David Archambeau/For the Gazette Michigan Tech defenseman Nick Williams defends against an Alaska forward during a game Saturday, Oct. 12, at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton.

By DAVER KARNOSKY

dkarnosky@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON — After their second bye week of the season, the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team returns to action at home this weekend as they host the perennially tough Minnesota State Mavericks. The Huskies come into the weekend 6-2 overall and 4-0 in CCHA play.

The Huskies swept the Ferris State Bulldogs on the road before the bye week, and assistant coach Tyler Shelast felt that it did not hurt the Huskies to take some time to focus on areas of their game that needed work.

“I think, having a younger group, the breaks can show a lot of growth and maturity,” he said. “Certainly, 6-2 (we are) kind of positively trending right now. It’s not always the greatest time to go into a break, but I thought the guys did a good job. I thought they were engaged. I thought their brains were engaged. You always want to go into a bye week with how can you get better? What can you accomplish? I thought, systematically, we did a lot of good things. Certainly worked on a lot of facets of our game that we saw in Ferris that maybe limited us being on that smaller ice.

“We took some time to kind of break down the game and just look at how we can get better. I thought we did a good job with that.”

The Huskies had only had a handful of players that had played at Ferris State, and that inexperience showed at points.

“I think, certainly, early on Friday there was like, the eyes were a little bit wide, a little bit big,” said Shelast. “But I thought we figured it out, for the most part Friday. Saturday was a little bit disappointing, to be honest. They buzzed us. They did a great job. If you look at even Ferris last weekend against Lake State, they’re a sneaky team. They play hard. They certainly, against us, pinned their ears back and had a lot of OZP (offensive zone possession time) against us. But, like I said, going into a bye week, it allows you to sit back, look at it a little bit differently, and just find how they kind of exposed us. Then (we can) really just work on that, try to get better, and then obviously take that into Mankato this weekend.”

Shelast feels that the Huskies are still trying to find their identity.

“I think we’re still searching a little bit, but it’s just quality of play, right? We’re 6-2,” he said. “We’ve played eight games. I do think the quality of play that we’ve had in those eight games, we’ve had probably three or four games where just from a scoring chance differential, from a shot differential, we’ve really had the advantage in that. I think if you’re looking at that, ‘OK, it’s how can we create those opportunities multiple times in multiple games and when we can kind of get, maybe, two out of every three games where we have those types of scoring chance differential advantages with the shot advantages.’ I think for the most part we’re going to come out on top.”

The Huskies aren’t even playing with all of their weapons at peak performance yet. Alternate captain Isaac Gordon has yet to score a goal after scoring 18 in 40 games last season.

What Shelast likes about the way Gordon is playing at the moment is that he continues to create scoring chances, which means he is close.

“It’s just like with anything, right? We look at it with any type of player,” Shelast said. “Are you generating offense? What are your scoring chances? If you look at our expected goals individually per game, Isaac Gordon is, if he doesn’t lead us, he’s within the top two or three. So, statistically he’s involved.”

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS

The Mavericks come into this weekend 8-4-2 overall after earning a win and a tie last weekend against Northern Michigan at home. The Mavericks are 3-1-2 in CCHA play so far in Year Two of the Luke Strand era.

Senior forwards Brian Carrabes and Rhett Pitlick lead the team with 11 points each in 13 games. Carrabes is tied for the team lead with five goals and Pitlick has a team-high seven assists.

Where the Mavericks really shine is in goal, where junior Alex Tracy is among the best in the country. He is 8-4-1 in 13 starts with a 1.38 goals against average and a .947 save percentage.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it’s just like anything, right? You try to get into the areas. You try to cross the goalie’s eyes. You try to get pucks to the net, find pucks through layers and through that, hopefully you could get some ugly goals,” said Shelast. “Then, if you get opportunities on the special (teams), power play, you get opportunities with Grade ‘As,’ finish your Grade ‘As.’ If you let him see pucks, and you let him get set, he’s going to be a very good goalie.”

GAME TIMES

The Huskies and Mavericks will meet Friday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena at 7:07 p.m. Saturday, the two teams will meet again at 6:07 p.m.