October 9, 2015
Weight of Expectation
Michigan Tech Eyes New Heights After Last Year's Success
by Ryan Evans/CHN Reporter
Alex Petan is a Hobey candidate for the Huskies this season.
College hockey is coming and there is a palpable buzz in Houghton, Mich. It has not always been that way, but, after last season, Michigan Tech is dealing with something new: high expectations.
A 29-win season and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since the early days of the Reagan administration will do that. With much of that team back this season, fans have visions of the Huskies breaking their 40-year league championship drought.
“It’s a smaller town, but a big hockey community,” senior goaltender Jamie Phillips said. “We see people around town and they wish us good luck and tell us how excited they are to see us play again.”
“When the whole town and the whole school is behind us, that gives us a little extra motivation and energy.”
Michigan Tech head coach Mel Pearson said the excitement in Houghton is “as high as it has ever been,” heading into the season and his team is going to have to deal with the expectations that come with that. It has been awhile since the Huskies have gone into the season with realistic hopes of winning titles. The program is only one year removed from seven-straight losing seasons.
Now, though, the Huskies enter the year as the No. 15-ranked team in the country with 24 returning players and were picked to finish second in the league by both the WCHA coaches and media—but they are aspiring to reach much higher.
“I want to help this team win a national championship,” senior forward Alex Petan said. “Last year is last year. We want to build on our success from last year, but we want to start fresh and build a new team identity.”
Michigan Tech is especially eager to get started after the disappointing end to its 2014-15 campaign. After falling short of the MacNaughton Cup by just one point, the Huskies coughed up a lead to Minnesota State in the WCHA title game, allowing the Broadmoor Trophy to slip through their grasp as well. A heartbreaking overtime loss to St. Cloud State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament soon followed.
“The feeling was pretty bitter and we need to use that feeling as motivation for this year,” Petan said. “We don’t want to feel that same way again.”
After that brief taste of national success, Michigan Tech players are hungry for more.
“It gave us a sense of what it’s like to be in the national tournament and have success and the good feeling that winning games brings,” Phillips said.
Phillips and Petan will lead the Huskies’ charge this season, the former is a reigning Mike Richter Award finalist and the latter is the WCHA’s top returning scorer. Though MTU returns four 20-plus point-scorers from a year ago, it has to make up for the lost production of Tanner Kero, who netted a team-leading 20 goals and 46 points and was a Hobey Baker finalist last season.
Petan will be key in filling that void. The 5-foot-9, British Colombia native is the go-to guy now after breaking out last season with 15 goals and 40 points. But he can’t do it alone and the Huskies will be counting on increased production from the likes of senior forward Malcolm Gould and junior forwards Tyler Heinonen, Reid Sturos, and Joel L’Esperance.
If they can combine that with a defense that ranked No. 2 in the country—and that group returns all of its key contributors, including Phillips, who boasted a .933 save percentage—then Michigan Tech will be well on its way to building off of last season’s success and establishing itself as a national power.
“Expectations are high for our team and they have high expectations for themselves,” Pearson said.
“There’s a lot of unfinished business.”