(Photo Illustration by Adam Niemi/The Daily Mining Gazette; David Archambeau/Photo for The Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — While the Michigan Tech hockey team avoided getting swept for the third time this season with a series split at Alaska last weekend, some of the Huskies’ problems that factored heavily in being swept previously had sprung up at points against the Nanooks.

But the journey to Alaska had taught Tech more about where the team is at as far as growing its game. With an upcoming four-game homestand against Alaska Anchorage and Clarkson, the youthful Huskies have a chance to figure things out and improve on their 1-4 home record this season.

“We need to create more consistent scoring opportunities. We were trending in that direction,” Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said. “Then it slips into our defensive game. A little bit of cheating, little bit about shortcutting, trying to sit out in soft ice and wait for pucks instead of earning it and going through bodies. We have to get back to growing our offensive game, but defensively we can’t sacrifice what we do defensively because we are challenged right now. It’d be different if we were scoring five goals or six goals a game. We could have track meet games but we can’t do that as we found out in Alaska.”

Alaska won 4-3 before Tech rebounded with a 2-1 win Saturday.

But the Huskies (8-7, 6-6 WCHA) are home for the next two weeks at an opportune time to dial in before the Great Lakes Invitational at the end of the month in Detroit to ring in 2020.

Alaska Anchorage followed the Huskies in traveling from Alaska for their first meeting of the season at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Puck drop is 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday.

The Seawolves (2-9-3, 2-6-2) are coming off a 4-1 loss and 4-4 tie to Ferris State.

Shawhan said the Seawolves are similar to the Nanooks.

“Alaska does a lot of things challenging as Fairbanks does. They play a similar type game, take a lot of chances,” he said. “They seem to rallly off of underdog mentality — us against the world mentality. It works for them. You can see the energy in how they play. The chances they take any given night, they work well for them. If you challenge that, creating offense like we are, it can go either way. It’s always a tough matchup whenever we play them, for whatever reason.”

The Nanooks had found ways to push the Huskies back on their heels, notably with a third-period comeback in the Nov. 29 game. The Huskies led 2-1 going into the period before Alaska tied it on power-play goals.

Michigan Tech took another lead with a goal from Keegan Ford, but Alaska turned up its intensity. The Nanooks tied the game a minute and a half after Ford’s goal, then grabbed the lead with three and a half minutes remaining for the win.

Alaska out-shot Tech 15-4 in the third period.

The on-ice tendencies were there last weekend: occasional lulls in which Tech defers the game’s tempo to the opponent, giving up puck possession and chasing in the defensive zone. Alaska had the puck in Tech’s zone and wore down the Huskies before notching the tying goal on Friday.

The Nanooks also dictated rhythm when they swept the Huskies in Houghton on Oct. 11-12. Minnesota State set the tone throughout its sweep against Tech on Nov. 8-9.

But, to Tech’s credit, the young team is an improved team since then, and it showed in Saturday’s 2-1 win. The Huskies did better to mitigate Alaska’s chances, as Shawhan said, and kept a competitive edge by dictating the tempo.

“We didn’t do anything differently, just tried to regain our focus and talk about what we do well,” Shawhan said. “Friday, we just didn’t move our legs, and you’re playing against a skating team on big ice. That’s a recipe for disaster and we found that.”

The offense sparked to life with two straight sweeps after being swept by the Mavericks. Tech swept Lake Superior State and followed it up with a home-and-home sweep against rival Northern Michigan.

The Huskies have scored at least three goals in four of the past six games. In the previous nine games, the Huskies had scored at least three goals in just two games.

The Huskies’ defensemen and goaltending have been the keystones of stability as the offense has had erratic overall production this season. A quiet part of Michigan Tech’s success has been consistent goaltending from senior Matt Jurusik. He’s started each of the past six games, compiling a 5-1 record with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. Jurusik’s overall .927 save percentage this season has him tied for 13th in the nation.

“He played well I thought on Friday. He just didn’t give us the great saves we’ve been getting out of him to sealing victories or stealing victories, but he played well,” Shawhan said. “On Friday, the goals weren’t by any means his fault. Saturday we supported him and cut down the chances against considerably. He held up strong when he had to and we got through it.”

Tech has three wins with a two-goal lead or more. The last four Huskies’ wins have been one-goal games. While Shawhan said the team has to create more offense, he said the Saturday win seemed more of a complete game, the kind of which that sprung a four-game win streak.

“I thought we got stronger in most ways as the game went on, which is always a good thing,” Shawhan said. “It was a good rebound game. We can kind of toss Friday’s game. There’s not a lot to talk about what happened, why it happened. It just happened. We rebounded well. It’s good to come out of the weekend feeling good and feeling like you’re heading in the right direction.”