Great Lakes Wire

The Northern Michigan University (NMU) Wildcats men's ice hockey team is preparing for a significant home series against the top-ranked Michigan State Spartans this weekend at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. The games are scheduled for Friday, October 24 at 7:07 p.m. and Saturday, October 25 at 6:07 p.m. Broadcasts will be available on MidcoSports+, the Radio Results Network (100.3 The Point), and TV6 on Friday.

The Wildcats, currently with a record of 0-6-0, last faced the Spartans (3-1-0) at the Great Lakes Invitational last December, where NMU lost 0-2. Historically, the two teams have met over 70 times since 1980, with Michigan State holding a 38-32-4 advantage overall, though NMU has a positive home record of 15-12-1 against the Spartans.

Saturday’s game will feature Halloween-themed activities, including a costume parade during the first intermission and trick-or-treating in the suites during the second. After the game, the first "4th Period Party" of the season will be hosted by Slabz Bar and Grill.

Head coach Dave Shyiak reflected on the previous weekend, when NMU was swept by Colorado College, who have since moved up in the national rankings. Shyiak said, "First of all, give credit to Colorado; they were probably the fastest team we played [this season]. They've got some really good players; they certainly have an identity, and I thought our team did a really good job of taking away the rush play and their transition play for the most part."

On Friday, NMU lost in overtime, 2-1, with freshman goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton making 43 saves. Medrick Bolduc scored early for NMU, but Colorado College tied the game late and won in overtime. Shyiak noted, "We are getting better in our [defensive] zone and starting to tighten it up. [Auyeung-Ashton] was really, really good in net… the penalty kill was really good, for the most part we took away the rush game… and I think the game was there to be won."

Saturday’s game ended in a 5-2 loss for NMU. William Gramme started in goal, and Mathew Ward and Tobias Pitka scored their first career goals. NMU allowed two power play goals for the first time this season. Shyiak commented, "[Saturday] was a little too much up and down for me. [Auyeung-Ashton] got hurt, and [Gramme] has done really well for us, so we put him in. It was one of those things where our power play was good and our penalty kill wasn't good."

Shyiak highlighted the team’s physical play, particularly noting Kyle Bettens’ performance: "This series was physically demanding, but I thought we dictated [the physical play]... I thought it took away from their game, knowing that we were in their face in our hits were impactful, which led to a couple of our goals. The one that comes to the top of my head, [the Pitka goal], that started from a big hit from Bettens, who had a great weekend, physically. Usually, hits lead to turnovers, and you can collect pucks and go the other way, and that's what happened. We have to do more of that on a repeated basis, without taking penalties."

Freshman Mathew Ward, who joined NMU after the NCAA allowed players from major junior leagues to become eligible, had two points on Saturday. Shyiak said, "It doesn't matter from what league you're in, the transition has always been the pace of the game, the speed of the game, and the strength of the game, because the guys are older and stronger.. It really comes down to moving your feet and allowing your skill to take over, and [Ward] has a high skill level. He can make plays, he's got real good vision, and he has some real good tenacity when he gets on pucks. I thought he had really good back-to-back nights, especially on Saturday night. It takes time for those young individuals to make the transition, but he was impactful in his game, and we're going to need him and everybody else to step up."

Looking ahead to the Michigan State series, Shyiak emphasized consistency: "There are some areas that we have to clean up, and we have to buy into that, and it's got to be consistent. We're six games in [to the season]. Are we doing some good things? Yeah, [and we will] continue to build on the good things. But you need both special teams clipping at the right speed together, and not give up easy goals. We got an opponent coming in who's the best team in the country right now, there's not a lot of holes to their game, so we've got to focus on getting better in the areas that we need to get better at and make sure we're able to execute."

The Spartans will visit NMU’s home rink for the first time since the 2019-20 season. Shyiak cautioned against being overly emotional: "You want to be emotionally charged and engaged, but sometimes when you're amped up too much, you play a hurried game. And when you play a hurried game full of emotion, it can get you out of position, or you can make poor puck plays with it. You've got to have a calmness to your game with some real good intensity, so you can make poised plays with the puck and be on the attack. We do want to be emotionally on the edge, and we want to be intense, but again, we want to have a calmness… Anytime you've got the best team in the country come into your barn, you've got to embrace it. You know it's going to be a battle. It brings out the best in you. We talked about that with our young group, to embrace it, have fun with it, and go out, play instinctively, play hard, compete for one another, and let's make sure we execute on our game plan."

Shyiak also mentioned the importance of home crowd support: "It should be a great crowd [this weekend], and that really helps our guys. We've got to have that home ice advantage. It's like having a seventh player on the ice when you have a full crowd like that."

Now in his second season as head coach after rebuilding last year’s roster, Shyiak stressed ongoing development: "We started from scratch last year.. You can't fast-track the growth and development, and when you combine that against playing the best teams in the nation, it's not always going to go your way, but we are getting better playing against these really good teams. We have to just continue on that process, but we also have to learn the hard lessons… Our approach is to focus on Friday night, take some of the things we learned from last weekend that were good and we've been consistent with, and now we've got to be consistent in this aspect of the game that's going to help us get over the hump. Consistency in how you play is the key to success."