By RYAN STIEG

Journal Sports Writer

MARQUETTE – Heading into Saturday night’s game against Michigan Tech, the Northern Michigan University hockey team’s chances to clinch home ice in the WCHA playoffs were slim.

Those chances dropped to zero after the Wildcats lost to the Huskies 5-1. For the second straight year, NMU closed out its regular season with two losses to its archrival.

Because of the loss, the Wildcats hit the road to play at Ferris State next weekend in the first round of the playoffs. Northern split with the Bulldogs this year, going 2-2.

“First of all, kudos to Tech,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “They did a great job. They came in and played well and took advantage of their opportunities. I don’t think it was a 5-1 game.

“There was a two-shot difference in the game and we’ve really struggled to score. We haven’t converted on our opportunities the last four games at all.”

Tech scored quickly on Saturday. After Darren Nowick was called for elbowing, seconds later on a power play, Tyler Heinonen pocketed his 15th goal 2:22 in after tucking it past a sprawling Mathias Dahlstrom.

The Wildcats goalie came up big a short time later, though, when he made a nice toe save on a breakaway shot by Alex Petan.

Other scoring chances in the period went to Northern as both Gerard Hanson and Ryan Trenz had shots almost get by Tech goalie Jamie Phillips.

The Wildcats’ best opportunity came off the stick of Filip Starzynski. His first shot was gloved by Phillips, but the puck squirted out and Starzynski almost tapped the rebound past the surprised goalie.

Northern’s continued to have chances in the second period. The first came with the man-advantage as Nowick fired a nice one-timer on net, but Phillips saw through the screen in front and tipped the shot into the air.

Midway through the period, Dominik Shine weaved his way around two defenders, but was denied by Phillips.

After that, things went off the rails for the Wildcats. Tech connected on the power play again when a shot went off Jake Lucchini’s skate and rolled past Dahlstrom.

Three minutes later, Max Vallis almost beat Dahlstrom on a wraparound, then collected a rebound in front and lifted it over the goalie’s blocker. Dahlstrom was then pulled for Atte Tolvanen.

Northern now might have to deal with a goaltending battle again as Dahlstrom was pulled for the second straight game.

“I was trying to change the pace,” Kyle said. “I haven’t looked at the goals, but I wouldn’t tell you those were Dahly’s fault.

“Having said that, Dahly’s been scored on four times (Friday) night and three times tonight. I’ve got a tough decision to make right now.”

The Wildcats had a brief glimmer of a comeback early in the third when senior Cohen Adair skated in and beat Phillips top shelf.

However, that disappeared quickly thanks to an impressive individual effort by Tech’s Reid Sturos. Sturos skated down the left side, blazed past NMU defenseman James Vermeulen, then slid across the crease to beat Tolvanen.

“That was just a bad play,” Kyle said. “Sturos did a great job, but James has to have that one. That’s a good lesson for a young kid. We had just scored one and there was a lot of time left in the period. Then they come back and get that one, so that was a tough break for us.”

Tech put the finishing touch on its sweep when Shane Hanna fired a rocket shot past Tolvanen with 4.4 seconds left.

Now the Wildcats must put the weekend and the regular season behind them as they prepare for a tough Ferris squad.

“They ended up a half-game ahead of us, which is unfortunate,” Kyle said. “If we got one more point out of the last four, then we get to play at home.

“I really liked our effort tonight. I thought we did some really good things. The last three nights, I thought we were trending down. Tonight, I thought we were trending up.”

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