MARQUETTE – The playoff race in the WCHA is heating up and Northern Michigan University is right in the thick of it.

NMU (15-11-6 overall, 12-8-4 WCHA) is tied for fourth place with Ferris State as teams jostle for position in an attempt to gain one of the four home ice berths in the first round of the league playoffs.

As long as they keep winning, the Wildcats even have a chance to finish as high as second place as they are only three points behind both teams in that spot, Michigan Tech and Bowling Green.

Four games, all against other WCHA schools, remain for all 10 league teams this weekend and next.

And for Northern, they have a realistic shot at keeping their current three-game winning streak going.

After sweeping last-place Alabama-Huntsville at home this past weekend, the Wildcats face off against Upper Peninsula rival and WCHA seventh-place Lake Superior State in Sault Ste. Marie tonight and Saturday.

NMU earned a split with the Lakers back in October, cruising to an easy 6-3 win in Marquette before getting shut out in the Soo.

“They have really good goaltending and they’re a hard team to play against,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “They play well defensively. We certainly remember going down there and getting beat 4-0.

“I think that we’re a much better team and a much different team. We’re looking forward to getting down there and having a chance to prove it (tonight).”

Lake State (11-19-4, 8-12-4) has struggled, but it has improved from last season. The Lakers’ biggest problem is inconsistency. During the second half of the season, LSSU has earned wins over Bowling Green and sixth-place Bemidji State. But the Lakers were swept by Tech and looked awful against Minnesota State, so they are a little hard to figure out.

One thing is obvious, though. Lake State’s offense is among the worst in the nation.

The Lakers are 59th out of 60 NCAA Division I teams in total offense, and their power play isn’t much better, ranking 45th.

LSSU doesn’t have a single player with more than 10 goals or 20 points, although J.T. Henke comes close (9-9-18), so don’t expect a lot of offense this weekend from the Lakers, especially with NMU goalie Mathias Dahlstrom back to his old self.

Dahlstrom is undefeated so far at 7-0 and boasts a 1.98 goals-against average, placing him in the top 10 nationally. He also is the reigning WCHA Defensive Player of the Week after holding Huntsville to only one goal over two games.

Even though the Lakers’ offense is weak, the Wildcats aren’t going to overlook it.

“We know we can beat them, but that’s not an easy place to play,” NMU freshman goaltender Atte Tolvanen said. “It’s a smaller rink, so there’s a little bit of an adjustment there since we have the big one here.

“They like to forecheck hard and stuff like that, so we have to be ready for everything. It’s not a guaranteed sweep. We have to show up for both games to get two wins.”

Like Northern, the Lakers are known for their defense. Lake State is in the upper half nationally in team defense and ranks eighth on the penalty kill, just behind Northern, which is tied for sixth.

The Lakers have a nice goaltending tandem in Gordon Defiel and Nick Kossoff, who have combined for five shutouts with Kossoff getting one of them against Northern in October.

Looking back at last weekend, Northern shut out Huntsville Friday, then scored three unanswered goals to complete the sweep on Saturday. Defenseman James Vermeulen scored his first goal in the series and earned WCHA Rookie of the Week honors after he and his teammates held the Chargers to only 34 shots on goal over two games.

“I like how our D is working together,” NMU defenseman Jordan Klimek said. “I thought we had a lot of poise and we were moving the puck really smoothly. We also were limiting our turnovers and I think that was the biggest thing. That and winning our one-on-one battles.”

“We knew going into the weekend that we had to get wins,” Kyle said. “Those were the games we had in hand against Ferris. I was also fairly certain that (with) Tech and Bowling Green that there was a good chance that they weren’t going to get both of their games.

“We needed to get those games to put ourselves in a better spot going into this weekend, so I was really pleased with the guys. Oftentimes, it’s easy to look by teams that are last in the standings and our guys know that our league is tight and close and anyone can beat anyone.”

Opening faceoff is 7:37 tonight at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.

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