Pearson, Huskies ready for WCHA Final Five

By @MichaelCaples –

Mel Pearson said his group is ready for the upcoming WCHA Final Five in Grand Rapids.

“Our team seems to be coming together at the right time,” the head coach of the Michigan Tech Huskies said. “We’ve got a great group of seniors who are leading our team right now and I think the thing about our team more than anything is the depth. We don’t have any one superstar.”

That depth has brought the McNaughton Cup back to its birthplace in Houghton, Mich., as MTU reclaimed the trophy for first time in four decades with a WCHA regular-season title.

The head coach may have been selling a few of his players short, however, as captain Alex Petan was named WCHA player of the year, and two Huskies landed on the All-WCHA Second Team – Matt Roy and Jamie Phillips.

There have been plenty of things to celebrate this season for the Huskies, and Pearson wants his players to enjoy it.

“I learned last year that you’ve gotta enjoy moments like this,” Pearson said. “We hadn’t won the McNaughton Cup in 40 years and for people who don’t know the history of the McNaughton Cup, it originated here in the Copper Country, so we didn’t hide it. Even on game day, we had it in the locker room for our first playoff game and let our players take some photos with it and whatnot and then obviously after Saturday night’s game, we had a great celebration.”

The latest moment to enjoy is the Huskies heading into Van Andel Arena as one of the favorites to win the WCHA playoff title, as well. They will take on in-state rival Ferris State Friday night, with a spot in the WCHA title game on the line. The puck drops at 7:37 p.m. ET at Van Andel Arena, home of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“Bob Daniels and his staff do an excellent job,” Pearson said. “I think this is their third-straight Final Five. They know what it takes to get there, but they’re balanced also. They’ve got areal good group of forward up front. Their defense play really well, they’re mobile, they handle the puck real well.

“Their goaltender, I think they were trying to find a goaltender to replace one heck of a goaltender in CJ Motte, but they’ve found that in Darren Smith. I think they’re similar to us. They’re just a real good overall team, maybe without any real star player and they play hard.”

It’s hard to find a team that has more momentum than the Huskies right now.

“We have been on a roll,” Pearson said. “We’ve only lost one game since the GLI in Christmas. I think part of it is we were having some growing pains from injuries earlier in the year and then coming off our first NCAA tournament in 30-some years, I think our guys – I don’t want to say they lost their focus. And then in the second half, everything seemed to be more focused. We were playing just to get in the playoffs at one point, our league was so tight. And then once we got through that, we’re just playing to get home ice and then we got through that and we had a chance for the McNaughton Cup. There’s always been something right there to keep our focus on, to keep us playing hard and these guys have been dialed in on that.”

The Huskies may be playing for more than just a conference title this weekend, however. Michigan Tech is ranked No. 12 in the most recent USCHO college hockey poll, but No. 15 on the PairWise, which means the automatic birth into the NCAA tournament from a conference title may be necessary.

“We discussed that you don’t want to sell hope for someone else loses or depending on other results around the country,” Pearson said. “Its’ unfortunate because this league is as good as any right now and I know the teams in this league, I know the coaches in this league, I know the players in this league and this league is as good as any. It’s unfortunate that we maybe stubbed our foot a little bit outside of conference, but any one of these four teams this weekend would represent our league well in the NCAA tournament, but we understand that the only way we can guarantee ourselves a spot is if we win two games.”