After a CCHA campaign unlike any other came down to, quite literally, the final minute and a half of the regular season, it’s almost hard to believe the playoffs are starting this weekend.
Minnesota State ended up winning the MacNaughton Cup – their sixth in a row – with just a tiny bit of drama and some controversy (Michigan Tech fans are still talking about the goal that was disallowed due to goaltender interference).
However, it was easy to forget following that unforgettable finale that the season’s not over and there’s still plenty to play for.
Michigan Tech, despite losing then CCHA title, is in very good shape to make a return to the NCAA tournament, as they are up to No. 11 in the Pairwise rankings and, according to PlayoffStatus.com, have a 96 percent chance of making it.
Minnesota State is a different story. Even though they won the conference championship, they’re firmly on the bubble at No. 15. They can still make the tournament as an at-large, but winning the Mason Cup is the only sure-fire way for the Mavs to have a chance at a third consecutive Frozen Four.
As for the rest of the CCHA: It’s Mason Cup or bust. Nobody aside from Tech or MSU are higher than 29th.
Here’s a little bit of information on all four quarterfinal matchups, plus one reporters’ opinion on how each series will go.
No. 1 Minnesota State vs. No. 8 Lake Superior State
After some early-season struggles – including home sweeps at the hands of both Ferris State and Bemidji State before Christmas break – Minnesota State didn’t look like a championship-caliber squad.
So, despite the fact that they’d won five of them in a row previously, a sixth looked in the balance at Christmas.
But MSU (21-12-1, 16-9-1 CCHA) came back from the break refocused and went 11-3 down the stretch in 2023 – including the dramatic winner-take-all season finale with Michigan Tech on Saturday – to clinch their sixth straight MacNaughton Cup as well as home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
“You feel for the guys in the locker room, because I’m sure we’ve all been questioned by a lot of people. We’ve had some struggles here at home,” MSU head coach Mike Hastings said following Saturday night’s game. “Last night we didn’t get it done, and tonight we do. So I’m happy for these guys, because we’ve had some moments at our home rink this year that have been learning experiences. I’m excited for guys to get through and finding a way to get the night done.”
The Mavericks will turn their attention to a first-round matchup with eighth-seeded Lake Superior State. The Lakers (9-23-2, 8-17-1) have had their own share of struggles this season but seem to be playing their best hockey right now. They went 4-2-0 in the month of February and are coming off a road sweep of Ferris State.
JACK’S PICK: Mavericks sweep. Even despite Minnesota State’s aforementioned struggles at home and Lake State’s recent run of form, it’s hard to see the Mavericks losing to the Lakers at all this weekend. MSU just has too much momentum, and what’s more, the Mavericks know they’re a NCAA bubble team right now and that every win counts.
No. 2 Michigan Tech vs. No. 7 St. Thomas
Michigan Tech appeared to be 91 seconds from claiming at least a share of the MacNaughton Cup title last weekend against Minnesota State.
The Huskies (22-9-4, 15-7-4) beat MSU on Friday 2-0 behind yet another shutout from Blake Pietila but found themselves down 2-1 late in the third period Saturday when Ryland Mosley pounced on a loose puck and powered it past Mavericks goalie Keenan Rancier.
The Huskies – who only needed to force overtime to clinch their share of the league title – were elated. But the goal was eventually called back. Minnesota State’s Hastings opted to use his coaches’ challenge and officials ruled that the Huskies committed goaltender interference on the play.
The Huskies did tie it again with a goal that counted – freshman Kyle Kukkonen managed to score shorthanded with 65 seconds to go to briefly quiet the Mankato crowd – but the Mavericks scored on the power play seconds later to go up 3-2 then holding as the seconds ticked down with an empty net to deny the Huskies their title hopes.
Tech’s reward? The No. 2 seed and a home series with St. Thomas (11-21-2, 10-14-2).
“They’re obviously one of the top teams in the country for a reason, and [Pietila’s] a big part of that,” Tommies head coach Rico Blasi said of his team’s task this weekend. “You know we got to go and play, and at this time of the year you’re gonna get everybody’s best. As I told the guys earlier you know let’s talk about the regular season and how we played in the last 20 games. I’m extremely proud of our progress and how we’ve grown as a team.”
The Tommies are 9-9-2 in those last 20 games, including a 3-2 win in Houghton back in January.
