Tech Falls to NMU in OT Saturday
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northern Michigan (9-6-5, 5-6-4) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
|
Michigan Tech (15-6-1, 10-3-1) | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
HOUGHTON, Mich. – For the second night in a row, No. 8 Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan headed to overtime. After a draw in Friday night's contest in Marquette, the Wildcats scored 2:47 into the extra session for a 5-4 win Saturday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
Like the first game between the rivals the day before, NMU took a two-goal lead but Tech came back to knot it up at three.
Tyler Heinonen drew the home team to within one with his second goal of the weekend 66 seconds into the second. Matt Roy blasted a shot from the point that bounced out to Heinonen who whacked in his seventh of the year. Shane Hanna also assisted on the play.
Almost nine minutes later, Dylan Steman deflected a feed from CJ Eick to tie the game. Cliff Watson added an assist on Steman's fifth of the season.
Malcolm Gould buried his fourth goal in the last five games to give the home team the lead with a power play tally at the 12:20 mark of the second. His highlight reel one-timer was setup on a cross ice feed from Hanna with Alex Petan picking up his 14th helper on the second assist.
Only 46 seconds later, Darren Nowick tied it up at four for the Wildcats, capitalizing on a power play situation. John Siemer worked the puck out front to Nowick who finished off the play.
Scoring wasn't done in the second period as Brent Baltus gave the Huskies their second lead of the night with only 62 seconds left. Riley Sweeney took a shot from the blue line that was redirected by Petan, and Baltus was there to clean up the rebound for his second of the season.
Mitch Jones scored the final two goals for NMU. He tied it up at five 5:11 into the third with a long shot that found its way through traffic into the back of the net. In overtime he had a similar shot for the game winner 2:47 in.
"It was a good hockey game tonight," Tech coach Mel Pearson said. "Unfortunately we didn't get the bounces or breaks at the end of the game. We had a couple grade A scoring chances in overtime that I thought would end it.
"We got down and dug ourselves a hole. We can't continue to do that, and you're not going to win many games giving up five goals."
The Huskies had their chances in the extra session. Joel L'Esperance and Eick had a couple shots out front of NMU goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom that were saved two minutes into OT. Moments before the game-winner Petan had a golden chance out front that couldn't find the back of the net.
Robbie Payne and Luke Eibler scored the first two goals for Northern, both on long shots with under 2:00 to go in the first period.
Tech outshot the Wildcats 38-26. Matt Wintjes relieved Jamie Phillips at the end of the first period and finished with a career-high 16 saves. Late in the second period he shut the door on Payne and then had to make key saves after an onslaught of shots from Northern with 7:00 to go in the third.
"We thought we'd get Matt in there and try to change the momentum, and it did," added Pearson. "We took the lead a couple times, and he made a few big saves to keep us in that position."
Dahlstrom had 34 saves for the visitors.
NMU took seven minor penalties while the Huskies were called for six. Northern was 2-for-3 on the man advantage while Tech was 1-for-4.
Tech falls to 15-6-1 overall and 10-3-1 in the WCHA. NMU is 9-6-5 overall and 5-6-4 in league play. The two teams will meet during the final weekend of the season on March 6-7. The first game will be in Houghton with the regular season finale in Marquette.
Tech continues its home stand with eight straight games at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena, starting next weekend (Jan. 16-17) against Bowling Green State. Only one point separates the two teams in the WCHA standings.
GAME NOTES: Petan has tallied multiple points in three of the last four games…Matt Roy has an assist in three of the last four games…Tech hadn't given up more than three goals in a game this season before tonight…Tech entered the weekend without playing an overtime period…Matt Wintjes entered the game with 11 saves in his career…The last time NMU won at Tech was Jan. 21, 2012.
