From Bismarck Tribune
By Josh Dungan
If there was a formula to be had about how to get hockey pucks into the back of the net multiple times a game every game, coaches everywhere would be clamoring for it.
The vagaries of the hockey shot can visit strange results upon teams, such as when the University of Mary men’s hockey team traveled to Colorado State for the back half of a three-game trip to the Centennial State. Despite outshooting the Rams 94-63 in the two games, the Marauders were swept in what became the first — and so far, only — U-Mary losing streak in D-I hockey.
While puck luck failed the Marauders on the road, it smiled on them this weekend when they welcomed those same Rams to Starion Sports Complex for the first time.
Riding big games from Michael Heitkamp, Johnny Witzke, Tanner Eskro and Braeden Zaste, the Marauders swept Colorado State with a 5-1 win on Saturday evening and a 6-1 win on Sunday afternoon.
“Michael, we’ve been waiting for him to have his breakout, and now he’s had goals in the last few games, and he’s starting to come along,” Mary head coach Dan Huntley said. “He’s got a great shot and he’s always looking to shoot.
“The rest of our guys now, we’re 8-1 in our last nine, we’re averaging over five goals a game in those games, and our goal-scoring touch has come back. It’s good to see the guys having fun, seeing everybody involved.”
Having won nine of their last 10 games — though two of those nine were forfeits by Midwest College Hockey conference bottom-dweller Northern Illinois — the Marauders have found their winning ways again.
That is due in large part, as Huntley said, to the return of Witzke from an injury that sidelined him for part of the season, and the veteran blue-liner had yet another weekend to write home about.
Potting a goal and a pair of assists on Friday and joining Heitkamp for a five-goal outburst from two of Mary’s top defensemen, Witzke finished the weekend with five points to lead the Marauders’ offense and now has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) since returning against Illinois State on Jan. 20 after missing more than two months.
“We struggled a little at the end of December and in early January, we had five or six games where we had zero or one goals and things weren’t going well, and part of (fixing that) is adding Witzke back into the lineup,” Huntley said. “Witzke’s worth two goals, whether they’re his or not, to our team at minimum and he’s been putting up points in every game since he’s been back.”
Heitkamp is a newcomer to the Marauders this season, having played against the Marauders for three seasons while wearing the jersey of the Waldorf Warriors, Mary’s new conference rival this season.
“It’s been good, it’s been a big step since last year,” Heitkamp said. “The guys have opened their arms to me. It’s been a family since day one.”
Now third among the Marauders’ defensemen in scoring (seven goals, 10 assists), Heitkamp got the Marauders off and running Sunday with a pair of first-period goals on his way to a hat trick, his first with the Marauders and second of his college career after netting his first against Dakota College-Bottineau in the 2021-22 season.
“It was a good game, all the guys played well,” Heitkamp said. “We’ve figured out our lines and we’ve just started scoring. We’ve been getting guys to the net, guys are playing hard and it’s good to see we’ve tied six straight together now.”
First-period goals were important for the Marauders in both games after Colorado State goalie Sam Simon had held them to one goal in the two road matchups.
“It was a weird weekend for us, I don’t think we did anything wrong,” Huntley said. “Their goaltender played extremely well, we just hit him in the chest and he didn’t have to make that many great saves. This weekend, we forced him to go side-to-side, we had a lot of tips, and now all of a sudden things were going our way.”
Simon again took the net in both games for the Rams, but had much less luck in keeping the puck out. As part of a two-goal game on Saturday, Zaste lit the lamp 5:29 into the first period to give the Marauders their first lead of the season against the No. 27-ranked Rams.
“Yesterday, the first 10 minutes were similar to today, we talked about getting pressure early and setting the tone,” Huntley said. “If they had any thought of having a chance, they’d have to come at us early. If we could weather that first 10 minutes and get after them hard, we have a better opportunity.”
Both of Colorado State’s goals on the weekend came in the second period, with Christian Collins beating Conan Hayton (23 saves) on Saturday and Noah Decker taking advantage of a shorthanded chance and beating Kyle Hayden (22 saves) on Sunday.
Fortunately for the Marauders, neither goal allowed the Rams to pull even; after Zaste had opened the scoring in Saturday’s first period, Eskro started off a four-point weekend (goal and two assists on Saturday, one assist on Sunday) with a power-play goal to give the Marauders a 2-0 lead.
“Our record is stupid when we score first, we’re something like 180-8 when we score first. This year, when we’re leading after one or two periods, we’re 18-0 and 19-0,” Huntley said. “We have good presence of leadership that knows how to handle a lead.”
On Saturday, the Marauders regained their lead and then some, as Luke Schleusner scored in the final 30 seconds to push Mary’s lead to 3-1, and the Marauders then got goals from Witzke and Zaste to push to the final margin.
