NMU bests Tech, secures Cup

The Northern Michigan Wildcats rounded out the season series with the UP-rival Michigan Tech Huskies this weekend with a Friday night tie and a 2-0 victory on Saturday night.

The win assured that NMU would be in control of the Ramada Cup - the trophy given to the winner of the NMU-MTU season series - for the next year.

The heat of the rivalry was drawn to the surface on Friday night when, with 10 seconds remaining in overtime, NMU goaltender Brian Stewart was on the receiving end of a Jordan Foote hit.

A fist fight quickly broke out between the two teams and went on for nearly a minute while the officials tried to separate players across the ice.

When the smoke finally cleared, Foote had picked up a pair of five-minute calls for slashing and fighting, as well as two 10-minute game disqualifications. MTU’s Eric Kattelus and NMU’s TJ Miller and Matt Siddall each got five-minute fighting penalties and 10-minute game disqualifications. In the final 30 seconds of the contest, there were 90 penalty minutes and four DQs given out.

In all, there were 114 minutes of penalties handed out during the 1-1 draw.

NMU's Friday goal came from Siddall, while Tech's Matt Gwilliam netted his team's lone marker.

On Saturday, Northern (7-10-1, 5-9-0) scored a pair of goals in the second period and was back-stopped by a second solid effort from sophomore goaltender Stewart. Tech (6-8-2, 5-6-1) could never make up the deficit.

NMU goals came in from Ray Kaunisto and Andrew Sarauer.

For the weekend, Stewart was lights-out and finished the series with 64 saves on 65 Tech shots for a .985 weekend save percentage. If you stretch those numbers back through the Wildcat victory against Alaska a couple weeks back, Stewart has stopped 90 of 93 shots in his last three starts for a .968 save percentage.

The winning goalie, however, got minimal help from his offense this weekend and NMU was out-shot, 65-24.

The Wildcats will now get a short holiday break before they face off again on Dec. 28 in the Denver Cup. The 'Cats will take on Dartmouth and either Denver or SHU.