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Tech tops NMU 3-1 for sweep, 3rd straight win

MARQUETTE — Michigan Tech has Northern Michigan’s number.

The Huskies (4-3-1) topped the Wildcats 3-1 Saturday at the Berry Events Center for its third win in a row and a sweep of their biggest rivals. It was the Huskies’ seventh win in the last eight games against NMU (1-2) and their second sweep of the Wildcats in their last three regular season series through last season.

Tech defeated NMU 4-3 in overtime on Friday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

Tech has won four of the last six games entering its holiday break, its first without a Great Lakes Invitational Tournament. The 56th annual tournament was scratched earlier this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Huskies host Alabama Huntsville on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3 to start the second half of 2021.

“Had we been heading to the GLI, I think we would’ve been in good shape to play,” Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said.

The Huskies boast a different look than last year, and nothing was a given about how they would adjust to playing at NMU despite last year’s success in winning all four games it played on the Olympic-sized ice sheet. Bigger teams tend to fatigue or move slower across bigger ice. But it proved to be a non-issue for Tech freshmen Carson Bantle and Arvid Caderoth, each standing 6-foot-5, in getting their first taste of the rivalry at the Berry Events Center.

“It’s good to see we could play on this big ice. We skated fine,” Shawhan said. “We had good legs, we had good speed. It’s a good thing to know that when you put a lineup together with size like we do, you don’t want to be caught not being able to get around a big sheet and I thought our guys did fine.”

Caderoth assisted Brian Halonen’s goal to give Tech a 2-0 lead four minutes into in the third period. Bantle was a thorn in Northern’s side, pressuring in the offensive zone, finding open areas to shoot and helping the Huskies out-shoot Northern 32-22.

But after winning the seventh game in the last eight against the team’s biggest rival, Shawhan said there isn’t one player to pick out as the sole reason for success.

“We give awards after the game — hard to pick who. I thought Bots was excellent though,” Shawhan said of junior forward Alec Broetzman. “He played his best weekend by far of the year. He competed hard, his legs were quicker. It’s too bad we’re going ot have a little bit of time off because the guys worked so hard during that time. Hopefully we come back healthy.”

Broetzman scored the game’s first goal 13 minutes into the first. He paused as a Northern defender went across for a block attempt and Broetzman used him as a screen, and let fly a wrist shot past NMU goalie Connor Ryckman’s glove.

Caderoth showed his vision and playmaking ability early in the third when he circled towards the blue line from the corner in the NMU zone and found Halonen on the opposite face-off dot. Halonen drifted from the blue line down to the face-off dot on the weak side and Caderoth fed a pass across the slot to Halonen’s tape. Halonen wristed it past Ryckman for the eventual winning goal.

Northern answered two and a half minutes later when Vincent de Mey tucked one past Huskies goaltender Blake Pietila on the short side. It was the only blemish for Pietila’s night in making 21 saves for his fourth win of the year.

Huskies senior forward Tommy Parrottino sealed Northern’s fate with his second goal of the year that came two minutes after Northern’s goal. Parrottino picked up a deflection in front of Ryckman and circled behind the net. He backhanded a shot that appeared to catch Ryckman transitioning from the post to the top of the crease.

“When the guys are all doing their jobs, doing their assignments, it’s hard to single any out as being the real difference-makers in the game,” Shawhan said. “Our pressure on the puck was good, we got around on this big ice good, we closed well on broken plays when they were able to get cross-ice on us and we took away time and space. I thought we fought through adversity well.”

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