MARQUETTE – Just like last year, Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech will face off to close out the regular season.

But this year, there’s more than bragging rights on the line.

Every team wants to sweep its archrival, but in the case of these two teams, a sweep means better positioning in the WCHA playoffs.

Northern is trying to lock up fourth place and home ice in the first round, while No. 13 MTU is attempting to vault past Minnesota State and win the regular-season title.

“Tech is a really good hockey team and it’s going to be a good measuring stone for us,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “We’ve not had great success up there for the last few years, so it’s going to be a really tough test (tonight).

“But we’re eager for it and preparing for it.”

The Wildcats are precariously perched in the final home playoff berth, just a point ahead of fifth-place Ferris State. If NMU sweeps the Huskies, it will hold off the Bulldogs for the final home-ice spot.

But if the Wildcats do not, they have to hope that Ferris stumbles against Lake Superior State like Northern did last weekend.

NMU senior forward Darren Nowick said the Tech series means a lot to him and the team. He also said the Wildcats aren’t focusing on the standings right now. They just want to beat the Huskies.

“The Tech series is huge,” he said. “My freshman year, I wasn’t really familiar with the series and then after playing that first series against them, it got bigger and bigger. Coming in senior year, I want to take it to them. We hate them and they hate us.

“We try not to look at the standings too much, but obviously, we’re in fourth place and we need these four points to seal the deal.

“We just need to play hard, take pucks to the net and get those ‘greasy’ goals,” he added.

Back in October, the two teams split, with each winning on its home ice. Signs are pointing to a similar result this weekend, especially due to the stellar play of the goaltenders.

Tech’s Jamie Phillips continues to shine as he boasts a 2.09 goals-against average, while NMU’s Mathias Dahlstrom has looked very good since being named the No. 1 starter.

Even though he has appeared in far fewer games – which should be taken into account – Dahlstrom has better stats than Phillips with a 1.97 GAA and a .925 saves percentage.

Dahlstrom is happy to be the starter down the stretch for the Wildcats. He says he’s back on track from the knee injury he suffered last season.

“It feels good to play again, but I never considered myself to be No. 1,” he said. “I feel like we compete for jobs every day in practice.

“But it’s great to be back playing every week. I feel 100 percent back. It’s a great relief.”

When it comes to offense, Tech has a little more firepower with four players who have more than 20 points and three with more than 10 goals.

The Huskies also have another five players with more than 15 points.

Alex Petan leads with 27 points and 16 goals, but Tyler Heinonen, Malcolm Gould and Joel L’Esperance are right behind him.

The Huskies are tied for 13th nationally in total offense and are eighth overall on the power play.

However, Northern is seventh on the penalty kill, so special teams will be interesting this weekend. Tech is also hot right now, having only one loss since dropping the GLI title game to No. 6 Michigan back in late December.

Northern counters Tech’s powerful offense with its top line of Nowick, Dominik Shine and Gerard Hanson. Nowick leads the Wildcats with 30 points, while Shine has 29 and Hanson 21.

Robbie Payne isn’t far behind, as he has 18.

Shine was also named the WCHA Player of the Month for February and is the only player in the league to win it twice this season.

Last weekend, the Wildcats could’ve built up a stronger lead over Ferris in the standings as the Bulldogs were swept by Bowling Green while Northern managed just one point in two games in Sault Ste. Marie.

“You always want to win and I give Lake State credit because they played well,” Kyle said. “We didn’t give our goalie (Dahlstrom) enough goal support to get the job done.

“I thought, defensively, we looked good. I thought Mathias was good. We had ample opportunity to score. We had breakaways on Friday and Saturday. We hit a post in overtime Saturday.

“We had some chances, but we didn’t score. We’re disappointed in the outcome, but not with our effort and some of the execution.

“What happens with that one point is that you control your destiny,” he added. “When you’re tied, it comes down to tiebreakers and everything else. We control our destiny right now and we have to win.

“If we win, we’re in great shape. If we don’t, then we’re watching their scores. Right now, we’re fine. We’ve got a great rivalry weekend against Tech … and we look forward to that opportunity.”

The two teams tangle tonight at 7:07 p.m. in Houghton today and play at the same time Saturday in Marquette.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246.