Huskies and Wildcats tie in exhibition hockey
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northern Michigan (0-0-1) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
|
Michigan Tech (0-0-1) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan skated to a 4-4 tie Saturday (Oct. 2) in an exhibition game at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The teams put on an offensive show for the 3,275 fans.
"The enthusiasm in the rink was outstanding," Tech coach Joe Shawhan said. "We got out of it what we wanted to. I'm appreciative of Northern for coming over to play this game. The plan was to give some guys a lot of minutes to evaluate them. I didn't think we were ready to start the game, but we got more structure to the last half of the game."
Each team suited up extra players with NMU playing 26 guys and Tech playing 24. All five goaltenders in the lineups played at least a period.
The warm fall day caused two fog delays. Midway through the first period both teams cleared their benches and circled in their zone to try and lift the fog. The officials ended the second period early because of the density of the conditions on the ice.
The Huskies found themselves down 2-0 6:31 into the game and had to climb back in. Tyrone Bronte scored a power-play goal from Ryland Mosley and Brian Halonen at 9:13 to cut into the deficit. Halonen drove the net and had his initial shot saved. Mosley got a whack at the rebound before Bronte backhanded in his first goal in a Tech uniform.
"The atmosphere was unbelievable," Bronte said. "I've never seen a crowd like that let alone play in front of a crowd like that. You can feel the energy from the crowd and it brings so much energy to the bench."
Logan Ganie tied it up 12.7 seconds before the first intermission when his shot from inside the circle trickled through NMU goaltender Rico DiMatteo. Parker Saretsky and Halonen assisted.
Trevor Cosgrove scored the only goal in the second period to give NMU its lead back.
The Huskies then scored twice early in the third. Arvid Caderoth one-touched a Halonen feed 1:08 into the third. It was Halonen's third point of the night.
Tristan Ashbrook gave the Huskies the lead 61 seconds later when a shot by Mosley rebounded out and off of the shinpad of Ashbrook and into the net. Bronte added an assist on a backhand setup to Mosley.
Bronte talked about his linemates Ashbrook and Mosley, "I have to give all the credit to my two linemates. We've been practicing together lately. We're all kind of small but those two work so hard in the corners.
"Ashbrook is my roommate so he's helped me make that transition to being a student here and it's great to get to play with him on the ice too."
NMU tied the game at 7:25 into the third when AJ Vanderbeck found the back of the net.
The teams didn't play an overtime period.
Mikey Colella opened the game's scoring 4:02 after puck drop. Tanner Vescio made it 2-0 in favor of the Wildcats at 6:31 of the first.
Tech outshot NMU 37-22. Blake Pietila had 13 saves in the first 30:42. Cayden Bailey finished the final 29:18 and stopped five shots.
The teams will play four times in the regular season in CCHA action on November 12-13 and January 21-22.
Michigan Tech opens its regular season next weekend (Oct. 8-9) with a non-conference series at Wisconsin. The puck drops at 8 p.m. both Friday and Saturday night at the Kohl Center.
