Our Michigan Tech Huskies (11-7-2) restart CCHA play hosting the Lake Superior State Lakers (8-11-1). The new year has seen a bit of an offensive boost compared to the beginning of the Huskies’ season, while the Lakers have seen a bit of a regression from the beginning of their season.
Analysis
Lake State started the year on a high note, taking Michigan State to overtime in their first game of the season. Additionally, they managed to have a respectable record until the month of December, when everything started to go downhill a bit.
LSSU has more or less beaten all the teams they should have, with the exceptions of one loss to Stonehill and a tie with Alaska-Anchorage. However, teams that are projected to beat them on paper have, in fact, so that trend isn’t surprising given their slate of opponents in Ohio State and Minnesota State. Looking at their top performers we see:
The biggest news out of LSSU this season has been their goaltender Rorke Applebee, who has looked very promising in his first season of college hockey. The team playing in front of him has been a different story, as the Lakers have been averaging 2.70 goals a game for (comparable to our Huskies’ 2.80), but have been struggling in the defense department giving up 3.05 (MTU is at 2.45). The main overall problem appears to be team defense collectively, given the stats I currently have access to.
Speaking of which, InStat has been fighting us lately due to league labels for games. Luckily for THG and our readers, Augie’s data analysis is able to bypass this issue and still provide us with some of the plots we’ve come to expect:
LSSU is going to be closer to Tech’s last game against Holy Cross than any other recent team they’ve played in the last few weeks. Tech is going to have to continue their better offensive play as of late, but the biggest issue facing our Huskies currently lies in the net with their new netminder Ryan Manzella. It’s not so much that he’s a liability, just that he and the rest of the team need to start to gel and get up to speed with Tech’s systems. So far Manzella has been pretty much been what we would have thought he would be from his USHL stats, which is great news for a Huskies team that was down to one DI-ready goalie.
Also in the camp of good news, Tech looks to finally be seeing their offensive legs getting their footing with Isaac Gordon, Logan Morrell, Jack Works and Elias Jansson starting to find the score sheet more and more. To add icing to the cake, MTU might have another Hobey Baker candidate on their hands with Stiven Sardarian, who is tied for 5th in points in the country. He has proven how good of a player is and that there was more left on the table after two middle-of-the-pack seasons with New Hampshire.
Finally, there is a final bit of good news in that Trevor Russell was seen skating with the team in practice in California, which could see an end to their shorthandedness on defense. Again, the nature of his injury isn’t really known, but hopefully this is a sign that he is close to returning.
Keys to the Game
- Keep them outside. LSSU is thriving in the middle of the zone like HC and UML did. If Tech can trap them to the outside of the zones the Lakers should be dead in the water.
- Reps. Manzella is going to need more games under his belt and LSSU is a good choice of a team to do it with. Derek is going to be needed for down the stretch so a break here and there against more beatable teams will go a long way in making a playoff push in March.
- Defensive Scoring. Tech’s offense coming to life is a welcome sight for sore eyes, but we still need to see the D to start to become more active in the offensive zone. Brown and Pietila aren’t doing a bad job by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think Campbell, Williams and Hurtig have to try and start involving themselves more when it’s safe to do so.
My Prediction
I think this will be Tech’s series to lose, but they can’t play down to LSSU. If the Lakers manage to win or take games to OT it’ll be off the back of Applebee stealing the game. Hopefully Tech won’t shoot center mass and let him do it. MTU wins 3-2, MTU wins 3-1.
The guys on our Chasing MacNaughton Podcast also made predictions for this coming series against the Lakers.
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.
