When members of the media were looking at the teams in the newly-reconstituted CCHA this fall as we started to do our preseason picks and previews, one team made it easiest on everybody.
And maybe it wasn’t the team you think.
Have your guesses in?
It might shock you to know that it was Michigan Tech.
Sure, Minnesota State had most of its big guns back, and so did Bemidji State, but only one team in the CCHA could boast that it returned all of its key contributors from the 2020-21 season. Nearly everyone who helped the Huskies to last season’s 17-12-1 overall record and fifth place WCHA finish have returned to Houghton for another year.
“The guys who drove it last year, we got all those guys back, so we have very much the same look as we did last year,” Huskies coach Joe Shawhan said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We picked up very similar to where we left off last year, too.”
The Huskies (3-2-0 overall) brought back nine of their top ten scorers from last season (forwards Trenton Bliss, Alec Broetzman, Arvid Caderoth, Brian Halonen, Tristan Ashbrook and Justin Misiak as well as defesemen Colin Swoyer, Eric Gotz and Chris Lipe). They also return goaltender Blake Pietila, a 2020-21 Mike Richter Award finalist.
That returning experience has so far helped the Huskies pick up a big road sweep at Wisconsin in the opening weekend of the season as well as a road split with Clarkson in Potsdam, N.Y. The wins over the Badgers — 5-1 and 5-2 — specifically turned some heads early. Wisconsin was one of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament in 2021 but lost a lot of their best scorers.
“I think we were ready to play with a veteran lineup while they had a lot of changes in theirs, so that series may or may not be an anomaly in some ways,” Shawhan said. “But they have talent. They’re finding themselves. I think a lot of it was probably due to our experience, returning everybody at every position and Wisconsin not necessarily having that luxury.”
So far, those experienced players are leading the Huskies. Halonen leads the team with four goals and three assists through five games, while Broetzman (two goals), Logan Pietila (three goals) and Bliss (three points) are also atop the scoring charts.
Blake Pietila has, so far, started each game in the net for Tech and has a 1.39 GAA and a .945 save percentage.
Shawhan said the Huskies’ main issue has been consistent scoring. Since the 10-goal weekend against Wisconsin, Tech has only managed to score four times in their other three games.
“We still have to improve in the areas we needed to improve on last year, which is goal scoring, that’s the biggest issue right now,” Shawhan said. “We’ve played very well, and I think we can compete with most anybody in the country, but we need to get some separation with goal scoring.
“Everybody is playing hard. Everybody is executing. We’re just trying to find the differentiating factors, which are going to be the guys who make plays and who can generate offense. I think as a group we’re doing a pretty good job, but we have to gain that confidence offensively.”
One thing that should help the Huskies as they continue to gain confidence: Full houses at John Macinnes Student Ice Arena. Tech has only played one official home game this season (a 2-1 overtime loss to Notre Dame). And after last year’s pandemic-restricted season which saw Tech lose a significant home-ice advantage, the Huskies should be fired up as they get ready to play in front of crowds again.
The Huskies have seven home games between now and the end of the 2021 calendar year, starting with this weekend’s series against U.P. rivals Lake Superior State. It will be the inaugural CCHA series for Michigan Tech, and their first CCHA games since 1984. The Huskies were briefly members of the old CCHA from 1981-84 but rejoined the WCHA until its dissolution in 2021.
“We’ve got our whole conference schedule ahead of us, and I know there’s teams that have built up some wins already and some teams that have taken some losses. We have a clean slate, so we’re trying to do everything we can to take points every opportunity we have,” Shawhan said. “Lake Superior, I know their coaches are really excited about their team. They’re scoring a lot of goals, they’re defending well, so that’s going to be a big test right out of the gate for us.”
