HOUGHTON, Mich. â€ÂÂ" It seemed at times that BillZaniboni was standing on his head with his arms flapping in the air on Saturdaynight to lead the Northern Michigan University hockey team to a 2-1 win overthe Michigan Tech Huskies to take the weekend home-and-home affair.  He endedthe night with 31 saves as the â€Â˜Cats improve to 3-1-0 on the young season whileTech falls to 1-5-0. 

Two first period goals were all the â€Â˜Cats needed on thenight.  Pat Bateman scored his first goal of the season at 7:39 of the openingframe to give NMU the 1-0 lead.  Darin Olver and Matt Ciancio assisted.  AndrewSarauer scored what turned out to be the game-winner, on the power play, at11:04 of the period.  Matt Siddall and Bateman assisted.

Mike Batovanja from Tech scored a power-play goal at 17:15of the second period to cut the lead in half (2-1).  The Huskies had theopportunities as they had 32 shots on goal for the night while the â€Â˜Cats had17.  Zaniboni came up big time after time.  NMU had three power-playopportunities while the home team had six.  Rob Nolan was between the pipes forthe Huskies as he ended the night with 15 saves.  â€ÂœThese series are alwaystough,â€Â Walt Kyle said.  NMU now holds the all-times series lead at 57-43-10which includes a 25-22-6 slate in Houghton.  NMU was called for seven penaltiesfor 14 penalty minutes. 

Next week the â€Â˜Cats go home-and-home again with their otherU.P. rival the Lake Superior State University Lakers.  The series will beginCCHA play for NMU as Fridayâ€Â™s game is in Marquette before shifting to SaultSte. Marie on Saturday.