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Huskies hockey heads out to face Mavericks

Michigan Tech forward Isaac Gordon battles with a Lake Superior State defender during a game Friday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

MANKATO, Minn. — Following a split last weekend with the Lake Superior State Lakers, the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team kept themselves in the mix for a home playoff spot. This weekend, they hit the road to face the CCHA-leading Minnesota State Mavericks, the No. 12 team in the country, who hold a five-point advantage over the Huskies, who are currently tied for third.

Coach Joe Shawhan liked how the Huskies bounced back this past weekend from a 4-2 loss on Friday with a 1-0 win on Saturday. He felt that, given that the Huskies are still young in skill positions, and so there is still plenty of room for growth.

“I’d rather go that way if it’s going to work out that way,” he said. “I thought we had growth on the weekend and that’s what’s really important. We’re still looking at so many players where we’re trying to see what their capabilities are, what their IQ is, what their ability is to understand different times of the game, process information and apply that information, and do that in the heat of the battle. It’s not easy to do so, and it takes time.

“Again, we’re trying to find that out. I thought Saturday we played a pretty complete hockey game. Now, do the players like winning 1-0 or would they rather lose 9-8? Well, I’d rather win 1-0, but we’ll see how we respond.”

Shawhan felt like the players took a big step on Saturday.

“I thought we had growth,” he said. “We were better. We’re a better team coming out of the weekend than we were when we went into the weekend.”

Shawhan likes a lot of what he sees out of junior forward Stiven Sardarian, who is leading the Huskies in scoring with nine goals and 27 points in 22 games.

“Not everybody can do the things that Stiven does out there,” said Shawhan. “If they could, they’d all do it offensively. But, there’s things you can learn, things you can get better at, and things you can apply. That’s what we’re trying to…what we hope that we can get across to the players, we found ways to have success and grow as the year goes on, and (we want to have it where) we’re at our best at the end of the year. I know a lot of people would like to win every game. Me, I play to try to get our team in the best spot to get in the national tournament. We’ve had success at that and hopefully the players can look at that a little bit, and that helps (them) buy in a little bit to what we’re trying to do.”

Another big bright spot for the Huskies in recent weeks has been the arrival of freshman goaltender Ryan Manzella. Mazella has made three appearances for the Huskies, and all three have already been memorable, with an overtime win over Northern Michigan, an overtime win over Holy Cross in his first career start, and a shutout in his first home start.

“I know that’s easy to say, but you gain confidence by doing things over and over,” Shawhan said. “It starts in practice, then you have a performance, and then that’s in your hip pocket, and then you go on to the next performance and that’s in your hip pocket. They’re all different scenarios, or different opportunities, and you just keep doing it over and over again and stay within what you can do. The outcome is the outcome, all we can do is control, to the best we can, our preparation.”

A third player who has made strides this season has been junior forward Trevor Kukkonen. Kukkonen has three goals and nine points this season after picking up two assists on Friday against the Lakers.

“I like everything that he’s doing right now,” Shawhan said. “His role is just growing and growing. He’s getting power play time now and things like that. I think that ‘Kukks’ is the type of player that used to really get rewarded, or at least got his self satisfaction in the game, based on his hard work, on his energy, on his ability to create havoc. I talked to him about this last year. I mentioned to him, take it for what’s worth, but my feeling is you can’t mistake hard work for effectiveness. There’s patience involved.”

Shawhan feels that Kukkonen is learning to trust his teammates to make plays, especially in the offensive zone, that he can then react to, which has helped make him a more effective player for the Huskies.

“Instead of going in and trying to take the battle on himself, let your teammate see what he can do, put a little bit on him, and if he wins his battle, someone’s going to cover that guy,” said Shawhan. “If you’re the guy that they leave to go cover the guy, chances are you’re getting the puck. Trevor’s doing a good job of that. He’s a smart kid that’s really figuring it out right now. I like everything about his game.”

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS

The Minnesota State Mavericks are 15-5-2 overall and 10-2-2 in CCHA play after splitting on the road at Northern Michigan last weekend. The Mavericks took both games against the Huskies earlier this season at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena on Nov. 22 and 23.

Senior forward Rhett Pitlick leads the Mavericks in scoring with eight goals (tied for the team lead), 13 assists (team-high) and 21 points in 22 games.

Fifth-year forward Josh Groll has also been very good, scoring eight goals and 18 points in 22 games.

The Mavericks have a very active blue line corps, as well, with freshman Luke Ashton and sophomore Evan Murr both leading the charge. Ashton has three goals and 10 points while Murr has two goals and 10 points.

Junior goaltender Alex Tracy has started all 22 games this season, going 15-5-2 overall with a 1.45 goals against average and a .942 save percentage.

“They have a really good, efficient defensive core,” said Shawhan. “They have very good goaltending, Tracy, tremendous goaltending. They have Pitlick, (who) has been a huge pickup for them, because, I believe, he was the (Minnesota Golden) Gophers’ leading scorer last year. Huge pickup for them because he’s a scorer, and that takes a lot of heat off.”

GAME TIMES

The Huskies will faceoff with the Mavericks on Friday at 8:07 p.m. on Friday in Mankato, Minnesota. Saturday, the two teams will meet again Saturday, 7:07 p.m.

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