Northern Michigan Wildcats Preview

By Matt Mackinder/MiCHO Managing Editor

NORTHERN MICHIGAN WILDCATS

Head coach: Walt Kyle (eighth season)

Home arena: Berry Events Center (3,754)

Last season: 19-17-5 overall, 11-12-5 CCHA (sixth), lost Notre Dame in CCHA semifinals, beat Alaska in third-place game

Returning for the Wildcats:

Goaltenders: Reid Ellingson (back as sophomore after playing in the USHL last season), Devan Hartigan, Brian Stewart, Erik Wetton

Forwards: Jared Brown, Matt Butcher (assistant captain), Andrew Cherniwchan, Justin Florek, Phil Fox, Tyler Gron, Greger Hanson, Ray Kaunisto, Nicholas Kosinski, Mike Maltese, Mark Olver and Bill Smith (assistant captain)

Defenseman: Alan Dorich, Andrew Fernandez, Erik Gustafsson (captain), T.J. Miller (assistant captain) and Erik Spady

No longer sporting the NMU sweater:

Forwards: Tim Hartung, Nathan Sigmund and Nick Sirota

Defensemen: Blake Cosgrove, Ben Lindemulder and Derek May

Goaltender: Derek Janzen

New to the U.P.:

Forwards: Kory Kaunisto, Brian Nugent, Chad Pietila

Defensemen: Wade Epp, Kyle Follmer, Austin Handley, Scott Macaulay

NHL draft picks: 3 (Olver, Butcher, Miller)

Notable Quotable: "We’re older and the class that has led us is the guys that were sophomores a year ago. Some of them weren’t ready to be impact players, but I think they are now. In my opinion, all of our seniors are very solid players and with them being healthy, I think those guys will be able to get us off to a good start, but we have a very difficult schedule to start." - NMU head coach Walt Kyle

TEAM PREVIEW: Northern Michigan

NORTHERN MICHIGAN WILDCATS

Head coach: Walt Kyle (seventh season)
Home arena: Berry Events Center (3,754)
Last season: 20-20-4 overall, 12-13-3 CCHA (6th), beat Notre Dame in CCHA third-place game
Back for more: Goaltenders Brian Stewart and Derek Janzen, forwards Billy Smith (assistant captain), Nick Kosinski, Gregor Hanson, Tim Hartung (captain), Phil Fox, Nathan Sigmund, Jared Brown, Nick Sirota (assistant captain), Mark Olver, Mike Maltese, Ray Kaunisto and Matt Butcher (assistant captain) and defensemen Alan Dorich, Blake Cosgrove, Andrew Fernandez, Erik Gustafsson, Erik Spady, Derek May and T.J. Miller (assistant captain)
So long, farewell: Goaltender Reid Ellingson (went to USHL after freshman year, will return in '09-10) and forwards Matt Siddall, Andrew Sarauer and Brant Marple
Welcome to campus: Forwards Andrew Cherniwchan, Justin Florek, Phil Axtell (transfer from Michigan Tech) and Tyler Gron, defenseman Ben Lindemulder and goaltender Devan Hartigan
NHL draft picks: 3 (Butcher, Miller, Olver)
Notable Quotable: "I think one of the reasons we'll be strong is because of our leadership because when you go into a year you can always project the players and at the end of the day for your team to be better you have to have the same kind of chemistry and leadership and all that stuff.”– Head coach Walt Kyle

Wildcats sweep away national champs

By Matt Mackinder/Michigan State Beat Writer

No offense generally means no wins and Michigan State found that out firsthand last weekend in Marquette as Northern Michigan took two convincing wins from the defending national champs.

It was the Nick Sirota showcase Friday night as he scored the first hat trick against MSU in more than two years to lead NMU past the Spartans, 3-1.

"We didn't play particularly well tonight," admitted MSU head coach Rick Comley after the game. "I thought we might have struggled a little to adjust to the bigger surface, but Northern did a good job of blocking shots. We just couldn't get them through."

Sirota's goals were even strength, shorthanded, and on the power play.

Jeff Dunne scored for then-No. 6 Michigan State to break up the shutout and Jeff Lerg and Bobby Jarosz, who played the third period, combined for 21 saves.

