Sun Devils look to get back on track at Northern Michigan

(Photo: Marina Williams)

The road grind continues this weekend for Arizona State Hockey (1-4-1) as it travels to Marquette, Mich., to take on the Northern Michigan Wildcats (1-3-0).

The weekend’s matchup will only be the fourth and fifth time that these two teams have seen each other. The three meetings prior have been a two-game sweep at Mullett Arena during the 2023-24 season that went the way of the Sun Devils, and the other date was back in 2018 at a neutral site in Las Vegas, Nev., that ASU won 7-3.

For the Sun Devils, the road trip continues after getting swept by the Providence Friars in the two-game series. The Sun Devils were able to return home for a couple of days of practice before climbing back on the plane for another road series as their stretch of six total road games continues. This weekend marks the return of junior forward Charlie Schoen and graduate forward and Northern Michigan transfer Artem Shlaine from injury. They both were seen practicing on Tuesday and are expected to enter the lineup for the first time this weekend.

“Getting those two guys back is enormous for our depth, especially our scoring depth; we’ve had a four-game stretch here where we failed to really put the puck in the net, and hopefully, it goes in for us this weekend,” head coach Greg Powers said.

Shlaine joined the Sun Devils this year after transferring from Northern Michigan, where he spent two seasons after spending the previous two at Connecticut. With the Wildcats, the Moskva, Russia native saw his 2023-24 season end after 27 games due to injury, but during those 27 games, Shlaine racked up 10 goals — seven on the power play — and 13 assists for 23 total points. During his junior year, he played a full 38 games and ended the season with 11 goals and 21 assists for 32 points.

“It was great; it’s the best two years of college hockey I’ve had so far,” Shlaine said. “It’s good; I don’t know many guys anymore there with such a big turnaround… but it’s definitely special coming in for me, and I’m really excited to get back there.”

Scouting the Wildcats:

Northern Michigan University is located in Marquette on the shores of Lake Superior and a stone’s throw away from Canada. The Wildcats are part of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and will begin conference play after their series with the Sun Devils.

Northern Michigan has started the season off on the wrong side of the win column with a record of 1-3-0. They finished last year with a final record of 12-16-6. This year started with a 4-3 preseason loss to Michigan Tech before truly beginning their season in Colorado Springs against then-No. 12 Colorado College. They lost the first game in overtime, 4-3, before losing 6-1 in game two. Their second series of the season found them returning home to face Alaska Anchorage, a series they split, winning the first game but losing the second.

This year, the coaching staff has a whole new look after former head coach Grant Potulny stepped down to pursue a position in professional hockey. Potulny is now the head coach of the Hartford Wolfpack, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the New York Rangers. When Potulny stepped down, so did associate head coach Byron Pool and assistant coach Nick Peruzzi.

The new bench boss this year is former Northern Michigan player Dave Shyiak. Shyiak played for the Wildcats from 1987-91, where he was the captain of the 1991 National Championship team. He previously coached at Northern Michigan as an assistant from 1995-2002 and as an associate head coach from 2002-05. After his time at NMU Shyiak went on to spend time with Alaska Anchorage, Western Michigan, and St. Cloud State in different positions. Joining Shyiak are Andy Contois, Phil Fox, and Ben Russell all in their first year as well.

When looking at the roster for NMU, a familiar name to Sun Devil fans stands out: sophomore forward Matthew Romer, who has two goals in four games. Romer is tied for the most goals on the team with redshirt sophomore Tanner Latsch, who has two goals and one assist for three points. Freshman Joe Schiller leads the team in assists with three.

When it comes to special teams, Northern Michigan is tied for 39th in power play success, converting only 8.3% of the time. However, their penalty kill is 14th-best in the nation, killing off the man advantage 92.3% of the time.

“It’s going to be a good environment,” Powers said. “It’s a great little hockey community up there that supports Northern Michigan really well. We’ve never been there, we’re excited to go and they got a new coach they’re playing hard for, and he’s got him playing hard so we’re excited to go up to a place we’ve never been.

Puck drop between ASU and NMU is set for 4:07 p.m. MST on Friday and 3:07 p.m. MST on Saturday.