Looking to bounce back after the Northern Michigan Wildcats topped them on Friday night in Marquette, the No. 16 Michigan Tech Huskies flipped the script used by the Wildcats Friday, scoring a pair of power-play goals and firing 46 shots on goal Saturday night to come away with a 3-1 win at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
Huskies coach Mel Pearson did not want to call the game a must-win, but his team appeared to believe it was.
“We played with more urgency, more compete,” said Pearson. “We skated better. I wouldn’t say it was a must-win game this early in the year, but it was a very important win for our team. I couldn’t be prouder of the way the boys played tonight.”
A stretch of six minutes changed the game in the middle frame.
It all started at 1:39, as winger Tyler Heinonen lurked near the Wildcats’ net when a shot from defenseman Mark Auk bounced right to him. Heinonen wasted no time burying the rebound.
After the goal, the Huskies continued to apply pressure, eventually drawing a power play. After winger Brett Boeing nearly scored by crashing the net with the puck, the Huskies scored again. Assistant captain Shane Hanna fed the puck to winger Max Vallis along the right boards. Vallis fired a long shot that caromed to winger Joel L’Esperance coming in on the left side. L’Esperance buried the rebound at 5:02.
Two minutes later, the Huskies went back on a power play when Zach Diamontoni took a hooking penalty. The Huskies needed just 35 seconds to strike. With a faceoff to goaltender Atte Tolvanen’s left, center Mason Blacklock won the draw back to defenseman Matt Roy with the help of L’Esperance at the right point. Roy wired a long shot on goal, which was tipped in by Blacklock for his first career goal at 7:39.
In the early going, not enough could be said about the efforts of Tolvanen, who came up big, stopping three Huskies’ shots in the first minute and a half. From there, he continued to be a tough nut to crack, as the Huskies fired 11 shots through the first nine minutes of action.
“They got a couple of power-play goals,” said Northern Michigan coach Walt Kyle. “They kept us under heavy forechecking pressure tonight. It could have been a lot worse if Tolvanen wouldn’t have been good. We didn’t get enough out of some of our guys. We just have enough of our top players perform as we needed them to perform.”
Part of that advantage came because the Huskies (2-2-0 overall, 2-2-0 WCHA) had an early power play, but could not solve Tolvanen, no matter whether they fired shots from the slot, the point, or tried to crash the net for rebounds. He finished the night with 43 saves.
The Wildcats’ first good scoring chance came off the stick of Troy Loggins, who attempted a wrap-around, but Jamie Phillips, who had only seen two shots prior, was there to make the save.
About a minute later, the Huskies lost assistant captain Mike Neville when he lost an edge while crashing the net with the puck. Neville fell and crashed into the post with what appeared to be his left shoulder.
The Huskies played the rest of the night with just three centers.
On their fourth shot of the period, the Wildcats broke the scoreless tie. Gerard Hanson found John Siemer in a soft spot in the offensive zone. Siemer cut in alone and fired a wrist shot that beat Phillips near the left post for the tally at 15:24.
The Huskies earned a five-on-three power play shortly after the goal, but it was Brock Maschmeyer who had the best scoring chance after the Huskies turned the puck over near the offensive blue line. A quick pass later and Maschmeyer found himself on a breakaway, where he was high-sticked by the Huskies’ Malcolm Gould to keep him from getting a quality scoring chance.
Despite outshooting the Wildcats in the first period, 18-6, the Huskies found themselves down 1-0 after 20 minutes, but that did not deter them from feeling good about their start.
“We felt like we played a better period than any of the three we played on Friday night,” said Heinonen. “We were happy with ourselves. We just stuck with our game plan.”
Just 15 seconds into the third, Siemer had a good scoring chance for the Wildcats when he took a cross-ice pass, but his long slap shot from just inside the blue line was stopped by Phillips.
The Huskies had a golden opportunity to extend their lead broken up when L’Esperance attempted to feed the puck to Boeing, but his pass was tipped away by Jordan Klimek.
The majority of the game was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team challenging the opposing goaltender until Barrett Kaib fired a long shot from the right point at Phillips. The rebound bounced to Dominik Shine, but his shot was also stopped by Phillips, who finished the night with 19 saves.
