PREVIEW: Huskies wrap up regular season at MSU

Courtesy of Michigan Tech Huskies

THIS WEEKEND’S SERIES
• No. 19 Michigan Tech wraps up the regular season at No. 4 Minnesota State this weekend.
• The puck drops at 8:07 p.m. Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday at the Mayo Clinic Events Center in Mankato.
• The two teams split a nonconference series on December 6-7 in Houghton.
• The Huskies are 17-8-1 overall and 7-5 in the WCHA and have won three straight games.

100 YEARS AGO
The Michigan College of Mines played its first collegiate hockey game on January 27, 1921. MCM beat the University of Michigan 3-0 in the first game of the series at the Amphidrome and then lost 4-3 the next night at the Calumet Colosseum.

ON THE RADIO
• Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ broadcasts all Michigan Tech hockey games. Fans can listen live on the radio at Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ, online at TheMix93.com or Pasty.com, or by using your favorite radio streaming app.
• Dirk Hembroff will call all the action in his 19th year behind the microphone.

FLOHOCKEY.TV
• All Michigan Tech hockey games during the 2020-21 season will be live-streamed on FloHockey.tv.
• Fans can purchase either annual ($150) or monthly ($29.99) subscriptions and will have access to all WCHA games along with the full Atlantic Hockey schedule and select Big Ten Conference hockey games.
• The subscription also includes all of the WCHA Playoffs.
• Download the FloSports app today on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and the App Store.

HUSKIES RANKED
• Tech is ranked No. 19 in this week’s USCHO.com Top 20 Poll.
• Tech was ranked No. 20 last week, No. 18 on February 15 and January 25 while receiving votes in 12 of the 13 other polls this season.

RICHTER WATCH LIST
Blake Pietila is one of the nine finalists for the 2021 Mike Richter Award. He has started 18 games in his second season and leads the WCHA with a .939 save percentage to rank fourth nationally and is also fourth in the country with a 1.65 goals-against average.

HUSKIES FOR HOBEY
• Trenton Bliss is a candidate for the second year in a row. He has a team-high 24 points this season with 11 goals and 13 assists.
• Blake Pietila has started 18 games in his second season and leads the WCHA with a .939 save percentage to rank fourth nationally and is also fourth in the country with a 1.65 goals-against average.

SERIES INFO
• Michigan Tech is 23-45-9 all-time against Minnesota State, dating back to 1996.
• The Huskies are 6-26-3 in games played in Mankato.
• The last win at MSU was March 11, 2018, in the WCHA Semifinals when Jake Jackson scored in overtime.

FIRST MEETING
• Tech and Minnesota State split their first meeting of the season on December 6-7 in Houghton in nonconference action. The Huskies won 3-1 Friday and fell 2-0 Saturday.
• Logan Ganie, Eric Gotz, and Brian Halonen scored in the first game while Blake Pietila had 43 saves.

SCOUTING THE MAVS
• Minnesota State is 16-3-1 overall and 11-1 in the WCHA.
• The Mavericks are ranked No. 4 in this week’s USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll.
• MSU was the top pick in both the media and coaches’ preseason polls.
• Head coach Mike Hastings is in his ninth season.
• Goaltender Dryden McKay was both the media and coaches’ pick for WCHA Preseason Player of the Year. Sophomore forward Lucas Sowder was on the coaches’ Preseason All-WCHA Team.
• Junior Julian Napravnik leads the team with 23 points this season. Senior Reggie Lutz leads in goals with nine.

WCHA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
• Colin Swoyer is the WCHA Defenseman of the Week for the fourth time this season after he tied for the WCHA defensemen lead with three points last week.
• Blake Pietila earned WCHA Goaltender of the Week honors for the third time this season after he led WCHA goaltenders with three wins last week and 88 saves.

WCHA PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
• Colin Swoyer is the WCHA Defenseman of the Month after he led WCHA defensemen in February with eight points, three goals, two power-play goals, five points on the power play, and 34 shots on goal.
• Blake Pietila is the WCHA Goaltender of the Month after he led WCHA goaltenders with eight wins and a 1.7 goals-against average in February. He also ranked second with a .928 save percentage.
• Arvid Caderoth is the WCHA Rookie of the Month for the second straight time after he led WCHA Rookies in February with seven assists, eight points, six points on the power play, 20 shots on goal, and 90 faceoff wins.

LAST WEEK
• Tech swept Northern Michigan over the weekend to sweep the season series 6-0.
• The Huskies won 6-1 Friday and 3-2 in overtime Saturday.
• Alec Broetzman (2), Brett Thorne, Brian Halonen, Jake Crespi & Tyler Rockwell scored Friday.
• Jake Crespi scored the OT game-winner Saturday while Tommy Parrottino and Colin Swoyer scored on the power play.
• The Huskies won their eighth in a row over the Wildcats, seventh straight at the Berry Events Center, and 17th game of the season Saturday.
• The Huskies honored Justin Misiak, David Raisanen, Greyson Reitmeier, Tyler Rockwell, Marcus Russell, Mark Sinclair, and Cooper Watson after Friday’s game for Senior Night.

