MARQUETTE – After a week off, the Northern Michigan University hockey team will play its last nonconference series of the season this weekend against a Minnesota-Duluth team stuck in neutral.

The Bulldogs (8-10-5) come to the Berry Events Center on Friday and Saturday after getting swept in a pair of one-goal game by No. 13 Denver.

They have also fought No. 3 St. Cloud State to a tie and almost earned a sweep on the road at Miami.

At the same time, UMD hasn’t earned a sweep since early December, so NMU (9-9-6, 7-7-4 WCHA) could be getting the Bulldogs at the best time.

Even though they’ve struggled, Duluth is still a good team as winger Austin Farley and center Tony Cameranesi each have 22 points.

However, they have a weak supporting cast.

Defenseman Andy Welinski is the only other player who has points in the double digits with 11. As a result, UMD sits 35th place nationally in offense, surprising for a team picked by many to win the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Still, NMU head coach Walt Kyle says the Bulldogs are a talented squad and that this weekend will be a battle.

“They’re an excellent team,” he said. “If you look at their record, it’s a little bit deceiving. They’ve played a really tough schedule.

“We came up there last year and we had two really tough games against them. We’ll have our hands full, but that’s what it’s about. We want a challenge.”

UMD, ninth nationally in team defense, is led by goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo with a 1.91 goals-against average and .921 saves percentage.

Kaskisuo has the ninth-best GAA and four shutouts, which may indicate a good goaltending battle this weekend for whoever gets the nod for the Wildcats. If freshman Atte Tolvanen is NMU’s pick, it’ll create a interesting matchup, since he knows Kaskisuo well.

“It should be fun playing against those guys,” Tolvanen said. “I have a good friend of mine who is their goalie, so it’ll be a good matchup to play against him.”

As far as special teams go, the teams are fairly even, with Northern holding a small advantage both on the penalty kill and power play.

The power play is a little surprising, considering how the Wildcats have struggled with it all season, but it shows how top-heavy the Bulldogs are offensively.

NMU?has been off for a week with their last series a split with Alaska-Fairbanks.

After falling in overtime in the opener, Northern bounced back with a 5-3 win on Saturday. Goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom looked sharp in his first start since Oct. 16.

“When you’re at home, you want to win them both,” Kyle said. “They snuck that one out in overtime on us on Friday, but I thought the guys came back and responded well on Saturday.

“It’s a nonleague series this weekend. That will give us a chance to use some different people in spots and we’ll see how that goes.”

The big question mark going into this weekend is who will start in goal. With Dahlstrom back, the Wildcats have three netminders in the running for the starting spot, which makes for a tough coaching decision.

“We’re going to keep Atte fresh and ready to go for sure,” Kyle said. “How we play the other two guys is kind of to be determined.

“(Mathias) Israelsson has certainly been very good. Right now, Tolvanen has the biggest body of work and he’s done exceptionally well, so we don’t want to take him off where he is.

“I think in a perfect world, I’d give Dahlstrom and Israelsson each a game. The reality is, we had an off-weekend last week. If I do that, it would be three weeks since Tolvanen played.”

When talking to the goalies about dealing with the battle, they shrugged it off and are focusing on themselves.

“At the start of the year, I played like every game,” Tolvanen said. “Now, we’ve been splitting time lately. It’s a little bit different, so you focus more on practice getting better.”

Wildcats forward Denver Pierce feels the same way as his team tries to get its first sweep of the season.

“We’re just waiting to catch fire and get a couple of wins in a row,” he said.

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