After a home split against the Tommies (4-9-4) our Huskies (8-5-1) are once again on the road to finish 2024. They play the Bemidji State Beavers (8-7-2) before the 58th annual Great Lakes Invitational tournament. The Beavers are back home after splitting on the road at Lake State (8-7-1).
Analysis
The Beavers are in a semi-state of flux this season. They lost some big names in the offseason either to graduation or the portal, leaving head coach Tom Serratore in a hard predicament trying to fill those holes. So far this season, most of their offense have been from familiar names to our Husky fans in Irey, Martin, and NMU transfer Reilly Funk. But otherwise, BSU’s other two portal pickups of Carter Randklev (31 points with Nigara) and A.J. Macaulay (15 points with Alaska) have seen major regression in their point totals. Funk has seen some success with an intraconference transfer, but Randklev and Macaulay have had a very difficult time adjusting to the CCHA this season. This is also seen in their top players, where Funk is the only new Beaver on it:
With the exceptions of Parekh and Robbins, most of this BSU team is lead by their upperclassmen players who are seeing some success, but not on the order Lleyton Roed (Coachella Valley Firebirds – AHL), Kyle Looft (Texas Stars – AHL), and Eric Pohlkamp (Devner – NCAA) provided last year. As weird as it sounds, BSU is kind of suffering from their recent success, with players leaving for either pro deals or transferring to a bigger program. Tech fans are very much familiar with this, as are other fans of CCHA teams.
Turning our focus to the Beavers, they’ve also had an up and down season so far, with some impressive splits with Mankato (12-4-2), Minnesota (15-2-1), and a win and tie with North Dakota (9-7-1). However, they then ended up being swept by St. Cloud (10-5-0) while splitting with weaker teams in Ferris (6-10-2) and Lake State. The only common between most of these series is how close they are. With the exception of 5 games, there has been a one goal difference between the winner and loser, and in only two games this season was there a 3 goal difference.
Looking at their previous series against Lake State we see:
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Moving to our Huskies’ last weekend against the Tommies. Two good games were played with Tech taking a lead and holding it on Friday while St. Thomas doing the same on Saturday. Saturday’s game was particularly annoying to watch as UST was able to just kill time with the lead, dumping the puck and not trying to do anything else. Tech did play well that night, but they weren’t able to net any goals after their first. Hopefully they will be able to keep the momentum going into BSU before getting a off week before GLI.
Keys to the Game
- Get the people going. We saw Baker finally get on the board with his first goal as a Husky. Hopefully he and his peers can continue to start finding themselves offensively. Baker’s new line looked fantastic in their first series together and I can see great things coming with him and his linemates.
- Defensive structure. Tech had a few breakdowns last weekend, mostly seen in game two against UST. Hopefully our Huskies can fix these issues and up their efforts to make Derek’s life a bit more manageable.
- Go into the Holiday Break strong. BSU is a weaker team than what Tech saw last year. However, they need to not take them lightly as the Beavers have shown they can keep up with the best of the best teams in the NCAA.
My Prediction
I think this series will be a split. I think Tech is good enough to steal at least one game away on the road. They could possibly get both, but as we’ve seen over the season so far their Saturday games have been harder for them to get results. MTU wins 2-1. BSU wins 4-3.
The guys on our Chasing MacNaughton Podcast also made predictions for this coming series against the Falcons.
Cover photo courtesy Michigan Tech Athletics.
InStat plots created by Zach Aufdemberge. IF I HAD ONE!
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 8:07 ET. Game 2 will be Saturday at 7:07 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.