WCHA PLAYOFF FORMAT
• March 12-14 – WCHA First Round best-of-three series hosted by top four seeds.
• March 19 – WCHA Semifinal at highest remaining seed.
• March 20 – WCHA Championship.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Arvid Caderoth leads WCHA rookies with 16 points this season. He has two goals and 14 assists.
• Colin Swoyer is second in the WCHA amongst defensemen with 16 points.
• Brian Halonen is third in the nation with four game-winning goals.
• Blake Pietila is fourth in the nation with a .939 save percentage and a 1.65 goals-against average.
• The Huskies penalty kill ranks fifth at 88.7 percent.
• Alec Broetzman is sixth in that nation in power-play goals (6) and 11th in overall goals (12)
• Tech is seventh in scoring defense, allowing 1.96 goals per game.
• The Huskies power play is 10th at 23.8 percent.
• Joe Shawhan won his 70th game on February 12 against Ferris State.
• Mark Sinclair entered the season fourth in the nation in career saves with 1,967.
• Tech is third in returning goal percentage (83 percent) and returning points (80 percent).
• The Huskies return 8 of their top 9 scorers from last season.
• Tech is fifth in the nation in returning goals (86) and seventh in returning points (220).

WCHA ROOKIE OF THE MONTH
Arvid Caderoth was named the WCHA Rookie of the Month for January. He led WCHA Rookies with seven points, six assists, and three assists on the power play in January. He ranked second amongst newcomers with 39 faceoff wins and was third in plus/minus (+4) and blocked shots (8).

HCA NATIONAL GOALTENDER OF THE MONTH
• Blake Pietila was named the HCA National Goaltender of the Month for December after he led the WCHA with his .955 save percentage during the month. Pietila tied for the league wins lead with four and was second in the WCHA in goals-against average over the month at 1.52.
• Pietila was named the WCHA Goaltender of the Week on December 8 and 14 and the WCHA Goaltender of the Month.

CAPTAINS
• Junior forward Alec Broetzman is the captain of the Huskies. Broetzman wore an A as a sophomore.
• Junior forward Trenton Bliss and junior defensemen Eric Gotz and Colin Swoyer are alternate captains.

100 YEAR UNIFORMS
• Michigan Tech will celebrate 100 years of hockey over the next two seasons.
• The Huskies will wear special jerseys at select games to commemorate the anniversary. The design was inspired by the uniforms worn by the 1926-27 Michigan College of Mining & Technology Huskies.
• The 1926-27 team only played six games and went 5-1 with wins over Notre Dame and Marquette University and a split at Michigan.
• The 1926-27 season was the first one as Huskies.

WCHA PRESEASON ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
• Carson Bantle was named the WCHA Preseason Media Rookie of the Year. He also had a pair of votes from the coaches for the honor.
• Bantle was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the fifth round of the 2020 NHL Draft in early October. He was the captain of the Madison Capitols in the USHL last year and had 49 points in 49 games.
• The Hockey News highlighted 100 NCAA players to watch in 2020-21 and Bantle is No. 56.

NHL DRAFT PICK
• Carson Bantle became the 82nd Husky picked in the NHL Draft on October 7, 2020.
• The Arizona Coyotes picked Bantle with the 142nd pick in the fifth round.
• Bantle’s fifth-round pick was the highest for a Husky since Jujhar Khaira’s third-round selection in 2012.
• Matt Roy was the last Husky selected in the NHL Draft in 2015.
• Bantle was the 1,114th player from a WCHA school to be chosen since the Draft’s inception in 1963.

COACH SHAWHAN
• Head coach Joe Shawhan is in his fourth season behind the bench. His 22 wins in his first season tied for the most ever by a Michigan Tech coach. Jim Nahrgang won 22 games in 1982-83.
• Shawhan was hired on May 30, 2017, after serving as an assistant coach for the Huskies over the previous three seasons.
• Joe Shawhan won his 50th game as head coach of the Huskies on January 24, 2020, with a 2-1 victory over Ferris State.

WCHA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
• Mar. 1 – Blake Pietila (Goaltender)
• Mar. 1 – Colin Swoyer (Defenseman)
• Feb. 15 – Colin Swoyer (Defenseman)
• Feb. 8 – Arvid Caderoth (Rookie)
• Jan. 26 – Arvid Caderoth (Rookie)
• Dec. 21 – Colin Swoyer (Defenseman)
• Dec. 14 – Colin Swoyer (Defenseman)
• Dec. 14 – Blake Pietila (Goaltender)
• Dec. 8 – Blake Pietila (Goaltender)

PRESEASON ALL-WCHA
• Trenton Bliss, Alec Broetzman, and Colin Swoyer all received votes for Preseason All-WCHA. Broetzman and Bliss led the Huskies with 27 points each last season. Swoyer led the team with 17 assists.
• Trenton Bliss also had one vote each from the coaches and the media for WCHA Preseason Player of the Year.
• Jed Pietila received a vote for Preseason Rookie of the Year from the media