Michigan Tech goaltender Blake Pietila catches a shot from a Minnesota State forward during a game on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022, at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — At 8:07 p.m. Saturday evening, in Duluth, Minnesota, the 2023-24 season for the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team kicks off with the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game against the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.

The Huskies enter the season with big expectations, a very different position from where they were 12 months ago, when they returned the fewest goals scored in the CCHA. With expectations tempered by that lack of veteran presence, the Huskies pleasantly surprised everyone, going 24-11-4 overall and 15-7-4 in CCHA play. The Huskies closed the season with two losses, first in the CCHA semifinals to Northern Michigan at home, and then to Penn State in the NCAA Tournament in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“I thought we overachieved last year,” said coach Joe Shawhan. “The guys did a good job, but I give total credit to the players for that. I think that my expectations certainly were surpassed by the performance of the players.”

Fast forward to this week. The Huskies boast a deep returning core. Back are fifth-year goaltender Blake Pietila, and fifth-year center Logan Pietila. Back is sophomore winger Kyle Kukkonen, who scored 18 goals and 27 points as a freshman. Back is senior defenseman Jed Pietila, who developed from a player who saw no games his first two seasons in Black and Gold, into a calming presence on the blue line with one goal and 16 points, and a +11 rating.

“It’s hard to win with freshmen,” said Shawhan. “It’s hard to win (when) reliant on freshmen. So, the more veterans, and the more impact veterans, you can have returning is going to set you up for your success.

“What you get out of freshman is what you get. Seldom do you have the exceptional freshman, in our case like Kyle Kukkonen, who’s immediately an impactive college hockey player. With that being said, the return of those guys is really the reason that coaches are showing us so much respect.”

The Huskies were picked as the preseason favorite to win the CCHA this season by both the media and the coaches.

“I think a lot of it is that teams don’t know, we finished second last year, and they’re looking at we have quite a bit returning, and I don’t know if we, as coaches, knew who to pick. It’s so all over the board.”

Blake Pietila returns after a season that saw him start 37 games, going 23-11-3. He had a 2.15 goals against average and a .924 save percentage while winning the CCHA Player of the Year and CCHA Goaltender of the Year. He was a Top 3 finalist for the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s top goaltender while also being a Top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker.

He also broke school records for shutouts in a season (10) and a career (20) while also becoming the school’s all time wins leader (58).

“He obviously gives us stability back there,” Shawhan said, “gives us a chance to win every night.”

He will be backed up by sophomore Max Vayrynen, who saw action in nine games last season, starting two. He went 1-0-1 with a 2.32 goals against average.

In front of Blake Pietila will be a different-looking defensive corps, without the talents of Brett Thorne or Chris Lipe. However, what the Huskies do have is Jed Pietila, and junior Trevor Russell is back and healthy this season after being limited to 16 games last season due to injury.

Shawhan and his staff are excited about transfer acquisitions Matthew Campbell, a player they had recruited but who ultimately chose Quinnipiac, and Lachlan Getz, a former Boston University player who saw action against the Huskies last year, both of whom are sophomores, as well as a healthy sophomore Kasper Vaharautio, who got into three games late last season once he recovered from an injury.

In Jed Pietila, Shawhan loves how he approaches the game.

“He evolved into being our most consistent defenseman,” Shawhan said, “15-16 points, was second on our defensive core. He is a hard competitor that plays with a bit of an edge. Those types of players people are going to respect. It’s not surprising that he got some attention (from the conference media for the All-CCHA Preseason Team).”

Russell, despite being limited to 16 games, led the Huskies defense in scoring. Shawhan and his staff have been working with him on increasing his effort level throughout the entirety of his shifts, and his coach loves what he sees.

“Right now, from what I see, he’s playing his best hockey,” said Shawhan. “What I mean by that is his attention to detail. His focus is better than I’ve seen it. He’s got size. He’s got strength. He’s got ability. What he has needed to learn, from a development standpoint, is to impact games, and play every shift, and play every moment of every shift, with intensity. I’m seeing more of that than I’ve ever seen in the past out of him right now.”

Up front, the Huskies return their entire top line of Logan Pietila, senior winger Ryland Mosley, and Kukkonen.

Mosley had a significant jump in his offensive production last season, from five goals and 13 points as a sophomore to 12 goals and 31 points as a junior. Shawhan would still like to see him find a way to push that point total to over 40 points this season, something that both Brian Halonen and Trenton Bliss were able to do as seniors.

Logan Pietila had another 20+ point season, scoring 11 goals and 22 points. He has scored at least 20 points in three of his four seasons in Black and Gold.

“If Mosley can bring that into a 30, 40-point year, Pietila has been really, pretty much, consistently a 20-point guy,” Shawhan said. “We would love, at some point, for him to be able to evolve and bring that up into legitimate first line, or second line, point totals. Twenty points is a good upper third line, lower second line, player on a great team.”

Shawhan admits that the Huskies’ struggles on the power play last season might have held both Mosley and Logan Pietila back.

“I think just if all stays the same, and we can improve on a power play, we can add six, seven, eight points per guy onto each of those guys on the power play,” he said.

Kukkonen’s second half was much stronger than his first half last season, and Shawhan feels that he is poised to keep blossoming this season.

“I would hope so,” said Shawhan. “He’s determined. He’s a determined athlete. He’s highly competitive and driven.”

Two other players who blossomed over the course of the season for the Huskies last year were junior wingers Jack Works and Levi Stauber. Works scored eight goals and 17 points in his first season with the Huskies. Stauber worked his way into the lineup and chipped in two goals and five points in 31 games.

Two new faces who have a big impact on the Huskies offensively are sophomore transfer Patriks Marcinkevics and freshman Issac Gordon.

Marcinkevics scored six goals and 27 points as a freshman at Long Island University in 24 games. Much like Tristan Ashbrook, Shawhan likes a lot of what he sees in Marcinkevics’ game offensively, but wants him to play a 200-foot game, something the youngster is working hard to learn as quickly as possible. Shawhan said that he has encouraged Marcinkevics to look at old film of Russian legend and NHL star Igor Larionov, since he feels the sophomore could learn a lot from the player affectionately known as “The Professor.”

In Gordon, the Huskies have a right-handed shooting sniper who scored 22 goals and 41 points in 58 games last season with the Sioux Falls Stampede.

“I like everything about Isaac,” said Shawhan. “He’s a great kid, self reflective, extremely hardworking. He’s got a personality that’s infectious, so, everything about him.”

The Huskies also have two freshman forwards from Finland who could have great careers at Michigan Tech in Lauri Raiman and Max Koskipirtti.

Raiman had 16 goals and 30 points with the Pelicans U20 team last year in the SM-sarja. Koskipirtti also played in the SM-sarja for Kiekko-Espoo. He served as an alternate captain last season while scoring 14 goals and 39 points in 44 games.

UP NEXT

The Huskies and Bulldogs are set to face off Saturday at 8:07 p.m. at the AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota.