PREVIEW: Hockey travels to Minnesota State for WCHA Semifinals

THIS WEEKEND'S SERIES
• Michigan Tech plays at No. 2 Minnesota State this weekend in the WCHA Semifinals.
• The best-of-three series will be played at 8:07 p.m. Friday, 7:07 p.m. Saturday, and, if necessary, 6:07 p.m. Sunday at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center.
• The Huskies the No. 6 seed and the Mavericks are the No. 1 seed.
• Tech swept NMU to advance and MSU swept Alaska Anchorage to advance.
• The other WCHA Semifinal matchup is No. 2 seed Bemidji State hosting No. 5 Bowling Green.
• The Mavericks swept the Huskies on November 8-9 at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in their only meeting of 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 18th year behind the microphone.

FLOHOCKEY.TV
• The series will be live-streamed on FloHockey.tv
• FloHockey.tv. brings more than 180 WCHA games available on the FloSports platform, including all 140 league regular-season games, any preseason, exhibition and non-conference games hosted by a league school, and the entirety of the annual WCHA postseason tournament.
• Fans who subscribe to FloHockey will also have access to additional college hockey coverage, which includes Atlantic Hockey and select Big Ten Conference hockey games through the company's distribution deal with the Big Ten Network.

WCHA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
• Tommy Parrottino is the WCHA Forward of the Week after he led the WCHA with four goals over the weekend, including his second hat trick of the season Friday.
• Matt Jurusik is the WCHA Goaltender of the Week after he led the WCHA with a 1.46 goals-against average, a .951 save percentage, and two wins in the first round.
• Logan Pietila is the WCHA Rookie of the Week after he led league freshmen with four points, a plus-4 rating, and 21 faceoff wins over the weekend.

HUSKY HAT TRICKS
• Michigan Tech leads the nation with five hat tricks this season.
• Tommy Parrottino had a natural hat trick on March 6 in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs at NMU with three goals in the third period. He also had a natural hat trick on October 26 in a 4-1 win at Bowling Green with two goals in the second and one in the third.
• Trenton Bliss had a hat trick at NMU on February 28. He scored a power-play goal in the second and third periods and tacked on another in the third.
• Logan Pietila had a hat trick in the GLI Championship Game with a goal in the second period and a pair in the third.
• Alec Broetzman had a natural hat trick on October 6 at Robert Morris.
• The last time Tech had five hat tricks in a season was 1983-84 and four of the seven that season were scored against NMU.

FIRST MEETING
The Huskies dropped a pair of games to No. 3 Minnesota State at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena on November 8-9 in their only meeting this season. The Mavericks won 3-0 Friday and 2-1 Saturday. Seamus Donohue scored the lone goal for the Huskies. Robbie Beydoun had 22 saves Friday in his third straight start. Blake Pietila had six saves in relief Friday and 18 saves Saturday in his first collegiate start.

WCHA FIRST ROUND
• Tech swept Northern Michigan in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs to advance to the WCHA Semifinals. The Huskies defeated the Wildcats 4-1 Friday and 4-3 in triple overtime Saturday at the Berry Events Center in Marquette.
• Tommy Parrottino had a natural hat trick Friday with Alex Smith scoring the first goal. Logan Pietila ended the second-longest game in Tech history on Saturday 4:41 into the third overtime. Logan Ganie had a pair of goals and Parrottino netted his fourth of the weekend. Matt Jurusik had 34 saves Friday and a season-high 43 saves Saturday.
• Tech improved to 21-15-3 overall and has now won 20 games for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. The Huskies went 4-0 at the Berry Events Center in 2019-20 and ended NMU's season on its home ice for the second time in three years.
• Saturday's game was the 17th longest game in NCAA history at 104:41. The longest game Tech played was also in the first round of the WCHA Playoffs on March 14, 2015, with a 1-0 win over Alabama Huntsville that lasted 1:18:49.

SERIES INFO
• Michigan Tech is 22-44-9 all-time against Minnesota State, dating back to 1996.
• The Huskies are 6-26-3 in games played in Mankato between the two teams.
• Tech is 4-3 in the playoffs against MSU with the four wins coming in the last two meetings which were also in the WCHA Semifinals that went to a Game 3 with the Huskies prevailing.

ON THE ROAD
The Huskies are 14-6-1 on the road and 16-6-1 in games not played in Houghton. Tech leads the nation 14 road wins and 16 total wins away from home. Minnesota State, Boston College, and Sacred Heart all have 13 road wins.

STATISTICAL RANKING
• Michigan Tech leads the nation with 5 hat tricks.
• The Huskies lead the nation with 14 road wins.
• Tech is second in the country with 39 games played. LSSU has 41.
• Alex Smith is third in the nation with 485 faceoff wins.
• Alex Smith is seventh in the country in career games played with 155.
• Alec Broetzman is eighth in the country with 2 shorthanded goals.
• Matt Jurusik is ninth in the country with 19 wins and ninth in career saves with 2,702.
• Tech is ninth in the country with its 21 wins.
• Trenton Bliss is 10th in the nation with 8 power-play goals.
• Trenton Bliss is 10th with four game-winning goals.
• Alec Broetzman is 11th in the nation with 135 shots on goal this season.
• Tech is the 12th fewest penalized team in the country.
• Matt Jurusik is 13th in goals-against average (2.06) and save percentage (.924).
• Tech is 14th in the nation in scoring defense (2.28).
• Tech is ranked 14th in the country with 489 blocked shots.