In Sunday’s victory Mary had doubled up on their Saturday advantage before the Rams scored. After Heitkamp got two-thirds of the way to his hat trick in the first period, Witzke scored unassisted shorthanded, followed less than three minutes later by Jacob Murray’s second goal of the season at even strength.
“I found holes in their goalie and my teammates gave me good opportunities to score,” Heitkamp said. “A lot of guys were locked in this weekend with them sweeping us when we went there. We had some business to finish and I think we did that.”
Taking advantage of special teams play was a feature of both U-Mary wins. Eskro’s goal on Saturday was on the power play, and both Schleusner and Witzke scored during a stretch of four-on-four play in the opener as well.
While the Marauders gave up a shorthanded goal on Sunday, their one blemish of the weekend on special teams, they also had Witzke’s shorthanded goal to balance it out.
The Marauders wrapped up their scoring for the weekend with two more special-teams-aided goals in Sunday’s third period. Heitkamp completed his hat trick five seconds after a Rams penalty expired, and Witzke added his third of the weekend on a power play less than a minute and a half later.
“That’s the pressure you need to put on,” Huntley said. “Consistency on special teams is important. We gave up a shorthanded goal today, but we’ve been getting shorthanded goals, 4-on-4 goals, power play goals every game.”
Colorado State was 0-for-7 on the man advantage across the weekend. The Marauders were 2-for-11. The Rams took 15 minor penalties on the weekend, while Mary had 12.
The Marauders outshot the Rams 43-24 on Saturday and 50-23 on Sunday.
CONTINUED SUCCESS WITHOUT CUSHING
Almost since he first arrived at the University of Mary, forward Seth Cushing has been leading U-Mary’s offense.
Now the Marauders are figuring out how to win without him. Dealing with a major injury that’s held Cushing off the ice since the first game of Mary’s home series against Illinois State on Jan. 20 and 21, the Marauders have moved pieces around and still found success.
“We moved Tanner Eskro to the wing, which is his natural position, and Luke Schleusner has done a great job of filling in the middle role,” Huntley said. “Now we have guys at the positions they should be at, and we try and play (Teddy Lillico) and (Witzke) with that line as much as possible, giving that line five very dynamic offensive-orientated players.”
After losing 3-2 in the first game without Cushing, the Marauders have started a six-game winning streak in which they’ve scored 36 goals (six goals a game) and allowed just eight (1.33 goals a game).
“You wouldn’t think losing your leading goal-scorer and you’d start to score more goals,” Huntley said. “The new first line has done well, then Derek Dropik has done a great job on the second line, he’s going out and having fun, and it’s a good time for him to do that.”
The Marauders will hope the learning curve they’ve been on in recent weeks can continue through a successful run at the conference and national tournaments, as Huntley’s outlook on Cushing’s ability to return before the end of the season is grim.
“He’s going to be week-to-week, and he’s definitely not back for a few weeks,” Huntley said. “We’ll be lucky if we get him back for the national tournament. There’s hope and optimism on both sides, but you don’t know how much time he needs because he needs some prep time after being off the ice for six or seven weeks.”
WEEKEND TEST FOR MCH TITLE
Besides Minot State, few other teams have challenged U-Mary like Jamestown has.
Now the Marauders will need to put their best on the ice this coming weekend, as their hopes of winning the Midwest College Hockey regular season title rest on scoring at least three points out of the home-and-home weekend coming up against the Jimmies.
“It’s going to be a war, and we just need to play our game,” Heitkamp said. “Keep it simple and be a team, that’s the goal.”
Since beginning play in ACHA hockey, the two teams have battled to a near-perfect tie, with four of the five season series between the teams being tied.
So far this season, the Marauders were humbled 8-2 on the road at John L. Wilson Arena and squeaked out a 3-2 win at home. With the Marauders being just a little more consistent in Midwest College Hockey play, Mary enters their upcoming weekend series with Jamestown with a two-point lead in the conference standings.
Any combination of three points would guarantee Mary their first-ever conference trophy and give the Marauders the top seed at the conference tournament held at Starion Sports Complex in mid-February.
“We’ve never had a regular season in a conference, so to be able to play for something like that next weekend is fantastic,” Huntley said. “However it is, we have to get to 49 (points) before Jamestown does. Things can happen if we’re both at 48 points where we can still win the conference title, but we want to go out and get the win at home, where we’ve been very successful.”
(Originally published at https://bismarcktribune.com/sports/college/hockey/mary-win-streak-to-six-after-sweep-of-colorado-state/article_4eb24b06-c377-11ee-a918-8363b94440da.html)
