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Joe Schiller vs CC
Defenseman Joe Schiller vs Colorado College last season

Hockey Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

Preview: Hockey Home Opener vs. No. 19/20 Colorado College

MARQUETTE, Mich. - The Wildcats are home for the first time in the 2025-26 campaign, welcoming the No. 19/20 Colorado College Tigers to the Berry Events Center for the home opener. 

Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. on Friday and 6:07 p.m. on Saturday, with broadcast coverage on MidcoSports+ and the Radio Results Network (100.3 The Point). For the Wildcats (0-4-0, 0-0-0 CCHA), this weekend will serve as an opportunity to recover from a pair of tough road trips and continue the tough non-conference schedule in front of the home crowd.

The first Blue Line Luncheon of the season will also take place this weekend, taking place on Friday, Oct. 17, beginning at noon at the Ramada of Marquette, located at 412 West Washington Street. To purchase tickets, visit tickets.nmu.edu, in person at the NMU Ticket Office located in the Superior Dome, or by phone by calling 906-227-1032.

Dave Shyiak Weekly Media Availability 


The Wildcats are coming off a pair of losses to No. 16 Ohio State, a 5-2 result on Friday and a 3-1 result with an empty net goal on Saturday. The 'Cats were outshot both nights, 42-15 on Friday and 48-24 on Saturday, but head coach Dave Shyiak says that just looking at shot totals may be deceiving. 

"You can look at the shot count, that's one thing, but if you look at the quality of play and the number of quality chances, it was a little tighter than you think. Playing on the road in our first game on a regulation ice sheet, I liked four of our six periods... We're one of the youngest teams in the CCHA and all of college hockey, so there are going to be some ups and downs and growing pains. [As a coach], all you're asking is habits and systems and to do it with effort and competitiveness, and I thought our guys did a really good job against some really good teams."

Over the past two weekends, the Wildcats have been called for 44 penalty minutes on 18 infractions, compared to their opponents' 20 minutes on 10 penalties. NMU has also been outscored 17–7 over the course of four games. Head coach Shyiak says these are "areas I thought we could have done a little better on" after the weekend.

"Discipline was number one; we talked about that as a team. And then we need to find a way to create a little more offense when we have the puck, and that takes time as a young team. It's not easy to score at our level. You have to get to the interior part of the ice, have to get bodies to the hard areas. That's something we discussed yesterday, and [we] had a really good practice with that."

Despite the pair of negative outcomes, head coach Shyiak had a lot of positives that his staff took away from the weekend.

"I thought both goaltenders played really well, and then we made some changes on Saturday night and put some guys in for their first game, and they came away passing the test."

Four Wildcats got their first career starts on Saturday night: forwards Landon MacDonald and Tyler Stern, defenseman Evan Johnson, and goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton. That group played really well; MacDonald scored his first career collegiate goal, Johnson scored what should have been the game-tying goal before a coach's challenge wiped it away, and Auyeung-Ashton made 45 saves in a stellar performance in his first career start as a Wildcat.

"You absolutely want to win, but it's about the process of continually getting better. [Our non-conference] schedule is tough, but it's only going to make us better in the end. As we use these games to continue to get better and grow, it's really going to help us… [UMass and Ohio State] are good teams, they play hard and play the right way, and we're right there."

A bright spot for the Wildcats through two weeks has been the play of the goaltending room. Against UMass, William Gramme set NMU program records and earned the CCHA Goaltender of the Week honor. Against Ohio State this past weekend, Auyeung-Ashton put his name next to all-time NMU greats en route to earning CCHA Rookie of the Week honors. Head coach Dave Shyiak had a lot of praise for his goaltending group that he described as "highly competitive, hard-working, and supportive of each other". 

"It's another indicator that I think our staff did a great job of recruiting… We have guys coming in right now performing at a high level, and I think [Oliver] did that. He set himself up for success by how hard he works in practice, along with the other goaltenders." 

"When I pulled [Gramme], it was more of a mental break; he's stopped a lot of rubber," said Shyiak, noting Gramme's 136 saves, which is the second-best mark in all of college hockey. "[Oliver] went in [on Friday], stopped all eight shots and looked good, and I thought he earned the opportunity to start [on Saturday]. He went in and played outstanding. He gave us a chance to win, and didn't look like a rookie; he was calm, cool, collected, and he was really good at puck-handling. He made some big saves to keep the game tight, and I think that is an example of giving an opportunity to a kid who deserved it… It's going to give us a hard decision to make on Friday, but it's nice as coaches for us to have two goalies performing at a high level this early in the season." 

After a grueling start to the season with what seemed to be non-stop travel for the Green and Gold, the 'Cats finally have a home game, welcoming No. 19/20 Colorado College to the Berry Events Center. After the 'Cats were in CC for the Tigers' home opener last season, Shyiak says his group is ready to go ahead of the weekend.

"Our guys are really excited about it. Our focus is to learn and move on to the next game, and yesterday's practice was highly energized and highly competitive. I think we know [Colorado College] well after playing them last year… they're fast, they're big, they've got some younger guys up front, but we're going to plan for us to get better. Obviously, we'll have a plan in place for how we approach playing them, but overall, we're still concentrating on how do we get better." 

A season ago in the first year under Shyiak, the Wildcats took the No.12 Tigers to overtime in game one before downing Alaska Anchorage 2-1 in the home opener the following weekend. Both Grayden Slipec and Joe Schiller potted two assists in that weekend against the Tigers. 

"We want to be a tough team to play against: not making it easy on the opponent, we want to be on the attack and defend hard, and as always, we want to be good on special teams. If you do those, that should give us a better chance to win some hockey games… We have to come out with a good start and put a complete 60 minutes together."




 
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Players Mentioned

Joe Schiller

#2 Joe Schiller

D
6' 0"
Sophomore
Grayden Slipec

#15 Grayden Slipec

F
5' 10"
Sophomore
Tyler Stern

#21 Tyler Stern

F
5' 10"
Freshman
Landon MacDonald

#22 Landon MacDonald

F
6' 1"
Freshman
Evan Johnson

#23 Evan Johnson

D
5' 11"
Freshman
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

#30 Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

G
5' 10"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Joe Schiller

#2 Joe Schiller

6' 0"
Sophomore
D
Grayden Slipec

#15 Grayden Slipec

5' 10"
Sophomore
F
Tyler Stern

#21 Tyler Stern

5' 10"
Freshman
F
Landon MacDonald

#22 Landon MacDonald

6' 1"
Freshman
F
Evan Johnson

#23 Evan Johnson

5' 11"
Freshman
D
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

#30 Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

5' 10"
Freshman
G