HUSKY BITES
• The Huskies have scored 46 of their 104 goals in the third period.
• Tommy Parrottino has scored 11 of his 14 goals in the third.
• Tech is unbeaten when captains Raymond Brice and Alex Smith score a goal with a 11-0-2 record.
• Alec Broetzman (2), Logan Pietila, and Tommy Parrottino have shorthanded goals this season. The Huskies only had two shortys in 2018-19 and one in 2017-18.
• 187 of Tech's 276 points (68 percent) have come from the sophomores and freshmen.
• 77 percent (80 of 104 goals) of the goals are from the underclassmen.
• Tech is 11-0 when scoring four or more goals.

NHL TRADES
• Jake Lucchini was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Montreal Canadiens on February 20. Joseph Blandisi was also traded in the exchange for Riley Barber and Phil Varone. Both Lucchini reported to the AHL's Laval Rocket.
• Angus Redmond was traded from Anaheim to Edmonton on February 24. Redmond and a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2022 were swapped for defenseman Joel Persson at the NHL trade deadline. Redmond will stay with the ECHL's Newfoundland Grizzlies after the trade.

HOBEY BAKER CANDIDATES
Trenton Bliss and Matt Jurusik are candidates for the 2020 Hobey Baker Award, given annually to college hockey's top player.

NONCONFERENCE
Tech finished 5-3-1 in nonconference play with wins over Arizona State, Michigan, Michigan State, Robert Morris, a tie with Clarkson, and losses to North Dakota and Clarkson, and ASU.

SUPERIOR PLAYER OF THE GAME
• Robert Morris – Matt Jurusik (34 saves)
• Robert Morris – Alec Broetzman (hat trick)
• Alaska – Brian Halonen (scored)
• Alaska – Logan Pietila (scored)
• Bowling Green – Trenton Bliss (scored)
• Bowling Green – Tommy Parrottino (hat trick)
• North Dakota – Justin Misiak (scored)
• Minnesota State – Justin Misiak
• Minnesota State – Seamus Donohue (scored)
• Lake Superior State – Trenton Bliss (2 goals)
• Lake Superior State – Matt Jurusik (34 saves)
• Northern Michigan – Parker Saretsky (1 goal, 1 assist)
• Northern Michigan – Matt Jurusik (33 saves)
• Alaska – Trenton Bliss (scored)
• Alaska – Eric Gotz (scored)
• Alaska Anchorage – Brian Halonen (2 goals)
• Alaska Anchorage – Eric Gotz (2 assists)
• Clarkson – Greyson Reitmeier (scored to tie)
• Clarkson – Alec Broetzman (2 goals)
• Michigan State – Eric Gotz (1 goal, 2 assists)
• Michigan – Logan Pietila (3 goals)
• Arizona State – Justin Misiak (1 goal, 1 assist)
• Arizona State – Trenton Bliss (1 goal, 1 assist)
• Bowling Green – Parker Saretsky (scored)
• Bowling Green – Raymond Brice (scored)
• Bemidji State – Alec Broetzman (scored)
• Bemidji State – Alec Broetzman (scored)
• Ferris State – Raymond Brice (scored)
• Ferris State – Tommy Parrottino (scored)
• Alabama Huntsville – Raymond Brice (scored)
• Alabama Huntsville – Tommy Parrottino (scored)
• Lake Superior State – Trenton Bliss (2 assists)
• Lake Superior State – Brian Halonen (2 goals, 1 assist)
• Ferris State – Tommy Parrottino (scored game-winner)
• Ferris State – Colin Swoyer (scored twice)
• Northern Michigan – Trenton Bliss (hat trick)
• Northern Michigan – Tommy Parrottino (scored late)
• Northern Michigan – Tommy Parrottino (hat trick)
• Northern Michigan – Logan Pietila (3OT game-winner)

COACH SHAWHAN
• Head coach Joe Shawhan is in his third season behind the bench. His 22 wins in his first season tied for the most ever by a Michigan Tech coach. Jim Nahrgang won 22 games in 1982-83.
• Shawhan was hired on May 30, 2017, after serving as an assistant coach for the Huskies over the previous three seasons.
• Joe Shawhan won his 50th game as head coach of the Huskies on January 24, 2020 with a 2-1 victory over Ferris State.

CAPTAINS
• Senior forward Raymond Brice and Alex Smith are the captains.
• Junior defenseman Seamus Donohue and Alec Broetzman are the alternate captains.

FAMILY AFFAIR
• Tyler Rockwell – Father John played goaltender for the Huskies from 1975-79.
• Cooper Watson – Older brother Cliff was a two-time team captain in his four-year career from 2013-17.
• Blake and Logan Pietila – Twin brothers with numerous cousins who have played for the Huskies
• Brian Halonen and David Raisanen – Brian's father and David's mother are brother and sister from Calumet. Halonen's first cousins Blake, Chad, and Aaron Pietila from his mother's side also played for the Huskies.