Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State reach WCHA title game

Northern Michigan isn't ready to call it a season quite yet. One more win, and the Wildcats will be playing in the NCAA tournament.

Goals early in the first and second periods staked the Wildcats (11-16-1) to a two-goal lead, and they went on to chase All-America goalie Dryden McKay and stun third-ranked Minnesota State Mankato 5-1 on Friday in the semifinals of the WCHA tournament in Mankato.

The Mavericks won the MacNaughton Cup as the conference regular-season champions and were the top seed in the conference postseason tournament.

"Playing arguably one of the best teams in the country, if not the best team in the country, we had to play a flawless game," said Northern Michigan coach Grant Potulny, a former Gophers assistant.

"They were hungrier."

Mavericks coach Mike Hastings said of the Wildcats. "They took advantage of an opportunity to get one behind Dryden, and they just kept coming.

"I just didn't think we handled the punch in the nose very well."

On Saturday night, the Wildcats will face Lake Superior State for the championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

The Wildcats scored four goals on 10 shots against McKay, one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, in dropping the Mavericks to 20-4-1.

Andre Ghantous had two goals, the first 1:14 after the opening faceoff. Alex Frye scored 24 seconds into the second period, and Joseph Nardi had a goal and two assists.

Northern Michigan goalie Rico DeMatteo made 28 saves.

Reggie Lutz scored a third-period power-play goal for the Mavericks, who outshot NMU 29-20. The Mavericks had swept Northern Michigan 5-0 and 4-0 on the road in early January.

Brandon Puricelli, Jacob Bengtsson, Hampus Eriksson and Lukas Kaelble scored for the Lakers, who broke the game open with two second-period goals.

Ethan Somoza scored a power-play goal with four minutes left in the third period for the Beavers, who got 17 saves from Zach Driscoll.

Eriksson scored the Lakers' third goal and had two assists.

Puricelli's seventh goal of the season was the winner at 13:28 of the opening period.

Bengtsson and Eriksson scored about three minutes apart late in the second period. Kaelble scored at 4:14 of the third.