NMU Weekend Preview: Men’s Hockey and the Superior Cup

MARQUETTE- For many NMU hockey players October couldn’t have come quicker. For all of the skaters that will suit up this weekend, there is no better way to get fired up about the upcoming season than taking on a team you hate.

On Friday the sounds of grown men being checked into boards,  fans screaming at the top of their lungs and the scratch of a precision stop will be retained in the minds of many college hockey fans. The aura of a rivalry game will linger in the safety nets all around MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Last year’s record has been set aside.

In rivalry games, it doesn’t matter if you won six games last year like the Huskies, or if you won 8 out of your last 11 as the Wildcats did to end the 2009 campaign.  When the puck hits the ice, a new season begins. When the skates scratch the ice, the rivalry between the Michigan Tech Huskies and the Northern Michigan Wildcats begins a new chapter.

For the Huskies, 2009 brings a hope to rebound in the WCHA. Despite only two wins in the conference last year, Michigan Tech returns nearly 80 percent of it’s offense. Captain Malcom Gwilliam will lead the offense in his sixth season in Houghton. After suffering a stroke last season, Gwilliam looks to bounce back nicely and leads this team in total career points. Junior Jordan Baker led the Huskies in goals during the 2008-2009 season and will a big contributor to the scoreboard in his third year. Defensively a slew of scorers, including senior Drew Dobson and junior Deron Cousens and a couple of big hitters in John Kivisto and Mike VanWagner return to lead this squad. Despite finishing last in the WCHA in 2008-2009, and being predicted to finish there by fellow coaches of the conference and the media, coach Jamie Russell believes his team is going to come out firing.

“After the 2008-09 season that saw us hobbled by injuries, we are all chomping at the bit to come out of the gates flying. Although we will be a young team, we expect our returning players to improve and develop.  We are a program that prides itself on player development and we have challenged our team to collectively take a big step.”

The Huskies pulled out an exhibition win 3-1 to open competition to Ryerson University. The same team that the Wildcats beat 11-2 last Sunday. Michigan Tech finished the game with just one more shot on goal than the visiting Rams.

The Wildcats will head on the road looking to avenge only taking one out of three games against Tech last season. The Offense looked sharp to start the exhibition season, including multiple goal scoring performances from Tyler Grohn, Kory Kaunisto, and Andrew Cherniwchan. Defenseman Erik Gustafsson will be key in controlling the offense from the blue line and on the power play. Fellow Blue Liner T.J. Miller will be asked to bring his smart defensively smart play to the ice, as well as his grit that finds him in the play. Both Miller and senior Alan Dorich are returning from injuries during last season, and will be asked to shut down opponent’s top playmakers. According to head coach Walt Kyle, Dorich can be a huge playmaker. In ways that a lot of times go unnoticed.

“In my opinion, he’s one of the better defensemen in our league, if not the country. You just don’t notice him. He’s an unsung guy. He’s so reliable defensively. He has a good brain, is physical, strong, blocks shots and is a great penalty-killer.” (Craig Remsburg, The Mining Journal).

Dorich, Miller, Gustafsson and the rest of the Wildcat defense will have a tough task later in the weekend, as Northern Michigan will head to the land of 1,000 lakes to take on the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Sunday. Last year’s WCHA Final Five champions were one win away from the frozen four last season. This year they have lost nearly half of their regular cast, including All-American goaltender Alex Stalock who posted ungodly numbers last season (a 2.13 goals against average, a .924 saves percentage and five shut outs. All school records).

Head Coach Scott Sandelin knows that his team is lacking experience at this level of hockey, and a non-conference match against the Wildcats might be what his younger players need to experience before a tough WCHA schedule.  Sandelin knows that he will be counting on veteran players to open the season. Despite having exceptional team speed and solid overall contributors returning, the road to productive offense will be constructed as the season develops by this coaching staff.

“Team speed is definitely a positive for us. I don’t want to say we have more overall team skill than a year ago, but I do think we’ve got some highly-skilled, athletic guys. I think figuring out exactly what type of style we want to play is going to be more of a work in progress. We’re going to try and be aggressive to take advantage of our speed.”

Jack Connolly, Mike Connolly and Justin Fontaine return as the go-to-guys on offense for the Bulldogs. They will be spelled by Jordan Fulton, Rob Bordson, Kyle Schmidt and Drew Akins. The coaching staff will also call on a few incoming freshman to get the job done.

Overall this weekend will be a good test for the Northern Michigan University Wildcats. Avoiding a 3-12-3 start such as last year could boost a power play and offense that was suspect at times in the middle of the season. Last year’s slow start can be partially credited to the playing of so many young players. But now, those youngsters have turned into prime skaters and scorers. Walt Kyle knows that despite the struggles last year, his coaching staff had planned for the struggles of last season. This year though is a different story.

“We have a team coming back that is very experienced,” said Walt Kyle. “Over the last two years we have played a lot of freshmen and sophomores and given those guys ice time. The plan was that we would have an experienced team this year.”

Tags: Alan Dorich, Andrew Cherniwchan, CCHA, Erik Gustafsson, Kory Kaunisto, Michigan Tech, Minnesota-Duluth, Superior Cup, T.J. Miller, Tyler Grohn, Walt Kyle, WCHA, Weekend Preview, Wildcat Hockey