Wildcats’ pair earns CCHA top player honors
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MARQUETTE -- The Northern Michigan University hockey team's opening series of the season over the weekend didn't go unnoticed beyond the Wildcats and their fans.
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association saw NMU pull off a home split with Miami (Ohio) of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, too.
And the league honored not just one, but two Northern players with Player of the Week awards to open the season.
Sophomore goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton was named CCHA Goaltender of the Week, while freshman forward Coster Dunn earned CCHA Rookie of the Week.
They were an integral part of the Wildcats' 3-0 shutout of the RedHawks in the season opener on Friday at the Berry Events Center, even as Miami came back to post a 4-1 victory on Saturday. The Ohio team was receiving votes in several preseason national college hockey polls.
"Both Olly and Coster were impactful in both games," Northern head coach Dave Shyiak said in an NMU Sports Information news release detailing the honors. "I thought it was a great weekend for our young group.
"We learned a lot about what it's going to take to win games, and we will take some lessons from last week and continue to grow."
Auyeung-Ashton, who is from Coquitlam, British Columbia, is an old hat at these awards, having won one early last season as a CCHA Rookie of the Week, while earning several league and national postseason honors last spring, and being named to the CCHA Media Preseason All-CCHA Team this fall.
Against Miami, Auyeung-Ashton posted a 30-save shutout, then stopped 26 of 28 shots the second night -- two of the RedHawks goals were scored into an empty net in the final two minutes -- for a .966 saves percentage and 1.02 goals-against average for the weekend.
He was the only league netminder to post a shutout, and one of nine nationally, with the 30 saves the third-most in a shutout.
Auyeung-Ashton even got the nation's second-highest rating of plus-3.58 in goals saved above expected as noted by College Hockey News.
Dunn, a freshman center from Edmonton, Alberta, made an immediate impact in his first weekend playing for Northern, scoring his first college goal with a shorthanded tally and eventual game winner after receiving a pass from Mathew Ward to beat the Miami goalie cleanly to the stick side, according to NMU SI.
Both Dunn and Ward previously played in the Western Hockey League, Dunn with the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Dunn was impactful in every situation as he also played on special teams in both the power play and penalty kill. He won 20 faceoffs for a 54.1% success rate, the raw number most of any CCHA freshman and second among all league forwards.
He logged 23 minutes, 29 seconds ice time Friday, most of any conference skater over the weekend, and another 17:33 Saturday. His 20:31 per-game average was three minutes more than any other CCHA freshman and just 15 seconds behind the most for any league forward.
The Wildcats will have an even bigger challenge this weekend, traveling to downstate East Lansing to take on national No. 3 Michigan State of the Big Ten on Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
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Northern Michigan University's Coster Dunn, nearly sitting in Wildcats goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton's lap, blocks a shot during a game played against Miami at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)