HOUGHTON – The No. 13 Michigan Tech hockey Huskies used strong efforts from some of their seniors and a career night from a freshman to win their final home game of the regular season over rival Northern Michigan Friday night, 4-0, at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

With the shutout, senior Jamie Phillips – the Huskies’ second winningest goaltender – became the first Tech netminder to shut out the Wildcats at home. He now has 10 shutouts in his career.

The Huskies had a huge night from freshman Jake Lucchini, who scored a goal and added two assists. He had not picked up a point in his previous four games.

“I think that these games mean a lot, especially in the rankings and in just playing Northern,” Lucchini said. “We get real excited to play them.”

Both teams had early chances, but neither could get anything of quality until about 3 1/2 minutes in when Huskies senior Malcolm Gould had his shot stopped by the outstretched arm of NMU goalie Mathias Dahlstrom. Senior C.J. Eick got the rebound, but hit the post to Dahlstrom’s right.

“I’m really happy and proud for the seniors,” said Huskies’ coach Mel Pearson. “It was all about them tonight. We got some big goals, some timely goals when we needed them.”

On the next shift, the Huskies continued the pressure and were rewarded. Lucchini fed the puck to junior Brent Baltus as he skated near the Wildcats’ net. Baltus quickly dropped the puck to a waiting Alex Petan and the Huskies’ co-captain drilled a shot off the left post and in at 4:30.

“I was actually pretty happy with our first period,” NMU coach Walt Kyle said. “We played pretty well in the first. We got behind the 8-ball killing penalties. To their credit, they beat us.”

The Huskies (20-8-5 overall, 17-7-3 WCHA) were awarded a five-minute power play when Nowick was whistled for checking from behind. Instead of getting good scoring chances of their own, the Huskies found themselves chasing NMU’s Dominick Shine, who took a lead pass, skated in alone, deked to his backhand and fired a shot.

The Huskies scored their second goal late in the second. Lucchini’s shot rebounded into the slot, where Baltus backhanded a shot over Dahlstrom at 16:18.

The Huskies struck again during a 4-on-4 situation off a faceoff. Assistant captain Mike Neville won the draw back to Hanna.

The latter backpedaled along the blue line before feeding the puck to Roy, who unloaded a blast that beat Dahlstrom at 18:12.

The Huskies were awarded another power play early in the third period and took advantage quickly. Auk got the puck at the left point. He fed it over to Lucchini in the right circle. Lucchini waited and then wired a wrist shot that beat Dahlstrom over the right shoulder at 3:41.

That ended Dahlstrom’s night as Atte Tolvanen stepped in as relief.