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Jakub Altrichter
Jakub Altrichter vs MTU last season

Hockey Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

PREVIEW: Wildcats vs Huskies

Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech face-off in a home-and-home series this weekend

MARQUETTE, Mich. - Rivalry weekend in the Upper Peninsula is here.

One of the most storied rivalries in all of college sports, the Northern Michigan Wildcats (0-10-0, 0-2-0 CCHA) square off against the Michigan Tech Huskies (5-3-0, 2-0-0 CCHA) for the first time in the 2025/26 season.

With the home-and-home series, Friday night's puck drop will take place at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton, before Saturday's contest finds its way back to the Berry Events Center in Marquette. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. on Friday and 6:07 p.m. on Saturday.

The games will be broadcasted locally on FoxUP, with Mark Evans covering play-by-play and Dave Ellis as color commentator. Along with the usual MidcoSportsPlus streaming option, fans can listen to the game on the Radio Results Network (100.3 The Point).

Dave Shyiak Media Availability


The 'Cats are back in the Upper Peninsula after a long road trip west to South Dakota, where the team opened conference play against one of the leaders in the CCHA, the Augustana Vikings.

"They're a really good opponent; I had them picked in the top two [in the CCHA preseason coaches poll]," added head coach Dave Shyiak when reflecting on the weekend during his weekly media availability. "They do everything right: they don't cheat the game, they protect the middle of the ice, and you have to earn your offense against them."

The Wildcats played the Vikings to a scoreless opening period and were only down one goal going into the final 20 minutes before the eventual 2-1 final on Friday night. 

"Any time you can [hold a team scoreless after the first period] on the road against a good opponent, it levels the playing field. And then to only be down 1-0 going into the third period, you'll take that [under the circumstances]."

The Vikings opened the scoring in the second before converting on its first power play goal in four games in the third period to take a two-goal lead. Freshman forward Tobias Pitka scored, opening his account on the weekend, and goaltender William Gramme made 46 saves on the evening. 

"I thought they carried the play a little in the second period... I thought we struggled with our puck [management], our [defensemen] struggled to advance pucks to the next zone, and then in the third period we had chances to score, and we need to capitalize."

The Wildcats failed to convert on a five-on-three power play that spanned for a minute and a half in the third period, an advantage that included Caiden Gault ringing one off the crossbar. The Augustana PK went 3/3 on the evening, and the power play converted on one of its two chances.

"I thought the special teams won them the game... On power plays, if you aren't scoring, you have to be able to generate shots. You get energy from that, and we were unable to do so... On the power play, you talk about puck speed to get your opponent out of position, and we were just too predictable... When you're on a five-on-three, you have to generate some grade-A's to get momentum... If you keep a team hemmed down for a minute and a half and you're getting 4-5 shots on the power play, that's good momentum for the next shift, but we were unable to do that."

The Wildcats rebounded on Saturday and turned in "one of our best games of the year", holding the Vikings scoreless after 20 minutes of play for the second consecutive night, and producing the second-most single-period shots in the program, dating back to 2004, to take a 1-0 lead into the third period. Pitka collected his second goal of the weekend, and netminder Oliver Auyeung-Ashton made 22 saves through 40 minutes.

The 'Cats put up 42 shots for the game, the most the team has produced under head coach Shyiak, and the most Augustana has allowed at Midco Arena since its inaugural season.

"We did a lot of good things [on Saturday], and I thought we were the better team for two and a half periods. I loved how our guys responded... After losing how we did on Friday, it's always a mental challenge to come back and be better. You can either fold or rise up and play better, and I was proud of our guys. We rose up and played better, and I thought we carried the play."

After producing one of the better periods in recent NMU history, the Wildcats continued to press offensively, as head coach Shyiak noted that his team had "four grade-A opportunities that we didn't convert to extend the lead", before the Vikings would ultimately rattle off three unanswered to scrape out a win.

"They have some good players, and they scored two net-front goals... They created some chaos in front, and give kudos to them, they did a better job at that. Obviously, not happy and disappointed we didn't come away with some points, but a positive is how we responded on Saturday, and that we were the better team for two and a half periods. The message to the group is that we liked a lot of our game, but we still have to do more to find ways to win."

