When Derek Mullahy arrived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for his first year of USHL junior hockey in 2019, he knew the Roughriders were going to be looking for a goaltender.
Their previous netminder had just been a workhorse for them in the previous, playing in 47 games and leading them to a Clark Cup playoff berth with a 2.30 goals-against average, but left to play for a college team in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
That goalie, if you haven’t guessed it already, was Blake Pietila.
Pietila would go on to become one of the top goaltenders in Michigan Tech history. In 141 games, his GAA (2.12) and save percentage (.920) are No. 2 on the Huskies all-time leaderboard.
But after five seasons in Houghton, Mich., Pietela graduated.
The Huskies needed an experienced goalie. Once again, Mullahy was ready to come into a situation where his team was in need of a goaltending option in the wake a of a departed Pietila. After exhausting his eligibility at Harvard, where he played in 30 games over three seasons, the Massachusetts native was looking for a place where he could step in and get a chance to compete for a starting job.
He found that place in Houghton.
“I wanted to play at a place that I would have the biggest chance to play, a program that had some history, and a [program] that was a national contender. The last three or four years they have been in the tournament, and they’ve had a really good history of goaltenders going to the next level, whether that be professionally in the United States or overseas,” Mullahy said in a phone interview on Tuesday. He added that having an opportunity to replace Petila twice is “coming full circle.”
“It’s definitely big shoes to fill, and I know the fans, after seeing him for four years, expect solid goaltending every night, and what I’ve been planning to do,” he said. “Blake was obviously a great goalie here, and I’m just trying to do my best to be that same kind of reliable rock back there in the net. Just trying to do whatever I can to stop the puck for my team.”
So far, Mullahy has done just that. In eight starts for the Huskies (who are now 7-4-1 overall), Mullahy is 4-3-1 with two shutouts, a 1.86 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. And although he was splitting time with junior Max Vayrynen early in the season, an injury to Vayrynen has meant that Mullahy has been Tech’s primary goalie for now, starting in each of the Huskies last four games (against Minnesota State and Bowling Green).
“He’s been solid. He didn’t give up one on Friday, and on Saturday, they didn’t beat him,” Michigan Tech coach Joe Shawhan said when asked about Mullahy in his weekly press conference. “They didn’t beat him with a shot all weekend except on the penalty shootouts. He got beat on a backdoor play that we were set to cover and didn’t… And then the other one was a goofy bounce off the boards.”
The Huskies beat Bowling Green 3-0 on Friday but then tied 2-2 on Saturday and lost the shootout.
“He never got beat with a shot on the weekend, and you can’t ask anything more out of a goaltender,” Shawhan said.
Mullahy said it took him a little while to settle in to the U.P. and life in Houghton, but he credits his experience with helping him finally find his rhythm.
“My first two years, I played a decent amount of games, but didn’t really have a chunk of the work until last year,” said Mullahy, who played in more games combined in 2023-24 (19) than he did in his first two seasons for the Crimson (17). “And then just being able to bring that experience over here, when we’re in a tight game, just having that experience behind me that I could close a game down.”
Mullahy’s numbers in 2023-24 weren’t great–a 3.14 goals against and a .897 save percentage–but he’s been able to be more calm playing for Michigan Tech this season.
“The preparation I had over the summer, being on the ice pretty much every day, allowed me to work very hard on my craft,” Mullahy said. “I’ve been trying to change my game into being a more athletic goaltender. I’ve also gotten better at calming down instead of hitting the panic button when things go wrong. I think all that work has been paying off.”
Mullahy is also still getting used to the CCHA. Figuring out some of the tendencies of opposing players and teams has been fun for him.
“I wouldn’t say the CCHA and the ECAC are too different, actually, but it’s been really cool to go into all these different rinks and play these teams I’ve never played before,” he said. “I would say the teams in the CCHA are definitely more physical and it’s more of a physical game out there than playing ECAC teams. But I think the CCHA is a great league for goalies. I think I see a lot of shots in games, and there are also a lot of skilled players.”
The Huskies host St. Thomas this weekend–another team Mullahy has never faced in his college career.
“I think sometimes playing a team for the first time can be maybe a benefit to the goalie, just because the other team hasn’t played me yet so they don’t know my tendencies and they don’t know, for example, that they might have scored on me a certain way the last game, and don’t know my weaknesses or anything,” he said. ”I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never played. St. Thomas before, so I’m so excited to do it and see what they bring.”