Brian Stewart kicked out 23 shots for the Wildcats.

“We knew what our competition is and they’re pretty big rivals,” Stewart said to USCHO. “We were all ready before the game and it was nice to see. But you could tell from the start of the game we were out to win.”

Saturday night, Stewart made 32 saves in the 3-0 shutout.

Matt Siddall scored twice and Mark Olver also tallied for NMU.

Lerg finished with 26 saves for Michigan State.

“The team did everything they had to do to block shots tonight,” Wildcats head coach Walt Kyle said of the ‘Cats’ defense, also to USCHO. “If you can imagine, getting hit by a puck is not a great thing and they did a good job getting themselves in front of it.”

Northern Michigan (12-15-3, 9-11-2 CCHA) is at Ohio State this weekend, while No. 8 Michigan State (18-8-5, 14-5-3 CCHA) will engage Western Michigan in a home-and-home series starting at Munn Ice Arena on Friday in a 7:05 start. The game will be televised by Comcast Local.

WMU, NMU split up north

By Kyle Whitney/NMU Beat Writer

Over the weekend, the Western Michigan Broncos and the Northern Michigan Wildcats split a pair of contests in Marquette.

After leaping out to a 4-0 lead, the Broncos glided to a victory on Friday. One night later, the Broncos looked to have another win in hand, before a pair of NMU underclassmen stole the show - and the win.

On Friday night, Northern Michigan (2-8-0 overall, 1-7-0 CCHA) dropped a 4-2 decision to the visiting Broncos (3-5-0, 1-3-0).

“They beat tonight. They gave it to us,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “I thought we did a lot of things really well and had a lot of horrible breakdowns.”

Northern fell behind early, as freshman netminder Reid Ellingson allowed three goals on four Bronco shots in the first nine minutes of his second career start.

“You can’t spot anybody in college hockey three goals and expect to win a game,” Kyle said.

After falling behind 3-0, sophomore netminder Brian Stewart relieved Ellingson in the crease.

Kyle said that, in his opinion, none of the goals were Ellingson’s fault and that he didn’t have much of a chance on any of them. Nonetheless, he felt that switching goaltenders might help to swing the momentum in the contest.

“We had to try to do something to change our mentality a little bit and we did that,” Kyle said.

As the second period opened, the Broncos went up 4-0 on Cam Watson’s second goal of the evening.

Northern cut the deficit to 4-2 on second-period goals by freshman Phil Fox and junior Nick Sirota.

Despite picking up the momentum and getting numerous offensive opportunities in the final stanza, the Wildcats were unable to score again.

On Saturday night the Wildcats won their first conference game of the year in dramatic fashion, topping the Broncos, 4-3, in overtime.

After the two teams skated off the majority of the overtime period, the Wildcats had the puck behind their own cage and headed down-ice with 20 seconds remaining.

Sophomore forward Matt Butcher took the puck across the blue line and fought through a crowd in the offensive zone before flipping the game-winning goal past Bronco netminder Riley Gill with just 3.3 seconds remaining in the overtime period.

Butcher’s goal was the first of his career.

“It’s obviously been a long time waiting,” Butcher said. “They don’t come any bigger than that.”

The win came just minutes after another dramatic Wildcat goal launched the two teams into overtime.

Trailing 3-2 in the closing seconds of regulation, Northern pulled Stewart from the net and utilized an extra attacker.

Just when it looked as though the game was over, NMU freshman forward Mark Olver grabbed a fluttering puck in front of the net, dropped it to the ice and knocked it in to square the game.

The clock read 00:00.7.

The goal was also the first of Olver’s career.

“It’s an unreal feeling right now,” Olver said after the game.

The Broncos will now prepare to face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (7-4-0, 5-2-0) in a home-and-home series, while Northern Michigan will head to Bowling Green (5-2-0, 4-1-0) for the weekend series.

Wolverines sweep NMU to open CCHA play

By Kyle Whitney/NMU Beat Writer

In the first weekend of conference play this season, the Michigan Wolverines swept the Northern Michigan Wildcats in back-to-back games, 3-1 and 4-3.

After taking a 1-0 lead on a Nick Sirota goal in the first period of game one, the Wildcats committed six penalties in the second.

