Michigan Tech’s Ryland Mosley fights off Lake Superior State’s Joshua Wildauer during a game Saturday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — With just under six minutes left in regulation on Friday, the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team gave up the game-tying goal. They came out of the night with just one point after the visiting Lake Superior State Lakers earned the extra point in the shootout of a game that went down as a 2-2 tie.

Saturday, the Huskies (6-3-2 overall, 2-2-2 CCHA) made sure to keep all three available points by shutting out the Lakers, 2-0, at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

For the Huskies, finishing the game Saturday was a focus for the team after Friday’s tie.

“They (Lake Superior) look kind of like us, of the past,” said Shawhan. “I think they’re a really good team, really well coached. I like the way they play, so I feel really fortunate. We’re very pleased we were able to come up with some success this weekend against them, because I have a lot of respect for their team.”

Huskies earn shutout win Saturday

Looking to get off on the right foot Saturday, the Huskies broke open a tightly-contested first period. From there, they added to their lead in the middle frame before shutting down the Lakers for the remainder of the contest.

For the second straight night, coach Joe Shawhan paired up freshman forward Kash Rasmussen with co-captain Arvid Caderoth and senior forward David Jankowski. Faith in the trio on Saturday was just what the Huskies needed, as they found a way to get on the board in the first period.

After Rasmussen lost control of the puck in the left circle, freshman defenseman Topi Heiskinen got to the puck and fired a shot that missed the net, but hit the back boards. The puck bounced to Caderoth on the other side of the net.

Caderoth showed patience, drawing two Lakers defenders to himself before feeding the puck to Jankowski in the slot, who one-timed the pass into the net at 4:39.

Shawhan loved the effort he saw from Caderoth throughout the weekend.

“He was special all weekend,” Shawhan said. “He has a little bit more confidence with the puck.”

For Jankowski, the goal was his first as a Husky.

“It feels good,” he said. “Any time you can help out offensively, however you can, it feels really good. It was a great shift by our line there. My linemates did a really good job.”

From there, the two teams struggled to find much open space for the remainder of the opening frame.

In the second period, the Huskies came out hard, led by Caderoth’s effort less than two minutes into the frame as he fought through two checks and fired a shot on net. After that, the Huskies’ top line of assistant captain Ryland Mosley, co-captain Logan Pietila, and freshman winger Kyle Kukkonen found ways to hem the Lakers (1-7-2 overall, 0-3-1 CCHA) in their own end multiple times.

However, it was the Huskies’ fourth line that helped set up the team’s second goal. Junior center Jack Works won control of the puck along the boards. Once he got control, he turned and made a pass back to sophomore defenseman Trevor Russell, who had just stepped onto the ice. Russell ripped a shot that beat Lakers goaltender Ethan Langenegger at 14:20.

“I think it was very important that we jumped on them right away,” Russell said. “That is what Coach (Shawhan) wanted. He said we had to stay on them and just play hard.”

Atlantic Mine native Alex Nordstrom also assisted on the goal.

From there, the Huskies closed off lanes, keeping the Lakers to the outside as much as possible until they earned a power play with about eight minutes remaining. On that advantage, they tried to find ways to beat senior goaltender Blake Pietila, but he made two key stops to keep the Huskies up by two.

Pietila closed his night with 20 saves in earning his 14th career shutout.

Huskies blow two leads Friday

The Huskies threw nearly everything they had at Langenegger for 40 minutes Friday night, but only solved the Lakers’ netminder twice over that stretch. They held off the Lakers’ push in the third until the game’s final six minutes before surrendering the tying goal. Neither team found the net in overtime as the teams skated to the tie.

Despite a slow pace of play, the Huskies threw 15 shots at Langenegger in the opening frame, but could not solve him. Shawhan felt that his team struggled to push the pace of the game, despite the shot advantage.

“It was certainly kind of a grindy, lumbering game,” said Shawhan. “It certainly didn’t have a lot of pace to it, but it was a decent hockey game overall. I think it comes down to they made plays when they had to, and we didn’t.”

In the second period, Mosley broke through 1:28 in when his shot bounced off of Langenegger, off a Lakers’ defender, and into the net.

The Lakers responded with a shot from the left circle just 46 seconds later.

“I thought it started decent,” said junior defenseman Jed Pietila. “We carried it to them, and then we kind of just fell off. We can’t have that.”

Jed Pietila regained the lead for the Huskies when he buried his first career goal at 18:53. He one-timed a shot off a pass from Works to get the goal.

Had the Huskies held their defense together, Pietila would have been able to enjoy his first career goal more.

“It feels good,” he said, “but, obviously, it would be a lot better if we would have won.”

The Lakers evened the game 14:04 into the third, setting up a 3-on-3 overtime where both teams missed the net high at least three times each.

In the shootout, senior winger Tristan Ashbrook gave the Huskies an advantage with a goal, but goals from Louis Boudon and Logan Jenuwine helped give the Lakers the extra point.