HOUGHTON - The 2011-12 Michigan Tech hockey team has a problem that the injury-riddled 2010-11 Huskies would have loved to have: too much depth. Consistent playing time has already been tough to come by for some players, but now the addition of junior forward Chad Pietila and freshman defenseman Justin Fillion to the active roster gives Tech 31 healthy players - 18 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders.
"It's difficult, it's hard - we've got so many guys, but they've all handled it well," Tech coach Mel Pearson said. "It'll stiffen the competition, and competition is good."
Chad rounds out the ABCs of Pietilas on the team, in addition to brother Blake and cousin Aaron. He has actually been with the Huskies for a full year - longer than freshman Blake - after transferring from rival Northern Michigan, but he was ineligible to play until the Great Lakes Invitational due to transfer rules.
"I like it up here and I'm glad I made the switch, and it's worked out well for me," Pietila said. "It was tough (not playing games), but I wasn't expecting to play, so I knew I just had to work hard in practice every day and come to the rink with high spirits."
Pietila played 39 games with the Wildcats after a stellar two-year run (2007-2009) with the North American Hockey League's Marquette Rangers in which he tallied 99 points (46 goals, 53 assists) in 113 games. He saw his first action with the Huskies in the opening game of the Great Lakes Invitational against Michigan State.
"Especially being back home with all my family there it was a great way to come back," said Chad, who is grateful at least some of the family connection is still in Houghton.
"My brother is a couple years younger than I am so we never really played together so it's been good. We live together, so it's a fun experience," he added. "We work together every day in the summer, so we see a lot of each other. We obviously fight from time to time, but we get along pretty well."
Neither Chad nor the coaching staff is sure of the role he'll play during the second half of the season, but Pearson said he hopes Chad will be "a good, solid, honest player who can score."
Pearson added Pietila is a ways away from being the player he can be, and Chad admitted the only way to truly get back to game speed is to play in games, which will take some time.
"You don't just miss a year of hockey and step right in and go," Pearson said. "The timing, the energy, the pace, the conditioning is all different when you get in the game, so he's going to have to get up to speed in those areas."
But nobody on the Huskies will face as quick of a transition as freshman Justin Fillion, who was originally slated to join the team in the fall with Tech's six other true freshmen.
Complications arose with the departure of most of last year's coaching staff and some academic issues that have since been resolved, and now Fillion faces the unenviable task of joining the team mid-season.
"There was a big kerfuffle ... so it's just one of those things that didn't work out, but I'm here now," Fillion said. "It's a great school, and a great hockey program."
While the Prince George, British Columbia native is a recruit from the previous coaching staff, his style as an offensive defenseman fits well with what Pearson wants on his team.
"He looks good and it looks like he'll add some things that we don't have a lot of on the team, which is puck handling and offensive ability from the back end," Pearson said. "We're happy to have him here - he skates well, thinks the game well and he can put up some numbers."
He totaled 56 points in 62 games during the 2010-11 season, which was split between the Prince George Spruce Kings and Victoria Grizzlies. The 21-year-old freshman tallied 123 points in 178 career games in the BCHL, and he spent last fall working out at home.
"I skated with my local junior-A team back home and hitting the gym every day, and working out in that sense, but it was definitely tough mentally not being here with the guys, but ever since I've been here, all the guys have been welcoming," Fillion said. "It's going to be really tough adjusting. I don't expect to play all that much - I just want to come in here and play my best."
Ultimately, the coaching staff will play the lineup they think will give Tech the best chance to win, but the decision won't be easy entering a key Western Collegiate Hockey Association home series against Alaska Anchorage this weekend.
