Huskies and Wildcats Claw to Tie

The Michigan Tech Huskies came to the Berry Events Center to take on the Northern Michigan Wildcats hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s loss. In the 2006-07 season, the Wildcats scored on their first shot of the game and it was the only goal of the entire game.

After a 3-2 home loss to the ‘Cats during their season opener, the Huskies, who are overall 44-59-10 (.434) against the Wildcats, the Huskies came into the series in hopes of coming away with a win.

They didn’t come out with a loss.

Putting the past in the past, Husky junior Malcolm Gwilliam scored an unassisted goal and their defense played great as Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan skated to a 1-1 overtime tie.

“We were very dominant. Our power play had an opportunity to put the game away in the first period,” Husky coach Jamie Russell said. “We made a few plays that were indecisive but we made some strong decisions and strong plays.”

The second period began with aggression and continued to be purely physical. Complete checks and roughing weren’t uncommon throughout the 20 minutes of play, nor were great scoring opportunities. The Huskies took 12 minutes in penalties while the Wildcats took six, only four minutes overlapping.

“We had four power plays in the first period,” Russell said. “It tends to even out. The penalties and power plays are usually pretty close. We were strong defensively. We didn’t give up a power play goal and we had to kill power plays back to back to back.”

With less than two minutes left, Northern’s senior, Matt Siddall, scored his fifth goal of the season.

“We created a lot of scoring chances,” Russell said. “Our shots on goal were fairly lop sided. It means we were doing things well defensively, we were getting the pucks to the net.”

The third period was a tennis match as the play went up and down the ice. There were no penalties and few scoring opportunities. In the third period, the Huskies outshot the ‘Cats 13 to 1, 30-9 overall.

“We had a lot of attempts but they blocked most of our shots. The shots on goal don’t do us justice,” Kyle said.

“I think we played a heck of a game. We didn’t give anything up the first period. We generated a lot of chances and got a goal. The second period was frustrating because we gave up a late goal but we were short handed the whole period.”

The overtime play remained scoreless, though made crucial changes to tomorrow night’s rosters. After intentional injury attempts to Wildcat goalie, Brian Stewart, the gloves hit the ice, resulting in four game misconducts including Tech’s Eric Kattelus and Jordan Foote and Northern’s Siddall and TJ Miller.

“I’m not satisfied with a tie,” Kyle said. “I’m never satisfied with a tie.”

Though not satisfied with the outcome of tonight’s game, Kyle was very satisfied with Stewart’s performance.

“He was really on his game,” Kyle said.

“I think this was my best game of the year,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t over reacting to anything. I remained calm. When I get too nervous I dive around and knock into the net. I just have to stay steady and calm. I was thinking about the game all week and as it comes up I just realize hockey’s supposed to be fun. It takes some of the pressure off.”

The Wildcats head up to Houghton for Saturday night’s game where the Huskies want nothing more than to pull out a win.

“We were thorough tonight in every facet,” Russell said. “We have to see where we are with our personality for tomorrow night’s game. There’s a lot of confusion with the DQs and we have to see who’s available to play. We have to take a good, hard look at what we did well and what we need to improve on. We’re headed back to our building and we want to win.”