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Wildcats look to get back in hunt

MARQUETTE – Last season, the Northern Michigan University hockey team was looking to rise in the WCHA standings and take the next step toward becoming a title contender.

The Wildcats got off to a great start with the highlight being a opening-weekend sweep of Big Ten foe Wisconsin in Green Bay. However in December, the storyline of the season shifted from Northern’s play on the ice and instead to the injuries suffered on it.

“We were really disappointed with last year,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “A number of years ago, we tried making a change in who we are and we put a big investment into our sophomore class. We thought that we were ready to take a step. To be honest, when you look at it, we got hammered with injuries and we never really had a chance to see who we are.

“We were 8-3 when (goalie) Mathias (Dahlstrom) went down and from that point forward, we couldn’t get anything together. So that’s negative news.

“Some positive news is that a lot of guys from last year’s team are returning. I think that a lot of the guys will be big parts of this year’s team that should’ve been bigger parts of last year’s team, but couldn’t be because of injuries.

“Mathias missed 20-some games; Dominik Shine, who was our leading scorer on a points-per-game basis, missed a third of the year. Barrett Kaib is a guy that missed over a third of the year. Zach Urban came in at Christmas and only played 20 games. We think those guys are going to come in and have more impact than a year ago.”

Arguably, the most devastating injury was to Dahlstrom. For the first few weeks of the season, the Swedish netminder led in most of the goaltending categories in the country and was quickly becoming one of the most talked-about players around college hockey. Unfortunately, he had to battle through an injury in the closing weeks of 2014 before suffering a season-ending knee injury at the end of January.

Kyle says that Dahlstrom is healed and raring to go as the season-opening exhibition against the U.S. Under-18 National Development team approaches at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Berry Events Center.

“Mathias looks good and he hasn’t missed a beat,” Kyle said. “He’s back at it. We’re being a little bit cautious with him right now, but he’ll be ready to go. It’s great to see him back in there because he makes a huge difference, not only in his impact on the game, but when the other guys know he’s in there, we know what he’s capable of.

As far as offense goes, Kyle will be expecting a lot from his captains, forwards Dominik Shine and Shane Sooth, along with All-WCHA Third Team defenseman Brock Maschmeyer. He also will be looking for John Siemer to improve from last season.

“Up front to get Dom back in our lineup is a huge deal,” Kyle said. “He was really on the verge of breaking into (being) a special player when he went down.

“John Siemer is another guy that we really need to see take a step. He had a big drop last year and I don’t think he did the sort of things that he needed to do to have success. I think this year we’ll see him back to where he really was.

“I would also expect Robbie (Payne) to do so as well.

“I think Brock is as good as a defenseman in the league. If we could’ve scored a little bit more as a team, I think Brock would’ve been First Team all-league. I wouldn’t trade him for one guy in the league. He certainly is our catalyst back there and a real driving force on our power play, too.”

As far as newcomers, though, Kyle has some quality talent coming in and likes the fact that due to the size of the Wildcats’ junior class, there won’t be as much pressure on the freshmen.

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

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