David Archambeau/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Winter Carnival Queen’s court cheer as Jake Lucchini (15), Seamus Donohue (2), Alex Smith (20), Thomas Beretta (13) and Justin Misiak (17) celebrate a goal by Misiak during a game Saturday against Minnesota State.

SAULT STE. MARIE — The Michigan Tech Huskies have been faced with adversity in recent weeks, but the team showed improvement in last weekend’s series against the WCHA-leading Minnesota State Mavericks, who came away with an extra WCHA point in a 1-1 tie on Friday and all three points in a 3-2 win on Saturday.

“It was a good growing weekend I thought,” said Huskies coach Joe Shawhan, “outside of the results of the games. We got better as the weekend went on. All around, we played a good game Saturday night.

“I give Mankato credit. They were able to what they needed to do to finish off a game to come out with the points that they needed. That’s something that we need to learn to do still. Our play is getting better (and) more consistent.”

Defensive pressure is a high point for Shawhan, who trusts that his team will find a complete 60 minute game in the coming weeks.

“Defensively, we’ve been pretty sound throughout the last four weekends or so,” he said. “I like the contribution we’re getting from a lot of players. I think we’re trending in the right direction.

“There’s a process you go through to learn how to finish games off (and) win hockey games and we’re still learning that process. What we want to do at Lake State is continue to build on that and to play our best when our best is needed.”

“We want to continue to grow as a team and show that we can play against the top teams in the league,” said Shawhan.

Goaltending, oddly enough, has also been a high point for the growing team despite playing all three netminders at different points.

Junior Matt Jurusik was in the net last weekend making some key saves for the Huskies as the games unfolded. The La Grange, Illinois, native accumulated 60 saves on the weekend.

“Our goaltending, I think, has been excellent all year long,” he said. “The numbers are good; goals against average is good. Our goaltending, in my opinion, has been as good as anybody’s goaltending in our league. It’s given us a chance on most night’s we’ve lost.

“We’ve been involved in a ton of one goal games. At some point we’ll come out on top of those, but all three of our goaltenders have been excellent on the year. Every game is a stand alone in it’s own.”

Shawhan, a former goaltender, is in a good position to judge the position for his team.

“You have to be good in every game, and you’re only as good as your last save as a goaltender,” he said. “Your next one is most important, so we have to keep focusing on moving ahead from the goaltending on out to every other position.”

With close games as of late it would be easy for players to get frustrated but senior leaders in Jake Lucchini, Jake Jackson, and Dylan Steman have kept the team in a positive space as the Huskies try to finish out the regular season on a high note.

“I think the mood of the team is really good,” Shawhan said. “I think our guys at the top end are doing an excellent job with keeping our mood good on our team. I know they all individually would like to be having better years but as far as the guidance, the work ethic, the enthusiasm, they’re doing an exceptional job.

“The mood of the team is good. I don’t think there’s anybody in our team that’s quit. They still have hope. The good thing about it is if you get hot, get goaltending, and put things together in the playoffs, you can advance. We’ve seen that in the past.”

Michigan Tech will travel across the peninsula to face the Lake Superior State Lakers (18-8-2 overall,13-7-2 WCHA), who sit fourth in conference play with 41 points.  Michigan Tech is 11-8-3-1 in conference play, good for sixth with 37 points. They are 12-14-4 overall.

“Lake Superior (State) is a tremendous hockey team (that’s) had a tremendous second half,” Shawhan said. “They’ve had a extremely good year. This had to be another growing weekend where we continue to make steps forward within the program.

“(They are an) excellent hockey team. I think us playing Mankato at home gave us an advantage that helped us (progress). I think us playing Lake (Superior) State on the road is going to really balance (us). I think it’s going to be a series really similar to Mankato series.”

Left wing Diego Cuglietta leads the Lakers with 18 goals and 13 assists. Captain Anthony Nellis comes in with 14 goals and 15 assists over 28 games and forward Max Humitz has brought in 27 points.

Cuglietta scored twice in the GLI championship against the Huskies. Humitz added one goal and two assists.

“I think they play a lot like (us),” he said. “They’re (a) very veteran team. They have a good power play and are getting good scoring from their upperclassman that are having career years.

“They’re doing a great job with that. There defense is defending well and not giving up a lot of second chances and they have good goaltending.”

GAME TIMES

The Huskies and Lakers square off at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie.