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Wildcats look to rebound in Anchorage

                 The Wildcats will hit the ice for a pair at Alaska Anchorage Friday, Jan. 24 at 11:07 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 25 at the same time. It will be the first time the ‘Cats meet the Seawolves since beginning their second stint with the WCHA.

                NMU will be looking to put a tough 4-3 loss at home against Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday behind them with a second trip to Alaska this season.  The ‘Cats traveled to Fairbanks in early November, where they split a series against the Nanooks at a game apiece.

                The Wildcats will be looking for WCHA points this weekend, as they sit in sixth place in the conference with 15 points. NMU has played at least two less games than anybody else in the conference, including the Anchorage Seawolves who sit two spots ahead of the ‘Cats in the standings with 19 points and four more games played.

                The Seawolves found themselves struggling late in November, but have gone unbeaten in six of their last seven and salvaged their season. Senior forward Matt Bailey has racked up 22 points for Anchorage with 13 goals and 9 assists. Senior goaltender Rob Gunderson comes into Friday with a 5-5-1 record with a 2.53 goals against average.

                Forward Stephan Vigier is leading the Wildcats in his junior year in scoring with 11 goals through the first 22 games. Junior forward Erik Higby and junior forward Reed Seckel each have six goals. Freshman goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom has an 8-9-2 record with a .923 save percentage.

                Coach Kyle will be looking for Friday night’s five goal effort from his offense to help get past Gunderson and expose why Alaska was struggling earlier in the season. The team will have to play more disciplined than they did against Alaska, and Dahlstrom will have to have a better performance against the second Alaska team.

                This will be a crucial series in the season for the Wildcats, who find themselves in the middle of the WCHA with uncertainty and inconsistency lingering around the team. Alaska Anchorage is no pushover by any means, but the Wildcats should be able to at least get two points by the early hours of Sunday morning.  

                As stated earlier, the Wildcats have more games in hand than any other team in the WCHA, but the schedule gets significantly tougher after this weekend. NMU will host the Minn. State Mavericks next weekend, who just handed Ferris their first two conference losses of the season and sit two points behind the Bulldogs for first place in the WCHA. The Wildcats will than hit the road for Big Rapids the next weekend to take on Ferris State Feb. 6-7, who have yet to lose at home this season.  The ‘Cats will have back-to-back rivalry weekends as they host LSSU 13-14 than partake in a home-and-home series with Tech Feb. 20-21. The Wildcats will not have much time to breath after the Huskies leave town before Bowling Green comes to town Feb. 28-March 1, and their recent success against us late in the season goes without saying. NMU will travel to Alabama Huntsville before closing out the regular season and hopefully qualifying for the WCHA playoffs.

                So the time to start winning is this weekend. It’s not impossible to get your game going against two ranked teams that sit atop your conference, but the ‘Cats best chance at getting some momentum going would be this weekend in Alaska.  Hopefully, it’ll be momentum they will ride to Grand Rapids in March.