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Encouraging signs: Wildcats hockey gets a win much earlier than recent seasons

By Steve Brownlee 8 min read

MARQUETTE -- It's like it's a new year for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

And not just because the Wildcats began their new season over the weekend.

No, by virtue of splitting at home against a team that is receiving votes in national polls, NMU now has as many wins this season as it did in either of the past two seasons when New Year's Day dawned.

Northern pulled off a 3-0 shutout of Miami of Ohio to open the 2025-26 season on Friday before the RedHawks bounced back for a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

Now at 1-1 this season, the Wildcats stood at 1-19-1 in the 2024-25 season, head coach Dave Shyiak's initial campaign, before winning for the second time against Minnesota State-Mankato on Jan. 10.

In 2025-26, NMU opened 0-16 and was 1-24 before registering victory No. 2 at Michigan Tech on Jan. 24.

Now, though, this Northern team will for the first time under Shyiak try to stay at -- or get above -- the .500 mark in the early, nonconference part of the season.

It'll be a real challenge with this weekend's series at national No. 3 Michigan State, an unusual two-day gap between games with the first puck to drop at 7:30 p.m. Friday and the next at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Here are details from each night vs. Miami:

NMU 3, Miami 0

Friday was 50th anniversary season celebration time for the Wildcats, with the pregame raising to the rafters of jerseys of three early legends of the program -- Don Waddell, Tom Laidlaw and Steve Bozek.

Maybe that inspired the current Northern roster of players, but no matter what it was, the Wildcats combined getting the first collegiate goals by Coster Dunn, Darik Olson, and Ian Engel with a little bit of sterling goaltending by highly regarded sophomore Oliver Auyeung-Ashton.

It turned into the second career shutout by Auyeung-Ashton after he stopped all 30 shots he saw.

Dunn and Olson are freshmen, so it was obvious these would be their first goals, but Engel is a sophomore defensemen who transferred from highly regarded North Dakota after playing just one game there last year.

"It was a team effort and a team win," Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the game. "Our guys battled and battled. We had to face a lot of adversity with the penalties, but our penalty kill did a heck of a job. 

"We lost two forwards to injury, so we had a short lineup; but even through all that fatigue, you have to learn to battle through adversity, and we've talked about that.

"We gotta step up and block shots, make strong plays and get pucks out."

If you're a fan of rough-and-tumble hockey, then Northern "won" the penalty war over Miami, 11-7, with each team including a five-minute major and 10-minute misconduct in their holsters.

NMU's major call was on Reilley Kotai late in the first period for butt-ending, while the RedHawks' Matous Kucharcik got tagged for a five-minute, face-masking call in the second half of the middle period.

Needless to say, but because of Auyeung-Ashton, Miami was never able to take advantage of 10 power plays, several apparently with significant time in 5-on-3 situations, while two of Northern's three tallies came on power plays.

Not only that, but the Wildcats' first goal of the season scored by Dunn was shorthanded 2:29 into the second period.

"Obviously, we want to be an attacking team, but it's our first game of the year, and when you have to kill all those penalties, especially late in the third period when our bench was really short, our guys found a way, and it was a total team effort," Shyiak said. "And when we needed somebody to come up big for us, Olly (Auyeung-Ashton) was awesome in net. 

"So just happy for our crew. It's a tight crew, (they're) energized, and to beat a team in the (National Collegiate Hockey Conference) is tough to do, and it doesn't happen very often, and we were able to do that ... and what a better way to do it on a celebration night.

"I'm just happy for (our) guys.... We've got more to give, and it's about taking the steps forward and progress and doing things the right way, but I loved our win ... and I loved our battle level."

Despite being a freshman, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Dunn was trusted in power play, penalty kill and even-strength situations and took crucial faceoffs, too. He won 54.5% on faceoffs, including 6 of 9 (67%) in the third period.

His shortie was set up by Engel and sophomore Mathew Ward.

"(I) told (Dunn) early that 'We're not going to gift you minutes, you got to earn it,' and he did," Shyiak said. "He was good on faceoffs, he made smart plays on the (penalty kill) and power play, and obviously he's a guy we think can be an offensive guy for us.

