Season 6 Episode 23 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Babe Ruth Moment. This week, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were once again alone in hosting and were joined by former Husky and recent Michigan Tech Hall of Fame inductee, Shawn Harrison. In this episode they discussed Shawn’s path to playing hockey at Michigan Tech, Shawn’s stories from traveling while playing at Tech, listener questions, Shawn’s impressions of the current team, Tech’s previous series against St. Thomas and Tech’s upcoming series against Bemidji State.
The road to becoming a Husky
The episode started with Shawn talking about his path to playing at Michigan Tech. Shawn talked about being recruited by Mel Pearson but deciding to play for Wisconsin as that was his dream team. Shawn talked about Wisconsin changing their minds a couple weeks before the season and no longer having room for him, which lead Shawn to calling Mel back to see if Tech still had availability. Shawn talked about his initial impressions of arriving at Tech and described Houghton as overwhelming but cozy. He talked about how much the community supports the hockey team.
Shawn also talked about playing under former Michigan Tech head coach Herb Boxer for his four years. He talked about Herb and Michigan Tech not winning much during those years and how Herb was an old school hockey coach. Shawn talked about some of his travel experiences while playing at Tech. He discussed the flying arrangements for the team and racking up frequent flyer miles. Shawn told a story about the entire team learning and repeating the pre-flight routine of the stewardesses.
Shawn talked about winning the WCHA scoring title in 1989 and how much his line mates helped him accomplish that feat. Rob asked Shawn about the living arrangements for the hockey team during his playing days and Shawn talked about living in the dorms and off campus during his time at Tech.
The current team
Shawn shared his thoughts on the current Michigan Tech team as well as the state of the program overall. He thought that the current facilities were leaps and bounds better than his playing time and the guys talked about their favorite aspects of the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Rob asked Shawn about Michigan Tech recruiting heavily overseas lately. Shawn talked about the game of hockey being a global sport now and having many good players available from many countries. The guys discussed the upcoming NCAA rule change to allow CHL players to have college eligibility.
St. Thomas series review
After Shawn left, Rob and Matt reviewed Michigan Tech’s previous series against St. Thomas. Matt thought the Friday game was a great one for Tech, but that the team looked tired on Saturday. Rob thought Friday was a lucky win for Tech and loved watching the team win games they shouldn’t. Matt thought that the weekend would breathe life into St. Thomas’ season and could be a catalyst for them to bounce back in the CCHA standings. Both the guys bemoaned Tech not taking more advantage of the five minute power play. The guys expressed support for head coach Joe Shawhan during his anger at the officials for not calling icing on St. Thomas at the end of Saturday’s game, which lead to the Tommies scoring an empty net goal. The guys also praised Joe for his improvement at handling the media after tough games.
Bemidji State series preview
The guys started off the series preview by reviewing Bemidji’s season so far. They talked about some big wins the Beavers have, but noted some tough losses as well. Matt talked about Bemidji and Tech being similar programs that seem to follow the same success/lack of success trends. Both Rob and Matt picked a split for the weekend results.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately nine minutes long. The guys talked about players working with figure skaters to help improve their skills. There was a recap of the history of Mitch’s Misfits. Rob and Matt called out Diaz for folding under the pressure and not going to every Tech hockey game. The guys talked about what the Pandas do during opponent penalties at the Mac. There was a conversation on AIC dropping down to DII level for hockey.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 70 minutes.
RAW AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Silver Level ($25/ mo) or above which includes unedited audio and usually drops the night the podcast is recorded.
RAW VIDEO: This post is for patrons at the Gold Level ($10/mo) or above which includes unedited video and usually drops the morning after the podcast is recorded.
EXTENDED AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Black Level ($5/mo) or above which includes extended audio content and usually drops the night after or 2nd morning after the podcast is recorded.
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Check out Tech Leadership 4.0: Leading in a Technologically Driven World and The Power of Deduction: Failure Modes & Effects Analysis for Design: Second Edition written by our very own Old Dog, Mike Anleitner
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