Huskies hockey taking a breather during bye week
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HOUGHTON -- Through eight games this season, the No. 13 Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team is 6-2 overall. They swept then-No. 14 Minnesota to start the season, and swept Alaska at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena, but have split on the road during each of their first two road series.
In their CCHA-opening series at Ferris State last weekend, coach Bill Muckalt liked a lot of the Huskies' game, especially Friday. However, he felt his team could not finish when they needed to most.
"Liked the result Friday, didn’t like the result Saturday," Muckalt said. "(I) liked some things about our game. Some things we can clean up. In college hockey, it is hard to win on the road. It's hard to sweep on the road. I think you’re seeing it throughout college hockey. Give Ferris State credit. They played hard. I think there were six minutes in the first period of Saturday night that were uncharacteristic. We had a breakdown in the neutral zone where F1 (Forward 1) missed his assignment, F2 (Forward 2) took a bad angle, we had a missed assignment by one of our 'D' (defenseman), and then our F3 (Forward 3) missed an assignment.
"Give Fair State credit, they made a good play and scored off it. But there was a lot of, it wasn’t earned. It was something that we gave, and they scored a power play goal. It’s a tough call, but we didn’t kill it. That’s the bottom line."
Muckalt continued to discuss his feelings on the Saturday night game.
"We didn’t score on our chances," he said. "I think the momentum on Saturday night, we outshot them 10-4 and 15-5 in the third. We were pushing, hit the post late with the goalie pulled. Had some excellent looks.
"Give their goalie credit. I thought Bart (Owen Bartoszkiewicz) played great as well. You’re going to have nights like that where you generate and just don’t finish. It’s the result (that) stings."
One potential reason for the lack of offense for the Huskies was the lack of sophomore Teyden Trembecky, who missed the series with an injury.
"Well, it’s one player," said Muckalt. "He’s a tremendous player. It’s the next man up. There’s injuries part of the game. Hard to replace a player like that. But, having said that, need guys to take advantage of the opportunity. Need guys on the power play to take advantage of those minutes.
"I think we’re doing a great job establishing zone time and entries. Maybe we got a couple guys gripping their sticks a little bit too tight, and then we got other guys. But, we need to get into that shoot-first mentality, deliver pucks, crash a net, reset it, and continue to do that. That’s something that we’ll make some adjustments here and work on this week and get better at."
One player who is finding more ways to chip in is sophomore defenseman Reid Andresen. Andresen scored his second goal of the season Saturday night in the loss.
"He had a nice goal Saturday, but he’s a 'headsy' player," Muckalt said. "Andresen’s a smart hockey player. He’s not the biggest body out there, but he makes the right decision. He’s got good hockey IQ; fun player to coach, and (it was) nice to see him get rewarded there.
"I thought Owen Baker made a tremendous play to him. They had duplicate coverage, and we finished on that play."
Baker, a senior forward who had a great series against Minnesota, but who lost his spot in the lineup with the return of co-captain Isaac Gordon the following weekend, made an impact of his own against Ferris State.
"He made a good play there," said Muckalt. "I think he brings a lot of energy. He works hard every day in practice. (I) like what he brings to our group.
"I thought he did a really nice job coming in, and made a great play there. I have confidence in him and really like his energy that he brings to our group."
While the 6-2 start has been really good for the Huskies to this point, Muckalt feels that his team has plenty of room to grow as they take an extra week to prepare to face No. 11 Augustana next weekend.
"I think, obviously, (we have) some things that we have to clean up internally, do some housekeeping with our group," he said. "We’re doing some really good things, too, so we’ll continue to build on that, and start to game prep with them. A lot of respect for their coach and their staff and their team. They’re finding ways to win tight hockey games.
"It should be a great weekend, great battle. Obviously, points are at a premium, so it’s a huge series for a lot of reasons."