The battle for the MacNaughton Cup is no longer in play, and both teams have solidified their positions for the CCHA playoffs, but both Minnesota State and Michigan Tech still have plenty to play for this weekend.
This weekend’s series in Houghton had the potential to be the ultimate title-decider, but that didn’t happen.
The top-ranked Mavericks swept Bemidji State last weekend at the No. 17-ranked Huskies couldn’t earn all six points against Ferris State, which meant MSU was able to sew up their fifth-consecutive MacNaughton Cup title (their first in the CCHA after four in the WCHA) with a week to spare in the regular season.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be drama this weekend. Both teams are looking to improve their NCAA tournament resumes.
Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said on his weekly radio show on Monday that despite the fact that the MacNaughton Cup was no longer in play for his team, it didn’t change the outlook for his team this weekend: They want to keep winning.
“We’re playing for a national title,” he said. “Winning the league and getting that home ice all through the playoffs is just a step towards that. Not that that’s not important, but we’re playing to position ourselves for the national title.”
The Huskies are currently sitting on the bubble and one or two quality wins against the top-ranked Mavericks would do them a world of good if they want an at-large bid to the tournament. Tech is currently No. 12 in the Pairwise rankings.
“You just don’t know with the Pairwise,” Shawhan said. “It’s about who wins, who loses, how those head-to-heads go. The opportunity this weekend for us is huge because we’re playing against a top-ranked team. Anything we can get out of this is extremely important to us moving forward and will go a long way toward what our ultimate goal is.”
The Mavericks, currently No. 2 in the Pairwise, would probably be assured of a top-four seed in the national tournament if they were to sweep the Huskies, and the top overall seed in the tournament is very much in play.
Tech will likely need to lean on goaltender Blake Pietila this weekend considering their opponent. The Mavericks have been scoring a ton – 4.18 goals per game – and possess four of the CCHA’s top 10 scoring leaders (Nathan Smith, Julian Napravnik, Brendan Furry and Cade Borchart).
Pietila has been one of the best under-the-radar goalies in the league this season, with a 19-9-2 record and goals-against average of 1.854 through 31 games. His seven shutouts this season also set Tech’s single-season record previously set by current Huskies goalie coach Jamie Phillips.
The Mavericks should be getting Smith back from the U.S. Olympic team this week. Although head coach Mike Hastings was back behind the bench for the Bemidji State series, he told The Rink Live after the game that Smith was staying in Beijing for the closing ceremonies and should be available for this week’s regular-season finale.
What else is at stake over final weekend?
Both Minnesota State and Michigan Tech already know who they will be facing in the first round of the CCHA playoffs next weekend. The Mavericks will host eighth-seed St. Thomas, while the Huskies will host seventh-seed Ferris State.
The Tommies, who beat Lake Superior State last weekend for their third victory of the season, have been locked into the bottom seed for quite some time while the Bulldogs’ three points against the Huskies last weekend weren’t enough for them to prevent a rematch next week in Houghton.
But the other two playoff matchups are still very much up in the air. Bemidji State is clinging to third place in the standings with 37 points and is four points ahead of both Lake Superior State and Bowling Green, who are tied for fourth. Fifth-place Northern Michigan is just a point behind them.
That means that the Beavers haven’t quite clinched either home ice or the No. 3 seed in the playoffs but can do both with at least a point against St. Thomas this weekend.
Meanwhile, LSSU hosts Bowling Green in what could be a battle for the fourth and final home-ice slot, while Northern Michigan hosts Ferris State hoping for their best-case scenario – sweeping the Bulldogs with a Lakers/Falcons split, which would allow the Wildcats to leapfrog both teams and into the fourth seed for the playoffs. They could, conceivably, also make it all the way to No. 3 should Bemidji State fail to earn a point this weekend.
This year’s conference tournament format is slightly different from what the WCHA did in its final, COVID-altered season. The first round will be a traditional best-of-three format on campus, but this season both the semifinals and finals will be single games on the home ice of the highest seed in each game. Last season, both the semifinals and finals were hosted in Mankato.
