HOUGHTON, Mich. — With a shot total that read 51-21, Friday night’s game between Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan might have seemed more like a college football game than a hockey game.
However, the Huskies took advantage of their shot total to get five goals past Michael Doan and skate away with a 5-1 win at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
Four of the Huskies’ six seniors scored at least a point in the win for the Huskies.
“Big win for us,” said MTU coach Mel Pearson. “Northern has a lot to play for and they played hard. We were ready to go right from the get go. Some pucks found their way into the net for us.”
Doan, the Wildcats’ starter in goal place of the injured Mathias Dahlstrom, was tested early and often by the hungry Huskies before getting yanked in the third period. He might have been the story of the game if he would have gotten any help from his teammates.
“Michael did a great job,” said Wildcats’ coach Walt Kyle. “I didn’t pull Michael because of anything he did. They are a really good team. I didn’t think we did a good job of making the game hard on them at all.”
Early on, C.J. Eick had a shot that knocked Doan backwards onto his butt. Dylan Steman snatched the rebound and fired on net, but Doan reached out to make the save.
Reid Sturos had a nice chance from the low slot less than two minutes later that Doan fought off.
Just under two minutes after that, Cliff Watson blasted a shot to Doan’s left. Brent Baltus tipped the shot back towards the net, but the tip hit the post behind Doan.
On the next shift, Eick fed Blake Hietala crashing the slot. Hietala fired the initial shot, got his own rebound, but was stopped.
Then in a span of 1:10, the teams traded three goals, all off rebounds.
The Huskies struck first when defenseman Jimmy Davis, playing in his first game of the season, got his own rebound. His second shot missed the net, but caromed off the back boards right to Blake Pietila, who beat Doan at the 11-minute mark.
“I think this was a good bounce-back game from last weekend,” said Pietila. “It was real important. We needed to get the energy back this week.”
The Wildcats responded to the goal with their best shift of the opening frame. Dominik Shine had two shots, the first off a backhand in front, the second on a forehand. The second rebound kicked out to Shane Sooth, who scored from a bad angle at 11:39.
Looking to bounce back, the Huskies did just that.
Shane Hanna passed the puck in front of the net to Eick. Eick’s tip was stopped, but the rebound bounced to Doan’s right. Watson crashed the slot, grabbed the puck and beat the outstretched Doan at 12:10.
Reed Seckel had a chance to tie the game for the Wildcats, but his point-blank shot from the slot was stopped by Jamie Phillips.
The Huskies (25-8-2 overall, 20-5-2 WCHA) had a great scoring chance four minutes into the middle frame when Chris Leibinger fired a shot from the left point. Malcolm Gould tipped the shot, but Doan made the save.
Just over three minutes later, Gould got a shot right off a faceoff, but was again thwarted by Doan.
Gould had another good scoring chance when the Huskies were awarded their first power play of the night. He took a cross-ice pass and tried to beat Doan, but could not lift the puck over Doan’s right leg.
Pietila also had a nice chance on that same advantage, but his shot in the high slot off a pass from Alex Petan was stopped.
The Huskies eventually scored again. Gould took a pass from Mike Neville in the corner to Doan’s right. Gould waited for Tyler Heinonen to cut into the slot. Heinonen took the pass, waited for an opening, and beat Doan cleanly from the hashmarks at 14:27.
Michigan Tech struck again 3:25 into the third when Sturos took a pass from David Johnstone and crashed the net. On his way there, he fed the puck to Pietila, who buried a one-timer for his second of the night.
The Huskies struck again 2:06 later when Heinonen skated past the net and tipped a shot from Leibinger past Doan.
That goal ended Doan’s night, despite his 41 saves to that point.
Derek Dun came in and was forced to make five more saves before the night was over.
Phillips stopped 11 for the Huskies in that final frame. Arguably the best scoring chance for the Wildcats (14-15-6 overall, 11-12-4 WCHA) was not one of those 11. Watson turned the puck over in front of Phillips, but D.J. Vandercook missed the net by about five feet to Phillips’ left.
During a four-on-four, the Wildcats’ Robbie Payne tried a play similar to the Huskies’ first goal, but Phillips hung in to make the save.
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