Thursday, January 11, 2024

Men’s Notes: Michigan Tech Surging After Uncharacteristic Start

Tabakin’s Desert Turnaround; Scarfone Nears School Record

Success is an expectation for the Michigan Tech Huskies, a program that qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two years and won 20-plus games in three of the last four.

But MTU struggled out of the gates in 2023-24, enduring a 0-4-3 start during a winless month of October. It was a stunning development for a team picked to win the CCHA in the league’s preseason poll after back-to-back runner-up conference finishes.

Things began to turn for the Huskies in November. MTU ripped off an 8-2 run during the month, capped off by a pair of 1-goal road wins over longtime nemesis Minnesota State. Another winning month (3-2-1) followed in December, including a tournament victory at the 57th annual Great Lakes Invitational.

There are plenty of reasons to believe the Huskies have fully righted the ship.

All-America netminder Blake Pietila (Howell, Mich.) is back to his brick wall ways, garnering CCHA Goaltender Month of the Honors in December after logging a .932 save percentage in his six outings. Forwards Ryland Mosley (Sr., Arnprior, Ontario) and Isaac Gordon (Fr., Landmark, Manitoba) provide a productive 1-2 scoring punch.

And of course, the Huskies have no shortage of recent big-game experience on which to draw.

Series sweeps have remained elusive for the Huskies – the back-to-back wins at MSU remain their only sweep of the year to date – but MTU can make another statement in the CCHA this weekend when it travels to St. Thomas. The second-place Tommies are two points up on the Huskies, but MTU has two games in hand. MTU (.633), the league leader in points percentage, has four games in hand on first-place Bemidji State (.595).

Stat Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Must Read:

Duluth News Tribune: Will Francis pauses comeback, will redshirt 2023-24 season
Grand Forks Herald: Analytics give Hobie Hedquist a thumbs up on his first weekend
Bangor Daily News: UMaine freshman proves worthy of being in 2-goalie rotation with Victor Ostman
Boston Globe: Checking on the freshman goaltenders, and other weekend takeaways
College Hockey News: Team of the Week: North Dakota
College Hockey News: The Lindenwood way: 2nd-year program taking different approach to building
FloHockey: RIT gearing up for second half of season with nonconference play
The Rink Live: Cooper Wylie gets scoreless monkey off his back for SCSU
The Rink Live: SCSU’s Larson, DU’s Carle go from winning gold together to coaching against one another
USCHO: Talented Nadeau brothers have Maine flying high, embracing support from Alfond faithful
USCHO: After strong first half, Western Michigan figuring out ‘a great recipe for long-term success’
USCHO: Coming off split with Bemidji State, Ferris State ‘in a good place right now’ heading to Mankato
USCHO: Yale seniors the ‘backbone of the success we had and the success we might have going forward

Must Hear:

Bulldog Insider: Francis fights his way back from second battle with cancer
CHN Insiders Podcast: World Junior gold and who would win major individual awards at midseason
College Hockey Today: The race is on
Inside Atlantic Hockey: Featuring Niagara Head Coach Jason Lammers
Inside ECAC Hockey: Featuring Clarkson Head Coach Casey Jones
Inside Hockey East: Featuring Vermont senior G Gabe Carriere
The CCHA Show: Featuring Bemidji State freshman D and WJC gold-medalist Eric Pohlkamp
The Parting Schotts Podcast: Featuring Union Head Coach Josh Hauge
USCHO Spotlight: Looking at World Junior Championship gold for Team USA with FloSports’ Peters
USCHO Weekend Review: Looking at USA gold, top of the poll, ASU, conference races

Tommy Guns for Record:

Reigning Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week Tommy Scarfone (Jr., L’Île-Bizard, Que.) is closing in on RIT history.

Scarfone’s next win will be the 43rd of his collegiate career and will tie Logan Drackett’s (2017-21) school record. Scarfone is coming off a brilliant weekend performance in which he earned a 33-save shutout in Friday’s 4-0 win over Clarkson, then stopped 46 of 47 shots in a 1-1 overtime tie with St. Lawrence.

This season, Scarfone leads Atlantic Hockey in wins (12) and save percentage (.932) while ranking second in goals against average (2.20).

NoDak’s Gaber Doubles Down:

North Dakota senior F Riese Gaber (Gilbert Plains, Manitoba) racked up a three-goal, six-point weekend in the Fighting Hawks’ non-conference sweep of Alaska last weekend in Grand Forks.

That outburst gave Gaber 11 goals on the season, the fourth time in as many years Gaber has provided 10-plus goals. According to the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman, Gaber is the 12th player in North Dakota history to hit double-digit goal totals in four straight seasons, but just the second to do it entirely during the 2000s (Ryan Duncan).

Gaber leads all active NCAA Division I men’s players with 57 career goals, one more than Minnesota fifth-year F Bryce Brodzinski (Blaine, Minn.).

Milestone Watch:

Clarkson graduate F Mathieu Gosselin (Quebec City, Que.) and St. Cloud State senior F Veeti Miettinen (Espoo, Finland) both enter the weekend with 99 career points. They are aiming to become the ninth and 10th active NCAA Division I men’s hockey players to reach the 100-point milestone for their careers.

Northern Michigan graduate F Andre Ghantous (Glendale, Calif.) leads all active players in points (145) and assists (95).

Pluses and Minuses:

Arizona State graduate D Brandon Tabakin (Woodbury, N.Y.) leads the nation with a plus-23 rating, the only player in the country with a plus/minus north of 20. The first-year Sun Devil was a career minus-23 during his three seasons at Yale.

Tabakin and the Sun Devils (16-3-5) won their Desert Hockey Classic last weekend to push their unbeaten streak to 10 games (6-0-4) since the start of December.

Fit to Print:

“We have been playing well the last several games, we just haven’t been able to score. This weekend, just about everything we threw at the net went in. Sometimes, that’s hockey.”

— Air Force Head Coach Frank Serratore after the Falcons scored 10 goals in a two-game sweep of Bentley (source: GoAirForceFalcons.com)

NHL Note of the Week:

Twenty NCAA alumni have already made their NHL debuts in 2023-24, the most recent player being former Western Michigan F Jason Polin (2019-23) with the Colorado Avalanche.

The 2022-23 NCHC Player of the Year and a second-team All-American, Polin debuted in Colorado’s 4-3 shootout win over Boston. Polin, an undrafted free agent, tied Michigan’s Adam Fantilli for the national lead in goals last season with 30.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Denver freshman D Zeev Buium (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) is riding 12-game point streak, one short of the 13-game streak by Bradly Nadeau (Nov. 3-Jan. 5) for the nation’s longest this season … Ohio State junior F Cam Thiesing (Franklin, Tenn.) has scored a goal in five straight games, the longest active streak in the country, and seven goals in his last nine. He went his first 11 games of the season without a goal prior to his current nine-game run … Air Force senior F Will Gavin (Durham, Conn.) scored three power-play goals in the Falcons’ 7-3 win over Bentley last Saturday. It was the fourth power-play hat trick in Atlantic Hockey history … Wisconsin has won nine straight games for the first time since 1989-90 when the Badgers won the fifth of the Badgers’ six NCAA titles … When Penn State rallied from a 6-2 deficit to defeat Army 7-6 last Saturday, it marked the largest comeback in PSU history.

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!