MARQUETTE – Before the season started, Northern Michigan University head hockey coach Walt Kyle said he was looking for winger Dominik Shine to be a key scorer this season.

The junior rose to the occasion Saturday night.

Early in overtime, Shine skated in and beat Ferris State goalie Darren Smith on his blocker side to give the Wildcats a 3-2 win.

The victory keeps NMU in fifth place and two points behind the Bulldogs in the WCHA standings.

“We played hard tonight,” Wildcats head coach Walt Kyle said. “I thought we got better as the game went on. There were a lot of good things.

“I thought our penalty killers did a great job, I was happy with that. Mathias (Israelsson) came in and did a great job. Zach Urban coming back in (from an injury) was huge.

“That made a big difference for us and we had some guys that we expect to score, score. So I’m happy with it,” he said.

NMU forward Robbie Payne notched two goals in the game and Israelsson won his first collegiate start in net, making 29 saves on 31 shots.

“He’s (Israelsson) been practicing with us all year, so we get to see him every day,” Kyle said. “He’s dedicated, he’s focused and he’s a good student. He and Atte (Tolvanen) are our future, for sure.

“We don’t know when or if (Mathias) Dahlstrom is going to be back. Atte’s not going to go every night.

“We like (Israelsson) in practice and we know he’s good. I was happy he got in and got the result that he got. I’m happy for him because he’s paid his dues.”

The first period was mostly uneventful. Israelsson was tested early on, but knocked both shots aside.

Northern (6-6-6, 5-5-4 WCHA) picked up three power plays in the frame, but the Wildcats couldn’t capitalize and managed zero shots on all three.

On the other side of the puck, NMU’s penalty kill continued to shine as it withstood some good shots by the Bulldogs, two of which went off the post.

As the period went on, both teams had good rushes on the net, but couldn’t tally a goal. NMU winger Gerard Hanson had the Wildcats’s best chance to score, but his shot went off the pipe and rang wide of the net.

In the second period, the Wildcats started strong as they kept the puck in the Ferris (8-8-4, 7-7-2 WCHA) zone for the first couple of minutes.

However, a mistake gave Ferris a 1-0 lead. On the power play, the Wildcats were attempting to bring the puck up from behind their own net when they turned it over and Gerald Mayhew tucked the puck under Israelsson’s left pad.

Later in the period, the Bulldogs had several chances to go up by two goals, with one shot ringing loudly off the crossbar. Israelsson also had to make two saves off shots from the blue line.

Later on in the period, NMU started to generate some offense. The Wildcats had two good looks in front of the net, with one shot going just wide.

The Wildcats broke through at the 19:31 mark when Payne grabbed a loose puck and fired it low past Smith into the net. Shine and Ryan Trenz were credited with the assists and the two teams ended the frame tied 1-1.

In the third, Northern continued to keep clicking offensively. Zach Diamantoni almost deflected a puck past Smith and James Vermeulen almost did the same just seconds later. A couple of minutes later, Payne shot high on Smith. The freshman goalie tried to glove the puck, but misjudged it and it landed behind him in the back of the net.

“Payne was really good,” Kyle said. “Robbie got two goals. One was on a great play by Shine on the first one.

“On the second, it was a rush goal. Robbie made a great move. We caught a little bit of a break in how it kind of happened.

“We also got a good face-off goal and got a little bit of justice – after we gave up faceoff goals last night – to win it.”

The two teams traded good scoring chances as the period went on. Israelsson got tested twice midway through the frame, but he and his defensemen blocked both shots.

NMU’s Brock Maschmeyer had two shots come close to beating Smith. His first shot rang off the pipe and his second was almost deflected in off of Smith’s blocker, but the goalie recovered in time to finish the save.

Ferris tied the game with a little more than two minutes left when Mayhew got his second goal of the night. The forward deflected a shot from the point out of midair past Israelsson to tie the game at 2-2.

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