I think our guys are excited to battle against somebody different.... I know everybody in the community is itching to play some live games, and it'll set us up for a great matchup on Friday here."

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

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