This week in CCHA RinkRap, a storybook homecoming for Mike Hastings, a brief visit to rock bottom in Big Rapids and the never-say-die Cats return to life in Ohio.

The Storybook Ride From Across The Globe

Mike Hastings’ travelogue last week emblemized the polar extremes of his hockey life. On one side of the world (China), bitter disappointment in Team USA’s premature Olympic dismissal, on the other side of the world lay his hockey Nirvana—Mankato. Hastings arrived just in time to lead his club to yet another crowning achievement, namely the Mavericks’ fifth straight MacNaughton Cup. The intense disparity between his two hockey fates—tragedy and ecstasy—was not lost on Hastings.

“Crazy four or five days,” said Hastings, still disappointed about the Americans’ Olympic result despite having just participated in a photo-op with the CCHA champions. 

“Heartbreaking. We wanted to be playing in the gold medal game…it didn’t go as planned.” Hastings then considered his NCAA weekend, one brimming with the spoils of victory, and expressed sincere gratitude. 

“To be able to come back, and take the work of [assistants] Paul Kirtland and Todd Knott and our leadership group…in front of 5, 000 plus… hat’s off to the team. I’m very thankful.” 

Hastings has created a college hockey juggernaut on the banks of the Minnesota River, and his effort to return home, days ahead of all the Olympic athletes, was rewarded this past weekend with myriad accolades. Two consecutive sellout crowds saw the Mavericks sweep in-state rival Bemidji; two Mavericks—Reggie Lutz and Jack McNeely—got to hoist the MacNaughton Cup a fifth time (“Bricklayers to our program”); German scoring star Julian Napravnik played in front of both his parents for the first time on senior night, banging home a pair of goals and summiting the 40-point plateau for the first time in his career; and every Maverick donned official CCHA merchandise ball caps in a celebration worthy of the weightiest trophy hoist in North America. 

“It’s heavy,” said Hastings with a post-game laugh. “You should have saw (sic) a couple of the guys’ faces as they were grabbing it and passing it to each other.” Napravnik compared the celebration to the great sporting moments in the Fatherland. “It’s like the DEL (Deutsch Elite League) of Bundesliga soccer.”

Minnesota State is the pride of the CCHA, pride of Minnesota hockey and pride of Mankato as they prep for a second straight run to the Frozen Four. The local broadcasters spoke for the entire nation as they signed off from Mankato Saturday, dreaming of a national championship. “Why not us?”

Silver Linings After Scratching Rock Bottom

Michigan Tech ‌hit the nadir of their season Saturday night. Trailing 4-2 to seventh place Ferris State late in the second period, Tech coach Joe Shawhan’s team was visibly sagging. Two weeks ago, his Huskies were a stone-cold lock to make the NCAA tournament—this past weekend they found themselves under attack from a team with a .323 winning percentage. With star goalie Blake Pietila on the bench after being yanked, the Huskies nationally-ranked power play now impotent, the Huskies, incredibly, had plunged to rock bottom. And just as suddenly, and equally inexplicably, the slide reversed itself.

“This may sound crazy, and it’s certainly not the way we wanted it to go, but in the long run, I think we needed that,” said Shawhan. With a period to play, Tech righted the ship, scored three goals, survived a shootout, and escaped inhospitable Big Rapids with four points in the standings. 

“It triggered us,” said Shawhan. “We got ourselves in a hole, and we dug out of it.” Appropriately, his most reliable players, seniors Trenton Bliss and Brian Halonen, got the offense going, and the Huskies dormant power play revived with a pair of third period goals to force overtime.

And after Logan Pietila buried the fourth MTU shootout chance, and Mark Sinclair turned aside Ferris State’s last gasp, despair became joy for the Huskies. 

“That was the best overtime/shootout game feeling we’ve had this year,” said Shawhan, whose mercurial Huskies will see these same Bulldogs in two weeks in the CCHA quarterfinals.

Nine Lives for Potulny

Grant Potulny is no longer in the “best young coaches in the NCAA” club, because he has acquired too much hard-earned wisdom. He’s a fifth-year head coach at Northern, having reached two conference championship games, enjoying both good times and bad. He gets neither exhilarated nor depressed over the regular season. 

“It’s all about how you play at the end of the year,” is Potulny’s enduring mantra. Those are not the words of some new gunslinger, it’s from a guy who’s paid his dues in the rough-and-tumble world of coaching kids through injuries, pandemics, and upsets, both for and against. 

Going into this past weekend, the battle for the CCHA’s final home ice spot was supposed to be between Bowling Green and Lake Sate. And then Potulny’s Cats went down to Ohio and swept Bowling Green. Out of nowhere, Northern has thrust itself into the driver's seat for home ice. This from a team many had counted out. This is Potulny’s time of year. 

“Getting healthier has made a big difference,” said Potulny, who has dealt with dozens of critical injuries during his tenure in Marquette. 

“Getting (Hank) Crone and (Charlie) Glockner were big holes that were hard to fill.” 

Crone finished with a three-point weekend, and most observers would say that goaltender Glockner stole Saturday’s game when Bowling Green outshot Northern 36-20, with NMU escaping with a 4-2 victory and the unexpected sweep.

“We got timely saves when we needed them,” said Potulny, who appears to have the horse in goal that he plans to ride throughout the CCHA playoffs.

Northern had two major upsets in last year’s run to the league championship game, and appears to have to pieces back in place for another shot.