PREVIEW: Huskies travel to No. 2 Minnesota State

THIS WEEKEND'S SERIES
• Michigan Tech hits the road this weekend for a CCHA series at No. 2 Minnesota State.
• The puck drops at 8:07 p.m. Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.
• The Huskies and Mavericks will meet in Houghton on February 25-26 to wrap up the regular season.

ON THE RADIO
• Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ broadcasts all Michigan Tech hockey games.
• Fans can listen live on the radio at Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ, online at TheMix93.com or Pasty.com, or by using your favorite radio streaming app.
• Dirk Hembroff will call all the action in his 20th year behind the microphone.

FLOHOCKEY.TV
• All Michigan Tech home and CCHA games during the 2021-22 season will be live-streamed on FloHockey.tv.
• Fans can purchase either annual ($150) or monthly ($30) subscriptions and will have access to all CCHA games along with the full Atlantic Hockey schedule.
• Download the FloSports app today on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and the App Store.

SERIES INFO
• Tech is 23-47-9 all-time against MSU, dating back to 1996.
• The Huskies are 6-28-3 against the Mavericks in Mankato
• Tech's last win in Mankato was March 11, 2018 in the WCHA Semifinals.
• The Huskies' last win over the Mavericks was December 6, 2020 at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

CCHA PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• Tristan Ashbrook is CCHA Forward of the Week after he scored four goals in the CCHA sweep of Ferris State.
• He had a pair of goals each night. The junior scored the game-winning goal in the third period Friday and had a power-play goal each night.
• Ashbrook is currently on a four-game point streak with six goals and two assists. He ranks second on the team with seven goals.

CCHA PLAY
• Michigan Tech was in the CCHA from 1981-84 and holds a 46-43-1 CCHA record.
• The last CCHA game Tech played before this season was on February 25, 1984, against Lake Superior State.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
• MSU is 12-4 overall and 8-2 in the CCHA.
• The Mavericks are ranked No. 2 in the USCHO poll and No. 3 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll.
• MSU was the top pick in the CCHA Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Nathan Smith leads the team with 22 points and is tied with Ryan Sandelin with nine goals.
• Goaltender Dryden McKay is 12-3 with a 1.42 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.
• Head coach Mike Hastings is in his 10th season.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
• Brian Halonen is seventh in points per game (1.46).
• Blake Pietila is sixth with his two shutouts.
• Tech is 11th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 2.08 goals per game.
• Tech's penalty kill is fifth in the nation at 90.2 percent.
• The Huskies are ninth in power-play percentage (26.3) and 11th in scoring margin (1.38).

POINT STREAKS
• Six Game – Brian Halonen (3 goals, 8 assists)
• Five Game – Arvid Caderoth (3 goals, 2 assists)
• Four Game – Tristan Ashbrook (6 goals, 2 assists)
• Three Game – Brett Thorne (2 goals, 2 assists)
• Two Game – Tommy Parrottino (2 assists)
• Two Game – Logan Pietila (2 assists)

GLI TICKETS
• Tickets for the Great Lakes Invitational are now available through the University of Michigan ticket office and Michigan State University box office.
• Michigan Tech will play at Yost Ice Arena against the Wolverines on December 29 at 7 p.m. Tickets at Yost Ice Arena are $30 each, plus a $5 service charge per order. To sit in a Michigan Tech block of seats use promo code MTU at mgoblue.com/go/promo.
• The Huskies then head over to Munn Ice Arena on December 30 to play the Spartans. A game time at MSU has not yet been set. Tickets at Munn Ice Arena are $25 for reserved chairback seats and $20 for bench seats. Online orders can be placed at msuspartans.com.

LAST TIME OUT
• The Huskies earned their first CCHA sweep of the season with a 6-3 Friday win and a 6-1 Saturday win over Ferris State at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
• Tristan Ashbrook had four goals in the series. Trenton Bliss had two goals Friday and Brian Halonen had a goal each night. Colin Swoyer, Matthew Quercia, Brett Thorne, and Arvid Caderoth also found the back of the net.

CCHA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
• Tristan Ashbrook – CCHA Forward of the Week on November 29.
• Alec Broetzman – CCHA Forward of the Week on October 11.
• Blake Pietila – CCHA Goaltender of the Week on October 11.

CAPTAINS
• Senior forwards Trenton Bliss and Alec Broetzman are the captains of the Huskies. Broetzman wore the C as a junior and Bliss had an A.
• Senior defensemen Eric Gotz and Colin Swoyer are alternate captains for the second straight season.

