MARQUETTE – The college hockey season doesn’t officially begin until the weekend of Oct. 2-3, but the WCHA got an early start Monday when it held a teleconference with the head coaches around the league.

The WCHA media poll conducted by the Bemidji (Minnesota) Pioneer and the coaches poll conducted by the Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press were released at the start of the meeting.

Both polls predicted Northern Michigan University to finish seventh and Minnesota State to win the conference again. Wildcats’ Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech was predicted to finish either second (media) or third (coaches) in the WCHA.

After that, each team’s bench boss talked about the previous year and what their prospective teams have to offer in the 2015-16 season.

Northern Michigan head coach Walt Kyle spoke near the end of the session. Kyle began with mentioning how the team suffered through several injuries, but is positive with how things look this season.

“I think we’re really excited about the upcoming year,” he said. “We were really disappointed with the way we ended last year. We were extremely beat up and we just really couldn’t get any momentum or get anything going.

“As we move forward, we have a healthy team. We have some that missed a huge chunk of last season that are back and ready to go to prove who they are and who we are. I’m really optimistic going forward.”

He also talked about how important starting goalie Mathias Dahlstrom is to Northern and how the Wildcats have tried to fix the problem of goaltending depth, which was lacking when Dahlstrom went down with a knee injury late last season.

“I think Mathias was a key loss,” he said. “Mathias is an exceptional goaltender. In the league this year, there are a number of great goaltenders and I would not put anyone, in my opinion, ahead of Mathias.

“One of the things we felt we had to do was add some depth in goal. We found out that when Mathias went down, we floundered. So we brought in a couple of freshmen and we have some depth at that position now. Every night with Mathias in net, we’re never outgoaltended.”

Michigan Tech’s Mel Pearson spoke before Kyle.

“The excitement here in Houghton is as high as it’s ever been,” Pearson said.

He talked about how the Huskies finished one point short of the WCHA title and the team’s first-round loss to St. Cloud State in the NCAA Tournament.

He also mentioned how Tech is returning a quality veteran team, with players such as forwards Alex Petan and Malcolm Gould, defenseman Matt Roy and Alex Hanna along with goalie Jamie Phillips.

“I think it’s an exciting year,” he said. “I think our players are anxious to get started, especially after the way we finished last year. They finally got a taste for the NCAA Tournament for this first time in a long time and I think one of the things we are looking forward to is that we have 25 returners.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been with a team where we’ve had that many returning players. I think the expectations are high for our team and I think they have high expectations for themselves. We had a good year last year, but last year was last year.

“Every team in our league seems to be improving and getting better every year, so we have to be better.”

Lake Superior State struggled last season, finishing 8-28-2, but managed to win the Florida College Hockey Classic Tournament, including upset wins over Cornell and Notre Dame.

The Lakers also return a stellar goalie in Gordon Defiel and will participate in the Icebreaker Tournament, the first prominent one of the year.

“A lot of the success that we’ll have this year will essentially be determined from the back end out,” he said. “I’m sure everybody knows the kind of season Gordie Defiel had for us last season. It was a tough year and a tough role for an inexperienced team. The success that we’ll build on this year, he’ll have a lot to do with that.

“We’re excited to see where Gordie is at and he’ll have a new goalie coach as well.”

Whitten also feels that playing in these prominent national tournaments will help the downtrodden Lakers gain some exposure and help land some talented recruits.

“There’s no question going down at Christmas last year and winning that tournament was big for us,” he said. “It was a springboard for our second half. I think going up to Portland (Maine) this year and playing North Dakota and Michigan State will be good for our program. They’re enjoyable atmospheres and places that we like to get out, too.

“I’m not saying we’re scheduling them for a recruiting part of it, but when you get on a national stage like that, it certainly does help in those areas.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.