"We had a lot of freshmen step up," Shyiak said. "We're going to have to score by committee. It's hard to score goals; I'm glad those guys were able to chip in."

Shyiak mentioned in his first press conference before the season began that he believes the Wildcats are a step ahead of where they were at this point last year. And while Northern may be one of the youngest squads in college hockey, he believes that there are major contributors up and down the lineup who are ready to make an immediate impact. 

Olson got his power play goal at the opposite end of the second period -- with exactly two minutes left -- on assists from junior blueliner Joe Schiller and senior forward Branden Piku.

The final tally was an unusual one for the Wildcats, an empty-netter scored by Engel with 1:27 left and unassisted. Usually NMU has watched opponents get those kind of goals when Northern was trying to play catchup.

Auyeung-Ashton's 30 stops were almost equally spaced, 10 in the first period, nine in the second and 11 in the third.

Miami netminder Matteo Drobac made just 16 stops and never more than six in any one period.

Miami 4, NMU 1

On Saturday, the Wildcats discovered how hard it is to sweep a series, something they've only done once over the past two seasons, 4-1 and 3-1 victories at Bemidji State two seasons ago on Jan. 17-18, 2025.

On this particular night, Miami turned the tables on Northern, scoring its first two goals on power plays as NMU's was also with the man advantage. The game was 2-1 until the final two minutes, when Shyiak pulled Auyeung-Ashton in favor of an extra attacker, but the RedHawks instead pumped in two more goals.

Miami's Kucharcik, who took major and misconduct penalties a night earlier, had the only goal of the first two periods on Saturday, scoring with just under five minutes remaining in the opening period on a power play with assists going to Ryder Thompson and Austin Baker.

The RedHawks turned the same trick not quite halfway through the third, with Baker scoring on another power play from Kucharcik and Ryan Smith.

With time running down, NMU sophomore forward Merril Steenari, a transfer from Colorado College, got the home team back in the game with 2:09 remaining with his power play goal.

Shyiak pulled Auyeung-Ashton to create a 6-on-4 advantage, and with one second left in the Miami penalty, Steenari deflected in a shot from the point by freshman defenseman teammate Evan Depatie.

Shyiak kept or soon after pulled his goalie again, as the RedHawks' Matteo Giampa scored into an empty net 31 seconds later, with another put in by Miami's Bradley Walker with 49 seconds to go.

Auyeung-Ashton finished with 26 saves among the 28 shots he actually faced, a .929 saves percentage, and stopped 56 of 58 for the weekend, a .966 stop rate.

Drobac was only called on to make 18 saves, never more than seven in one period, for 34 over the weekend.

Junior defenseman Noah Houle blocked an NMU-high four shots, while Dunn won 53.3% of faceoffs.

NMU 3, Miami 0

Friday at Berry Events Center, Marquette

Summary:

First period -- No scoring

Second period -- 1. NMU, Coster Dunn (Ward, Engel) shg 2:29; 2. NMU, Darik Olson (Schiller, Piku) ppg 18:00

Third period -- 3. NMU, Ian Engel (unassisted) eng, ppg 18:33

Penalties-minutes: Miami 7-25, NMU 11-33

Power-play opportunities: Miami 0 of 10, NMU 2 of 6

Goalie saves: Miami, Matteo Drobac 16 (5-6-5); NMU, Oliver Auyeung-Ashton 30 (10-9-11)

NMU 3, Miami 0

Saturday at Berry Events Center, Marquette

Summary:

First period -- 1. MIA, Matous Kucharcik (Thompson, Baker) ppg 15:09

Second period -- No scoring

Third period -- 2. MIA, Austin Baker (Smith, Kucharcik) ppg 8:46; 3. NMU, Merril Steenari (Depatie, Slipec) ppg 17:51; 4. MIA, Matteo Giampa (unassisted) eng 18:22; 5. MIA, Bradley Walker (Grimes) eng 19:21

Penalties-minutes: Miami 4-8, NMU 5-10

Power-play opportunities: Miami 2 of 4, NMU 1 of 3

Goalie saves: Miami, Matteo Drobac 18 (7-6-5); NMU, Oliver Auyeung-Ashton 26 (12-7-7)

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

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