COACH SHAWHAN
• Head coach Joe Shawhan is in his fifth season behind the bench. He won his 80th career game at Bemidji State on November 19, 2021.
• Shawhan's 22 wins in his first season tied for the most ever by a first-year Michigan Tech coach. Jim Nahrgang won 22 games in 1982-83.
• Shawhan was named the 22nd head coach of the Huskies on May 30, 2017, after serving as an assistant coach for Tech over the previous three seasons.

ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS
• Colin Swoyer – WCHA Second Team (2020-21)
• Trenton Bliss – WCHA Third Team (2020-21)
• Arvid Caderoth – All-WCHA Rookie Team (2020-21)
• Brian Halonen – All-WCHA Rookie Team (2018-19)

NONCONFERENCE
• Tech plays seven nonconference games this season.
• The Huskies swept Wisconsin on October 8-9 to begin the season.
• Tech fell 2-1 in overtime to Notre Dame on October 15 in the home-opener.
• The Huskies split at Clarkson on October 29-30.
• The GLI will be a showcase with the Huskies playing at Michigan on December 29 and Michigan State on December 30.

TRANSFERS
• Michael Karow came to Tech after four seasons and 131 games at Boston College. He played against the Huskies in the Ice Vegas Invitational when Tech won 4-3. Karow played youth hockey with Trenton Bliss.
• Matthew Quercia played three seasons and 81 games at Boston University. He comes to Tech with 18 collegiate points (nine goals, nine assists). Quercia and Colin Swoyer were teammates in the USHL at Sioux Falls.
• Tyrone Bronte was an All-WCHA Rookie Team pick at Alabama Huntsville last season. He had 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 22 games. The Melbourne, Australia native played with Chris Lipe in Dubuque for a couple of games.

PRESEASON ALL-CCHA
• Colin Swoyer was named to the Preseason All-CCHA Team, while Trenton Bliss also received votes for the squad.
• Swoyer was named to the All-WCHA Second Team as a junior and was also on the WCHA All-Academic Team, the WCHA Defenseman of the Month for February, and was a four-time WCHA Defenseman of the Week.
• Swoyer was second in the WCHA amongst defensemen with 17 points, scoring three goals and tallying 13 assists. He led Tech skaters with a plus-9 rating and led WCHA blueliners with 71 shots on goal.

IN THE PRESEASON CCHA POLL
• Tech was selected third in CCHA Preseason Coaches' Poll behind Minnesota State and Bemidji State.
• Tech finished the 2020-21 season with a 17-12-1 overall record. The Huskies were 7-7 in the WCHA and placed fifth in the final standings.

RETURNERS
Tech returns 24 players from last season with 14 forwards, 7 defensemen, and all three goaltenders.

FRESHMEN
Tech has five freshmen on the roster. The class consists of forwards Levi Stauber, Alex Nordstrom, Marcus Pedersen and defensemen Grant Docter, and Trevor Russell.

100 YEARS AGO
The Michigan College of Mines played its first collegiate hockey game on January 27, 1921. MCM beat the University of Michigan 3-0 in the first game of the series at the Amphidrome and then lost 4-3 the next night at the Calumet Colosseum.

HOCKEY REUNION
• Michigan Tech will host a 100-year hockey reunion on August 4-6, 2022 in Houghton.
• Very few collegiate hockey programs can celebrate important milestones in their history and Michigan Tech Hockey joined the elite ranks as 100-year-old legends.

JOE SHAWHAN HOUR
• The Joe Shawhan Hour can be heard every Monday morning at 10 a.m. on Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ.
• Host Dirk Hembroff and Coach Shawhan talk about the previous weekend and the upcoming matchup.
• Fans can listen live to the Joe Shawhan Hour on the radio at Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ, online at TheMix93.com or Pasty.com, or by using your favorite radio streaming app. The show will also be posted for on-demand listeners at MichiganTechHuskies.com.

2020-21 RECAP
• Tech finished with a 17-12-1 overall record and had a winning season for the first time since 2017-18.
• The Huskies were 6-7-1 in the WCHA and finished fifth in the standings.
• Blake Pietila broke the school records for best save percentage (.934) and goals-against average (1.81) for a season.
• Brian Halonen ranked sixth in the nation with four game-winning goals.
• Arvid Caderoth ranked third amongst all college hockey freshmen with 16 assists.