MARQUETTE – The Northern Michigan University hockey team had a prime opportunity to gain ground in the WCHA standings Saturday and capitalized on it.

The Wildcats defeated Alabama-Huntsville 3-1 to earn their second home sweep of the year. The victory ties NMU with Ferris State for fourth place in the WCHA standings as both teams fight for the final home ice spot in the playoffs.

“It was a great win,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “I thought we responded really well. They stayed focused through 120 minutes of hockey on the weekend. We knew how we wanted to play and what we wanted to do and we did it.

“In my opinion, we’re really seeing some growth from within the team. We’re seeing some real chemistry right now. Our message is to continue to get better every day and I think we’re doing that right now. I couldn’t be happier.”

In the first period, Northern (15-11-6, 12-8-4 WCHA) had several scoring chances early.

Huntsville (6-19-5, 4-15-5 WCHA) got on the board first at the 9:41 mark when during a scrum in front, Brent Fletcher tapped a rebound past NMU goalie Mathias Dahlstrom.

NMU tied the game 1-1 at the 15:09 mark on a great individual effort by Cohen Adair. He collected a loose puck at the NMU blue line skated down the far boards, weaved around two defenders in the UAH zone and beat Carmine Guerriero to his blocker side.

“We talked all week about them struggling with plays when we come off the wall,” Adair said. “I just took advantage and caught the guy off-guard.”

The Wildcats took the lead less than a minute into the second period. After UAH was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after the first period horn, the NMU power play put together a nice goal. Defenseman Brock Maschmeyer received a pass from Dominik Shine and sent it over to Darren Nowick who fired a one-timer into a wide-open net.

“It was a pretty wide-open net, so it’s hard to miss those,” Nowick said with a chuckle.

Zach Urban and Shane Sooth both almost put Northern up by two goals on deflections, and at the 14:01 mark, Zach Diamantoni did it for real. Payne had a shot in front of net and used a screen to snipe a shot at Guerriero that was deflected in by Diamantoni.

Later on, after an uneventful game on his end of the ice, Dahlstrom made two nice saves toward the end of the period to keep NMU in front 3-1.

“Those aren’t easy weekends for a goalie,” Kyle said. “I give him credit. You can tell he’s an experienced goaltender. He stayed in there and made saves when he needed to.”

The win also keeps Dahlstrom undefeated this season at 7-0.

NMU heads to Lake Superior State next weekend as the fight for fourth place heats up even more.

“It’s so close right now,” Adair said. “Home ice can really be anyone’s right now. The next four games are going to be huge for us. Having home ice for the first time since we’ve been here, that will be huge.”

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