Despite having the fourth-most power play opportunities in the CCHA, the Wildcats are tied for the fewest goals on the man advantage across the conference, converting on only 8.6% (3/35) of the time. The 'Cats are also the third-most penalized team in the conference and are tied for third in power play goals allowed, as the team is 28/35 on the penalty kill (80%).

Shyiak says "special teams are really important, and we double-down on it every single week", and that "we will need to stay out of the [penalty] box this weekend" as the team now looks to Michigan Tech, who currently holds the second and third best power play and penalty kill marks in the CCHA, respectively.

"With our young group, we're still tooling with combinations and finding out what works and what doesn't work. Learning who's a threat to score, who's the better passer, and we're still working our way through that... We have the right people on the ice, we just have to cash in... Special teams, goaltending, having the puck, faceoffs, all of that is going to matter [this weekend]."

Ahead of the weekend with Michigan Tech, who is coming off a split road trip out East against Clarkson (4-6 loss) and St. Lawrence (3-0), head coach Shyiak acknowledged that while picking up conference points is crucial whenever you can, he doubled down on the importance of his team growing and gaining internal experience every weekend.

"It's all about growth and getting better, and we are getting better. We're not getting the results that we want, but that's part of the process... Get better every weekend, every day in practice, and then the results will take care of themselves... In league games, there are standings and points, which is obviously the name of the game, but we just have to focus on being our best here on Friday and find a way to win a hockey game the right way."

A storyline of success and pieces to build off of in the early season has been the goaltending of Wisconsin transfer William Gramme and freshman Oliver Auyeung-Ashton. When asked if the team plans to solidify a clear starter or opt for the more trendy '1A, 1B' rotation, Shyiak says that while the team wants to get "continuity", he believes that both of his goaltenders give his team a chance to win and have earned starts.

"They've each had five starts, they've both been playing really well for us, and I think that's great [internal] competition... They've been playing so good and giving us a chance to win every game, and so we might go to a rotation. We're still sorting through that." 

The Huskies opened its conference slate earlier in October, sweeping the Ferris State Bulldogs at home for the first CCHA wins under new head coach Bill Muckalt in his return to Houghton. Head coach Shyiak says he has "a lot of respect for Billy and his staff", and that the Huskies play a little differently than when the team was under Joe Shawhan.

"They have two of the best forwards in the CCHA back in [Isaac] Gordon and [Stiven] Sardarian, so that makes a difference," as over the off-season, Gordon decommitted from UMD to return to the Huskies, and Sardarian announced his return to the roster after initially intending to begin his professional career.

"They have some guys back that are key pieces for them up front, their defensive core is a little bit different, and [Muckault] brought over a good goaltender from Lindenwood... we'll tweak a couple things, but for us, we have to build our identity to be closer to the Saturday game against Augustana."

Amid some of the best environments in the college hockey landscape, head coach Shyiak still preached that while the rivalry ramps up the intensity in and around the series, his team still needs to use the weekend as a building block to take steps in the right direction for long-term improvement, growth, and success.

"It's a great college rivalry, and it's what college hockey is all about. The venues are going to be sold out, and [weekends like this] should bring the best out of you... These games are always tightly contested and emotions are high, but we have to take the next step: generate offense by breaking pucks out, managing pucks the right way when there aren't plays to be made, and we have to be good on the special teams."









 
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Players Mentioned

William Gramme

#1 William Gramme

G
6' 3"
Junior
Caiden Gault

#16 Caiden Gault

F
6' 0"
Senior
Tobias Pitka

#19 Tobias Pitka

F
6' 4"
Freshman
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

#30 Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

G
5' 10"
Freshman

Players Mentioned

William Gramme

#1 William Gramme

6' 3"
Junior
G
Caiden Gault

#16 Caiden Gault

6' 0"
Senior
F
Tobias Pitka

#19 Tobias Pitka

6' 4"
Freshman
F
Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

#30 Oliver Auyeung-Ashton

5' 10"
Freshman
G