Michigan Tech sweeps Northern
Wildcats coach praises Huskies goalie
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MARQUETTE -- Sometimes in hockey, a team can give everything it can on the ice, but it just isn't good enough in the end.
That's how Northern Michigan University head coach Grant Potulny felt Saturday after the No. 19-ranked Wildcats fell to rival Michigan Tech 3-2 at the Berry Events Center. The loss gave the Huskies (7-6, 5-5 WCHA) the weekend sweep and NMU (7-5-2, 5-3) has now lost three games in a row.
"For three minutes last night, when we got penalties, and for maybe five or six minutes in the first period, I didn't think we played great," Potulny said. "The rest of that time was as good as we could play. I thought the penalties were very, very lopsided and that's very disappointing. It's hard when you're in the box a lot. It's a challenge.
"Their goaltender (Matt Jurusik), that's as good of a two-game segment as any goalie whose played against us"
Huskies head coach Joe Shawhan praised the Wildcats' efforts and felt that his team was lucky to come out of the weekend with two victories.
"I thought it was a gutsy effort," he said. "We came out and played probably 32 or 33 minutes of really good hockey. Northern pushed hard and did a great job. It was 3-0 and all of a sudden, it's 3-2 and they gave themselves a chance. They competed extremely well. They won battles, they beat us to loose pucks in the zone."
NMU started putting pressure on Jurusik and the Huskies defense from the start of the game as Hank Sorensen and Vincent de Mey both got shots on net in the first minute. However, it was the Huskies who got on the scoreboard first as Raymond Brice beat Wildcats goalie John Hawthorne low to put Tech up 1-0 with 17:52 remaining in the first period.
MTU ended up leading in shots 12-10 after the first period, but Northern had the better scoring opportunities. Just a few seconds after the Brice goal, Joe Nardi had a shot in the slot saved by Jurusik, but the rebound went right to de Mey. The sophomore got a shot off, but Jurusik made a sprawling save by the far post to keep it out of the net.
Griffin Loughran also had a chance in the slot with 14:17 remaining and de Mey had a shot ring off the post with eight minutes left, but the Wildcats couldn't cash in for the remainder of the period.
A fight broke out in the final seconds in the corner of the MTU defensive zone with a bunch of penalties being handed out, including 5-minute majors and 10-minute game misconducts to Loughran and MTU's Justin Misiak.
As disappointing as the ending was, Potulny looked for positives and said that the two losses won't "define" his team.