The Huskies, though, have been the model of consistency all season, and a big part of that is because of Pietila. Tech’s Mike Richter Award semifinalist (and likely Hobey Baker candidate) has a 1.95 overall goals against average, a .930 save percentage and a nation-leading nine shutouts, including one against St. Thomas that same weekend in January.
“I don’t know if we expect it, but we’ve come to appreciate it,” Michigan Tech head coach Joe Shawhan said after Friday’s 2-0 shutout over Minnesota State of Pietila’s performances this season. “Every chance I have to see him play is a life experience for me. I enjoy everything about him.”
JACK’S PICK: Huskies in three. Despite losing the CCHA regular-season title to Minnesota State, I think Michigan Tech is the best team in the league right now. That being said, the difference this year between the 1-8 matchup and the 2-7 matchup is huge. St. Thomas has a knack for going into hostile environments and stealing wins this season, and they’ve already done it once in Houghton. I think Tech ultimately prevails, but not before the Tommies make them sweat it out with a close win on Saturday.
No. 3 Bowling Green vs. No. 6 Ferris State
A pair of teams who were swept this past weekend are looking for the upper hand.
BG (15-17-2, 12-12-2) has been in third place for most of the past month and have known more or less where they were going to be. Ferris, meanwhile, had the hope to clinch home ice as recently as three weeks ago. However, the Bulldogs (12-18-4, 9-14-3) have lost four straight and were unable to pass NMU or Bemidji.
“Getting home ice was the goal, so we’re happy that we accomplished that, and even though we didn’t have the win loss record we wanted, at the end of the day finishing third place is a positive for our group and being able to play a first round series at Slater Family Arena is a really good, thing so we’re excited about that,” BG head coach Ty Eigner said.
The Falcons struggled a bit in the month of February, winning just once on the road at Michigan Tech. Despite that, Eigner said he likes how BG played overall in the second half of the season.
“We’ve played a bunch of close games, and you know, we feel like this second half has been good preparation for the playoffs because of those close games and hard-fought series, and that’s what the playoffs are going to be,” Eigner said. “We’re disappointed with where we ended up in terms of points in our league because we felt like we left some points on the table the last four or five weeks, but it wasn’t because we didn’t play hard or weren’t in games. We’ve been in games; we just haven’t found a way to either finish a game off or continue the momentum.”
Ferris did take five points from Bowling Green when the two teams met in February in Ohio but lost out at their chance to host a playoff series when they were swept at Northern Michigan two weekends ago. NMU outscored the Bulldogs 17-5.
JACK’S PICK: Falcons in three. I know Ferris took eight points from the season series, so I don’t really have a logical reason for this pick aside from the fact that BG’s home ice advantage is huge. Also, they have Hobey Baker candidate Austen Swankler. The Bulldogs managed to shut him down earlier in the month but I think he carries the Falcons to the series win.
No. 4 Northern Michigan vs. No. 5 Bemidji State
The Wildcats got some help from St. Thomas this weekend to ensure the fact that they are hosting Bemidji State in Marquette and not on the road in Northern Minnesota.
NMU (18-16-0, 14-12-0) came into the weekend three points behind the Beavers (14-15-5, 12-11-3) in the race for the final home playoff spot. Because the Wildcats owned the regular-season tiebreaker, all they needed was to finish with the same number of points as the Beavers to avoid getting on another bus.
The Wildcats did their part, sweeping Bowling Green on the road in a pair of 4-2 comeback victories. And because St. Thomas topped the Beavers 3-1 on Friday night in the Twin Cities, the two teams will face off in the Upper Peninsula.
The Beavers have struggled since the calendar turned to 2023 – they were on top of the CCHA at the break but went just 5-10-1 since. NMU, on the other hand, comes into the postseason on a four-game win streak and has scored 25 goals in that span. They had swept Ferris State 9-2 and 8-3 the previous weekend.
“I thought the Ferris State weekend was important for us to finally unleash a little bit of offense, because then there’s some validation to what you’re trying to do,” NMU head coach Grant Potulny said in his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “I think we’ve been getting better every weekend and we didn’t get the results early that we wanted, but we’re getting them now.”
Although the teams split their regular-season series, with each team winning one at home and one on the road, the Wildcats won the tiebreaker with the Beavers by having more regulation wins (11) than BSU (nine).
JACK’S PICK: Wildcats in three. This one is truly a coin flip, so I went with the home team. Also, the Beavers are banged-up – in Saturday’s game at St. Thomas they skated with eight defensemen. Maybe a healthy BSU squad wins this, but for now this is my snap decision.
