2018 Ice Vegas Invitational

After Regime Change, Michigan Tech Finds Success Ahead of Tournaments

After Regime Change, Michigan Tech Finds Success Ahead of Tournaments

When Michigan Tech lost their head coach a year ago, they needed to strike a new balance. They may have found it just in time.

Dec 21, 2017 by Hunter Sharpless
After Regime Change, Michigan Tech Finds Success Ahead of Tournaments

When former Michigan Tech head coach Mel Pearson left for the University of Michigan in April, newly promoted Joe Shawhan was left with a program that won the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) in a double-overtime thriller, logged a 23-15-7 record over the year, and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

There’s no question about it: the new skipper had talent.

Even so, a regime change almost always yields some inconsistency. Throw in the graduation of an accomplished senior class, and Shawhan still had his work cut out for him.

Tech currently sits 9-7-5 overall — and just one game above .500 in the WCHA — the Huskies have won four of their last six games, and may be hitting their groove just in time for a couple of tournaments. After hosting the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI), they’ll head south to Las Vegas for the inaugural Ice Vegas Invitational, a four-team tournament comprised of Michigan Tech, Arizona State, Boston College, and WCHA rival Northern Michigan.

The action goes down January 5-6 at the Vegas Golden Knights’ newly renovated T-Mobile Arena.

Watch the Ice Vegas Invitational LIVE on FloHockey!



Like any good coach, Shawhan knows there’s room for improvement despite his team’s recent streak and even with a scorching top line. He voiced his frustration after settling for a tie with Lake Superior State in their last series.

“If individuals on each line are not completely there on the energy side of it, on the compete side of it, with their brains engaged, then we are just an average hockey team,” Shawhan told Eden Laase of The Daily Mining Gazette. “We go back to what we were in games five, six, seven, eight, nine.”

The Huskies went 1-3-1 in games five through nine, almost like a midseason hangover. But Shawhan was able to coach the team out of the funk with the shuffling of lines, which created the lethal Jeff Jackson, Brent Baltus, and Alex Smith trio. Now we’ll have to wait to see what the coach has in store for the upcoming tournaments.

Jackson and captain Baltus have supported the Huskies during their streak. Jackson has an eight-game point streak (4 G, 6 A), while linemate Baltus has five goals and five assists for 10 points during a six-game point streak.

“I got put with [Jackson and Smith], our styles of play really clicked right from the first game,” the captain told Eden Laase. “We were playing well and getting scoring chances, which helped with our confidence right off the hop. We have just slowly built off of it from there.”

Baltus and Jackson combined for just two points in the 21st annual Ice Breaker Tournament back in early October. Tech defeated No. 16-ranked Union before downing the tournament’s defending champion and No. 6-ranked Minnesota Duluth.

Jackson and Baltus combined for just two points in the tournament, but even with the mild production from the Huskies’ top two scorers, they found a way to claim the title in their first appearance in the tournament.



Now, as two of the hottest players in the NCAA, they’ll be the keys for Michigan Tech at the GLI and Ice Vegas.

Don’t miss the tournament, streamed right here on FloHockey, starting January 5 at 8 PM EST through the championship and consolation games the following day.

By Jacob Messing

Have a question or a comment for Jacob? You can find him on Twitter @JMessing23.