“You cannot be in the box that much. They had the puck and we took so many stupid penalties,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. “They got total control of the game on power-plays.”

Chad Kolarik scored for Michigan during a 5-on-3 and at the second intermission, the game was squared at a goal apiece.

The Wildcats fired just two shots during the second period, both from beyond the top of the circle.

In the final period, Kolarik tacked on another power-play marker, this one the game-winner. The insurance goal came from Carl Hagelin at the 16:16 mark and put the Wildcats up 3-1.

"Right from the get-go we knew it would be a close game,” U-M head coach Red Berenson said. “They got the first goal, which was a big goal in the game. Fortunately, our power play finally connected because in the second period we had a lot of power plays. Kevin Porter finally scored and that kind of broke the ice - that was good. Then in the third period, I thought we played our best hockey. We really played hard. We killed a penalty we needed to kill. I thought we carried the play, especially the last half of the period. Our best period might have been our third period."

NMU goaltender Brian Stewart stopped 27 of 30 Wolverine shots in the loss, while Michigan tender Billy Sauer allowed one goal on 14 shots.

Saturday was opposite day in the Berry Events Center and the two teams switched roles in every aspect but the final score. Northern Michigan was the aggressor while the Wolverines committed penalty after penalty and spent the evening killing off those mistakes.

“We were killing too many penalties, just like Northern last night,” Berenson said. “You can’t get shots when you’re killing penalties in your zone.”

The PK unit stood tall, though, an when the game was over, Michigan had collected nine penalties, 37 minutes in the box and a short-handed, game-winning goal.

The Wolverines led 3-2 late in the contest. After Michigan freshman Matt Rust picked up a 5-minute major for checking from behind, NMU pulled the goalie and organized a 6-on-4 attack in the final minute.

With just 41 seconds remaining, Phil Fox tied the game at three. Stewart returned to the net and the Wildcats maintained a one-man advantage.

The Wildcats won the faceoff before turning the puck over in the neutral zone. A quick tip gave the puck to a streaking Chad Kolarik, who beat Stewart for the game-winning goal with 22 seconds remaining.

“We made a mistake,” Kyle said. “We pulled the goalie, were able to score a goal to tie it and we had a guy make a mistake.”

The goal was the only shot that Stewart faced all night after relieving starter Derek Janzen, who allowed three goals on 18 shots.

“I was really disappointed, honestly,” Kyle said. “[Janzen is] a great kid, I’m sure he will come up with a bigger effort at some point, but I didn’t like any of the three goals that went in on him.”

The third goal snuck past Janzen with just under five minutes remaining in the game and Stewart entered the game cold.

The Wolverines will stay home next weekend as they face off against Boston University. The Wildcats, on the other hand, will head south to take on the defending National Champion Michigan State Spartans .

Wildcats win exhibition, name captains

The Northern Michigan University hockey team had a tune-up for the 2007-08 season on Sunday afternoon at the Berry Events Center as the Wildcats defeated the University of Toronto in an exhibition game, 8-0.

NMU scored four times in the first period, three in the second and once in the third.

Mark Olver and Andrew Sarauer scored twice and Tim Hartung, Jared Brown, Billy Smith and Derek May added singles.

Brian Stewart and Derek Janzen both saw time between the pipes. Stewart turned away six shots, while Janzen had 10 saves.

NMU will take to the road for the first weekend of the regular season for the Superior Showcase. Friday night, the team will be at Michigan Tech and the next night at Minnesota-Duluth.

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TJ Miller and Billy Smith have been named co-captains for the 2007-08 Northern Michigan Wildcats.

“In my opinion, these two guys have proven to be emerging leaders on the team,” said NMU head coach Walt Kyle. “They have the respect of the guys in the room and coaching staff. They have what it takes to take the team in the direction we want to go.”

Miller, a sophomore defenseman from Placentia, Calif., had two goals and 12 assists for 14 points last year in 37 games.

Smith is a sophomore forward from Sterling, Alaska, and has yet to skate for the Wildcats. He had to sit out last year after transferring from Alaska-Anchorage. In his only season of action at UAA (2005-06), he had eight points on four goals and four assists in 32 games of action.