Northern Michigan University’s Grayden Slipec, left, celebrates his goal during a CCHA game played against Michigan Tech at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton on Nov. 2. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — This could be a fruitful weekend for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

The Wildcats play at the CCHA’s newest member, Augustana, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at 8 p.m. EST today and 7 p.m. Saturday.

While Augustana isn’t the typical first-year team that is struggling in last place — the Vikings are actually in the middle of the standings at 6-6 overall and 3-3 in league games — they could still be an opportunity for some success by the NMU team looking up at everyone in the league.

Northern is just 1-10-1 overall and 0-5-1 in conference contests, far into the CCHA basement with two points as Bowling Green is next ahead of the Wildcats with eight points even with two fewer games played.

But part of that may be due to NMU’s opposition so far in the league — their three league series have come against the CCHA’s top three teams.

Minnesota State-Mankato and Lake Superior State are listed atop the standings, while Michigan Tech is tied for third.

The conference standings look a bit strange this year — right now Mankato and LSSU are tied even with the Mavericks having 18 points and LSSU just nine.

That’s because of Augustana. When the CCHA decided over the summer to bring the Vikings into the league as a full member this fall, rather than in another year or two, it was too late to rework team schedules.

As a noncompeting member, Augustana was going to be eased into league competition by playing just one series against each team, a total of 16 games, with none of those games originally counting in the league standings.

Meanwhile, full league members like NMU play 26 games within the CCHA. Under the normal points rules, there was just about no way that Augustana would finish anywhere but last place.

So the league decided to base the standings on percentages, specifically the percentage of points a team earns vs. the percentage of points possible.

NMU is at .111, having earned two of a possible 18 points (2 divided by 18), while Mankato and LSSU are both at .750 — Mankato has 18 of 24 possible points, Lake State nine of 12 points.

So this weekend’s series between the Wildcats and Vikings is actually more important to Augustana, as it’s a larger portion of their overall league schedule.

Regardless of that, it has to also be important to NMU as the Wildcats have only two wins, one in regulation against Alaska-Anchorage on Oct. 18 and the other coming in a shootout the last time Northern played on Nov. 16 at Mankato. That second win counts as a tie on Northern’s official record, however.

This weekend’s games will be broadcast on Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, with streaming video coverage available at MidcoSports Plus.

Fans can also follow @NMUHockey on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to games and while the ‘Cats are on the ice, or by visiting the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and looking under the hockey schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics, a series preview and the teams’ history.

After the Wildcats complete this series, they come home to face the team that is actually just ahead of them in the league standings, Ferris State (4-10-2, 3-7 CCHA), on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6-7. The next NMU series at the Berry Events Center isn’t until more than a week into 2025, a Jan. 10-11 pair vs. Mankato.

Between those home games, Northern will travel to Bowling Green for a league series on Dec. 13-14, then participate in the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 29-30 in Grand Rapids, facing Michigan State in the semifinals and either MTU or Western Michigan on the second day.

Going back to the series at Mankato on Nov. 15-16, the Wildcats’ Will Diamond was named CCHA Rookie of the Week when he scored his first collegiate goal about halfway through the third period that sent the game into overtime. While officially ending in a 1-1 tie, their win in the shootout gave NMU the second point that night.

For this weekend, this is only the second time Northern and Augustana have met in a two-game series. Last year on almost the same dates, Northern hosted Augustana with the Vikings winning a shootout after they tied 2-2, then taking a 5-3 victory in the second game.

While NMU is making definite inroads in evening up its shots against the opposition, those numbers along with the difference in scoring for the season are still rather lopsided. Northern is being outshot 430-262 and outscored 44-15 in a dozen games, amounting to per-game averages of about 36-22 in shots and 3.7 to 1.3 in goals.

Ryan Ouellette, who has started 11 games and played about 80% of the team’s minutes in goal, has been able to keep the Wildcats in a number of games with his 2.82 goals against average and .923 saves percentage.

Among skaters, Grayden Slipec and Tynan Ewart lead the team with five points apiece, with Slipec joining Tanner Latsch, Matthew Romer, Medrick Bolduc and Anthony Cliche with two goals each.

Both of Slipec’s goals make up two-thirds of the team’s power play goals, Romer having the other power play tally. And Rasmus Larsson with 30 leads one of the nation’s best teams making blocked shots, as he is followed by Ewart with 25 blocks and Cliche with 22.

Augustana, meanwhile, had outscored its opponents 33-27 overall and is even at 17-17 in league games. A trio of Vikings each have nine points — Owen Bohn (6 goals, 3 assists), Brett Meerman (4-5) and Payton Matsui (1-8).

Most recently, freshman Joey DelGreco has been the most productive, with seven points (4-3) in the team’s last five games.

In goal, Josh Kotai leads the Vikings and is second in the CCHA only to Mankato’s Alex Tracy with a .939 saves percentage and third in goals against at 1.92.

Augustana is also 2-2 at home, their last time playing in Sioux Falls a 4-3 OT loss and 5-1 win over Bemidji State on Nov. 8-9.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.