MTU’s Raymond Brice slams NMU’s Luke Voltin into the boards as they both go for the puck Saturday night at the Berry Events Center March 2, 2019. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

By RYAN STIEG

Journal Sports Writer

MARQUETTE — Earlier this week, Northern Michigan University forward Troy Loggins and goaltender Atte Tolvanen each earned WCHA weekly awards.

Now there’s an excellent chance they’ll keep those same honors for a second straight week as the pair of seniors led the Wildcats to a 3-0 victory over Michigan Tech Saturday night.

The win completed a sweep by NMU (19-14-2, 18-8-2 WCHA) of their rival Huskies (14-18-4, 13-12-3). Tolvanen notched his 13th career shutout, setting a school record, while Loggins scored Northern’s first two goals to give him five in the series.

When asked if he was thinking about the record as time wore on in the game, Tolvanen said that he tried to keep the possibility of accomplishing it out of his head and credited his teammates for helping him out.

“I was trying to keep it out,” he said. “Obviously, it popped into my mind a couple of times. The guys in front did a good job for me, not letting them get any chances to make it easy for me. So a huge thanks for those guys.”

While Tolvanen has been stifling opposing teams, Loggins has been on fire offensively, saying the recent success is due to his connection with linemates Adam Rockwood and Denver Pierce.

“Obviously, I play with two really good players,” he said. “They’re just giving me the puck in the right area and when your line is going, sometimes you just feel the confidence and you find the net. I think that’s what been happening lately.”

With the win, the Wildcats also clinched the No. 2 seed in the WCHA playoffs and will host Alaska-Fairbanks starting Friday night in a best-of-three series. Earning the second-place spot was quite an accomplishment for Northern, as a couple of weeks ago it looked like it might not even get a home series.

“I said to the guys after the game, every season kind of is a journey,” NMU head coach Grant Potulny said. “Sometimes, the train goes off the tracks for a little bit and you’ve got to find a way to get it back on.

“I thought that the leadership group for our team, we’ve talked about Denver, but even all the leadership group, they hung in there with us and believed in the staff and worked with us.

“We’ve come out the other side and I feel like we’re playing the best hockey of our whole season right now.”

NMU put pressure on the Huskies defense from the start as a Griffin Loughran shot was gloved less than a minute into the game, while Loggins just missed on a rebound attempt with 16:10 left. The Wildcats also kept Tech from getting a shot on net for more than 5 1/2 minutes to begin.

At the 10:02 mark, the Wildcats got on the board on an impressive teamwork play. Northern defenseman Phil Beaulieu got the puck at the point and sent it over to Rockwood, who fed Loggins in the slot. Loggins then beat Huskies goalie Matt Jurusik blocker-side to put the Wildcats up 1-0.

NMU had two more chances to pad its advantage before the first period was over, but couldn’t cash in. Loughran had a good look in the slot, but Jurusik deflected it wide with his skate. The other came with 2:54 left when Wildcats defenseman Tony Bretzman sent a shot on net that fluttered over Jurusik’s shoulder and rang off the crossbar. Tech, meanwhile, couldn’t get any quality opportunities and went into the break trailing 12-5 in shots.

The Huskies did get their first opportunity at the start of the second period after Northern’s Garrett Klee was whistled for slashing at the end of the opening period, but the Wildcats easily killed the penalty. Then with 16:20 left, Tech winger Alec Broetzman got a pass in the slot, but Tolvanen made a nice blocker save to keep the Huskies scoreless.

After coming up empty on their first power play in the period, the Wildcats got the job done with their second and it was Loggins again. The senior forward skated up the slot and deked out Jurusik, backhanding it into the net to give NMU a 2-0 advantage.

With 5:55 remaining, a shot by Northern’s Mitchel Slattery was saved by Jurusik.

Then with 2:58 left, when Slattery received a pass from Rockwood by the near post but didn’t get a great shot off. However, the sophomore got enough of a push behind it to bounce it past Jurusik and put the Wildcats up 3-0.

At that point, Jurusik was pulled for backup goalie Devin Kero.

The third period was a fairly quiet. Tech’s offensive struggles continued and NMU had only two decent scoring chances. With 16:35 left, Rockwood sent a pass to Pierce at the near post, but his shot sailed just over the crossbar. The other opportunity happened with the Wildcats on the power play as Rockwood fed Darien Craighead in front, but Kero made a kick save to keep it 3-0.

“Everything is coming together right now at the right time,” Tolvanen said. “We’ve been up and down all year, but now for the last few weeks, we’ve been clicking really well and you can see it on the ice right now.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal. net.