This week in RinkRap: an Upper Peninsula prizefight goes extra rounds, the Beavers balance on a slippery bubble, and Bowling Green gets creative in their travel plans.

Requiem for a Heavyweight

Many predicted that the WCHA’s quarterfinal battle of the U.P. between Northern Michigan and blood rival Michigan Tech would go the distance. And although the series will be recorded as a sweep for the Huskies, MTU needed a ninth period of hockey to finish off the Wildcats, the last three in excruciating sudden death.

The hero was a household name in Copper Country: freshman Logan Pietila, who blasted home a workmanlike feed from Justin Misiak to end Saturday’s four-and-a-half-hour marathon. 

And there it is. #mtuhky #FollowTheHuskies pic.twitter.com/EojXZWDZNR

— Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) March 8, 2020

Viewing the final highlight, one should follow the mass of black jerseys on its dance to center ice. You will notice the whole group, led by co-captain Alex Smith (No. 20), planting its sticks like spears into the Wildcats logo, returning the favor of NMU’s Darien Craighead from the week before. This time, however, the Huskies’ daggers proved fatal, ending Grant Potulny’s Wildcats season on home ice for the third straight season.

“It’s been a tough two months for me,” said Potulny in his 2019-20 farewell to yet another season of promise. On February 1, his Cats were 16-9-4, ranked No. 15 in the USCHO poll, and a contender for the MacNaughton Cup. In the remaining six weeks, the Cats managed but two wins, plummeting to 33rd in the Pairwise Rankings at season’s completion. 

Potulny’s Wildcats finished with 199 goals for and 200 goals against. If that single-goal differential had finished in the black instead of the red, they would still be playing today.

NMU’s Jeckyl and Hyde personality is embodied in sophomore Griffin Loughran, the WCHA’s leader in both goals (23) and penalties (33). His final transgression was his most regrettable — a dubious “slashing” penalty at the end of the second overtime, burying his stick into the underside of Tech’s Colin Swoyer. 

“I’m really disappointed in the penalty,” Potulny said. “When you take a penalty like that, you usually lose.” 

On Monday the WCHA dinged Loughran with a one-game suspension for his offense, which will be served at the beginning of next season.

Tech coach Joe Shawhan spent much of Saturday night fighting back his frustrations at the bizarre sequence of events on the ice, including an apparent game-winning goal for Tech late in regulation, one that was reversed for an offsides violation. 

“I certainly have a lot to say,” Shawhan said in the formal post-game presser, “but my boss is sitting right back there and I don’t want to get sent to the principal’s office on Monday.” 

Shawhan was forced to juggle lines in overtime following an upper-body injury to forward Trent Bliss. He inserted Misiak onto a new line four minutes into the third overtime. 

“Bliss would’ve been on that line and not Misiak,” Shawhan said. “And Misiak sets up the winning goal. I believe things happen for a reason.” 

So Tech escapes a game that appeared destined for the hometown Cats and is rewarded with a semifinal trip to Mankato to face the winningest team in college hockey. Northern Michigan, on the other hand, begins a longer than expected offseason to take inventory of how things went awry, once again.

To Shoot or Not to Shoot

Although it has never happened in recent memory, it is technically legal to decline a penalty shot in favor of a two-minute penalty. In terms of scoring probability, it doesn’t make sense: an individual’s penalty shot is generally twice as likely to score as a team’s power play. However, based on the fact that Bemidji was aching to count down the clock in Sunday’s do-or-die rubber match with Lake Superior, Beaver coach Tom Serratore gave serious consideration to declining the penalty shot to Aaron Miller, clinging to a 2-1 lead with 6:08 remaining in regulation. 

“I debated it with Travis [assistant coach Travis Winter],” Serratore said. “If there was two and a half minutes left, I might have done that. But with 6:08, you got Aaron Miller, why not? I figure you got to take the one-on-oh.”

Serratore and Winter may have had second-guessed the call after Miller was stoned by Lakers’ goalie Mareks Mitens, keeping the game at 2-1. Fortunately for the Beavers, their suffocating brand of full-ice defense asserted itself, depriving the Lakers any more Grade-A chances. When Beaver sophomore Owen Sillinger backhanded in a nifty empty-net goal, Bemidji was on their way to the WCHA semifinals for the first time since 2017. 

The No. 11-ranked Beavers have been skating precariously on the NCAA “bubble” this past week. The NCAA tournament committee makes its selections based entirely on the PairWise rankings, and BSU started the weekend tied for 10th, but then slipped to 13th after Saturday night’s loss to pesky Lake Superior State. A loss this past Sunday would have most likely cost the Beavers an NCAA berth, but they managed to survive and advance. 

Currently they find themselves temporarily safe in the No. 11 spot. The College Hockey News’ “Probability Matrix” has calculated that Bemidji has a 59 percent chance to get into the NCAAs for the first time since 2010. Hardly comforting, with a red-hot Bowling Green squad rolling into town on Friday.

In hindsight, the three-game semifinal scare against Lake State probably benefited Bemidji, despite the dip in the PairWise. 

“We had to grind it out,” Serratore said. “It’s going to make us better.”

Ultimate Road Warriors

Despite tying for fourth place in the WCHA standings, Bowling Green will not get a home game in the league playoffs. Resolutely, they went up and swept Alaska in Fairbanks. The Falcons’ other challenge was how to re-enter into the lower 48. Flights from Fairbanks to Washington State are limited, and plans needed to be made beforehand. Operations manager Nathan Phillips huddled with the Falcons coaching staff combined on the best plan, all things considered. 

Somewhere between Monday night and Tuesday morning, in the netherworld of Alaska-time, the Falcons will fly down to SeaTac, arriving at 6:05 Tuesday morning local time.

They will then connect on a flight to Minneapolis for a two-day visit, practicing at St. Thomas Academy, before busing up to Bemidji Thursday. 

The Falcons have learned to thrive away from home, undefeated in their last six on the road. This success has helped them carve out the nation’s longest current unbeaten streak at 10 games. The Falcons took care of unfinished business in Fairbanks last weekend, and look to do the same in Bemidji, the site of their last road loss on February 1.

“It’s not the ideal travel that we wanted,” said senior captain Alec Rauhauser, “but I don’t think anyone is complaining.”

Ryan Stieg of the Mining Gazette and Bemidji Sports Radio Network contributed to this report.

Tim Rappleye is the author of Jack Parker's Wiseguys: The National Champion BU Terriers, the Blizzard of '78, and the Road to the Miracle on Ice. He can be reached on Twitter @TeeRaps.