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College Hockey: Huskies visit rival Wildcats in WCHA tournament 1st round

Michigan Tech senior Alex Smith (20) shoots on Northern Michigan goalie Nolan Kent on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Houghton, Mich. (David Archambeau/The Daily Mining Gazette)

Michigan Tech faces Northern Michigan for a second straight week. This time, the bitter rivals meet in the first round of the WCHA tournament at the Berry Events Center, a place where the Huskies have done well.

Tech won both games in Marquette during the regular season home-and-home series against Northern in November and last week. Huskies senior co-captain Raymond Brice said the team’s schemes are optimal for Olympic sized ice.

“We worked a lot on our offensive scheme prep during the off-week and the prep week,” he said of the team’s 8-4 win at Marquette on Feb. 28. “That obviously helps us going to Northern. Our offense was clicking, our power-play was good. The open ice there, our top guys were able to utilize their speed and skill on that open ice. Our scheme works better there. You gotta look at the positives going there.”

Tech went 4-3 in February and have won four of the last five games heading into the playoffs.

The No. 6 seed Huskies (19-15-3, 14-12-2) took the season series from the Wildcats 3-1. And Tech has played better on the road (12-6-1) compared to at home (5-9-2).

Puck drop against the No. 3 seed Wildcats is 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday and 6:07 p.m. Sunday (if necessary).

“It’s going to be a good hard-fought series. There will be no surprises” Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said. “If they beat us, they deserve it. If we beat them, we deserve it. When you play a team five games, that’s the way hockey should be. The last three games, they get at home. We have to win two of three. No surprises.”

Michigan Tech won 8-4 Friday in Marquette and lost 3-2 on Saturday.

Two of Northern’s goals Saturday came from defensive zone turnovers by Michigan Tech, something the Huskies have struggled with throughout the season.

“The options are there, time and space are there. On the first goal, we just make the pass that’s supposed to be made and we have a 3-on-2 off of the face-off. Second one, time and space, room to skate and we just give it up. Those are just development plays. There’s no structural breakdown of any kind for that. Those are just individuals making plays.”

Wildcats senior Darien Craighead scored the winning goal late in Northern’s 3-2 win on Saturday. He skated to center ice and made flag-planting gesture at the center ice face-off dot that soured the crowd of 4,053 at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

Craighead’s celebration with 1:03 left in the game is one of the last images Brice, a Houghton native, has of playing in the arena he grew up dreaming of playing in.

“It is what it is. MTU is build on class tradition and history,” Brice said. “We handle ourselves in a professional way always. If that’s what they want to do and that’s the kind of school that they are, that’s fair to them. But that’s not how we act here.

“Obviously we all saw it and it doesn’t make us happy. But that’s the way they win. We win like champions. That’s what MTU is and you see when you go there, you get obscene gestures from the crowd. That’s the kind of program that they want and that’s fair to them, but that’s not who we are here. That’s not Michigan Tech.”

Shawhan didn’t have much to say of Craighead’s gesture.

“No comment. It’s up to the officials to regulate the game, to police, mandate, enforce law. It’s not up to us,” Shawhan said. “We play the game within the rules or lack of that the referees decide to put in place.”

When asked if he felt Craighead’s celebration warranted an unsportsmanlike penalty, Shawhan said “no comment.”

About midway through the second period Saturday, Wildcats sophomore Griffin Loughran, the WCHA scoring champion with 23 goals, bodychecked the referee. Loughran grabbed the puck late in a power-play and tried to power through two Huskies defenders. He lost the puck and fell to the ice, got on his feet and went behind the net and put his shoulder down and skated into the referee, about 10 feet away from a Huskies player carrying the puck. Loughran had a goal and an assist on Friday, but was limited to just two shots on goal Saturday.

“I think we just played them a little bit harder,” Shawhan said. “He obviously got a little bit frustrated and took it out on the officials. It’s better that he hits a referee than hits one of our players. That’s my only comment on it in that fashion.”

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