After “winning the bye week,” our Michigan Tech Huskies (6-2-0) find themselves back in action at home against the Minnesota State Mavericks (8-4-2). The Mavericks are reeling from an underperforming weekend giving up two points in a shootout loss to Northern Michigan (1-10-1).
Analysis
The Mavericks are a serious case of Groundhog Day in that after a down year, they are right back to the top of the CCHA. They are older team beating out even Clarkson at an average player age of 22 years and 10 months. With this experience comes good performances at the college hockey level. Looking at these performers, we see:
It’s no surprise that almost all of their top players are upperclassmen. With Moravec being the lone exception, the biggest surprise has to be Alex Tracy and his eye popping GAA and SV%. He has claimed the starting role and has not looked back. Additionally, Rhett Pitlick has made an almost perfect transition to the CCHA style of play. This flies in the face of my preseason prediction thinking that he might have trouble with a more defensive league compared to the B1G.
Though their defensive stats are very impressive this season the main issue the Mavericks have been having is their offense. They are only averaging 2.29 goals a game (Tech is at 2.63), which ties them for 45th in the country. So they may not be giving up a lot to opponents they aren’t really scoring on them either. Other than Carrabes and Pitlick, the rest of the roster is not performing to the standards normally associated with Mankato in years past.
Looking at our instat insights™ we see:
As you can see, either team lost on the day they played better. Mankato should have won game 2 and NMU should have won game 1, but just the opposite happened. More importantly, it shows that Mankato is beatable.
Moving to our Huskies, we saw a good weekend against Ferris State. Tech once again was able to pull out a full 6 points against a team they had no business losing too. This has been a stark difference between years past up until this point. With that said, the weekend wasn’t perfect, as in game two Ferris pulled their freshman netminder in Connor McDonough after Tech was able to put up 3 quick goals. With West coming in relief, our Huskies couldn’t manage much, which could either be a sign of continued offensive troubles or just the team coasting being up 3 goals early.
Going into this weekend, we should hope our Huskies can get a better result after a bye week. They did play well last time, but they weren’t able to get the win either night. Mankato coming into town seems to mirror the Clarkson weekend. That being said, I can see the Mavericks being more beatable than Clarkson given their scoring issues so far this season.
Keys to the Game
- Brunt of the load. It has been reported that Max Vayrynen is currently out for the short term with an undisclosed injury. Tech will have to rely on Derek Mullahy this weekend for guarding the net, luckily both Husky Goalies have been phenomenal this season.
- Special Teams. One of Mankato’s weaknesses so far this season has been their PP% (15.6%, 43rd) and PK% (76.5% 44th). If the team is given the chance to play with the man advantage it will be a prime opportunity to light up the score sheet.
- Grind it out. This weekend is most likely going to be a defensive grindfest given how defensive both teams are. It’s going to be akin to their series with Alaska, but with Clarkson’s game experience. I would expect a boring hockey series to commence.
My Prediction
I think this is going to be a close series with both teams not winning by much. That being said if Tech is able to continue their current play I can see at least a split with a possibility of a sweep though low. MTU wins 3-2, Mankato wins 2-1.
The guys on our Chasing MacNaughton Podcast also made predictions for this coming series against the Mavericks.
Cover photo courtesy Michigan Tech Athletics.
InStat plots created by Zach Aufdemberge.
How to Watch
Both games are available through Mix 93.5 for audio featuring Dirk Hembroff (free), via Midco Sports Plus* (paywall) for video. Game 1 will be Friday at 7:07 ET. Game 2 will be Saturday at 6:07 ET.
*Midco Sports Plus is also the source of all games played in CCHA buildings this season so don’t be afraid to sign up for a month or the year. Midco Sports Plus now has apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
Jonathan graduated from Michigan Tech in the spring of 2018 with a degree in Physics and Social Science in addition to a minor in Social and Behavioral Studies. He spent his college career watching hockey with the Misfits where he became the treasurer in his last year. When not traveling to away games he resides in Hancock working for a local engineering company and keeping up with all things Tech Hockey.
