Huskies win share of first WCHA title since 1976

By @StefanKubus –

For the first time in 40 years, Michigan Tech is champion of the WCHA.

With a 5-1 victory over Northern Michigan on Saturday and Minnesota State’s coinciding loss to Bemidji State, the No. 13 Huskies grabbed a share of the MacNaughton Cup, their first since the 1975-76 campaign – the third consecutive year the Huskies advanced to the NCAA championship game, runners up in 1974 and 1976 and winning in 1975.

“I’m really proud of our players,” said Huskies head coach Mel Pearson. “We’ve had a great regular season and I’m really, really proud of how we finished things off. This is a tough place to play and everyone stepped up and we had all the ingredients we needed to get a big road win.”

In the game, special teams proved to be the difference, as the Huskies tallied three on the man advantage en route to victory. Junior Tyler Heinonen scored an early power-play goal for Michigan Tech just 2:22 into the contest, but the Wildcats still skated off after 20 minutes down by just one.

A pair of second-period goals by Jake Lucchini and Max Vallis extended the MTU lead to 3-0 through two periods.

Though Cohen Adair responded for Northern Michigan 1:34 into the final frame, Reid Sturos’ tally just 1:25 later was a back-breaker that made it a three-goal game once again. And with just four seconds left in the game, Shane Hanna put the game away with a power-play goal.

With a pair of helpers in the contest, Alex Petan tied and overtook Minnesota State’s Teddy Blueger for the league scoring title, as well, finishing the campaign with 16 goals and 13 assists for 29 points in 27 games.

Michigan Tech finished the regular season with a 18-7-3 mark in league play, while Minnesota State recorded a 16-5-7 mark. With the better record, Michigan Tech earned the top seed in the WCHA playoffs, in which it will host Alaska in a three-game, first-round series March 11-13.

Highlights from the MacNaughton Cup-clinching win: