Sardarian scores twice for Huskies
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech hockey team defeated rival Northern Michigan 4-1 on Friday at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. The Huskies scored 22 seconds into the game, winning their third home game of the season and beating the Wildcats for the sixth straight time.
“It feels good to get a win,” Tech coach Bill Muckalt said. “Credit Northern. They played hard all night. We got the separation early from our top line, and that was critical. I didn’t like some of our line changes, we took some bad penalties, and our power play also needs to be better, but it was a good team win.”
Stiven Sardarian had two goals and an assist and leads all CCHA players with 14 points. He opened scoring only 22 seconds into the game when he backhanded in his first goal of the season after Max Koskipirtti centered the puck out front. Noah Reinhart added the second assist.
Brayden Boehm scored for the third straight Friday night, giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead with 2:20 left in the first period. Carson Latimer and Elias Jansson created a turnover behind the net, and Boehm gathered the puck and ripped it over the goaltender’s shoulder for his third goal of the season.
Reid Andresen made it a three-goal lead 10:48 into the second period when he finished off a backdoor feed from Teydon Trembecky as an NMU penalty expired. Stiven Sardarian added the second assist on Andresen’s first NCAA goal.
NMU (0-11-0, 0-3-0 CCHA) got on the board 12:01 into the third period with a shorthanded goal by Jakub Altrichter from Mathew Ward.
The Wildcats had a later power play and went on a 6-on-4 advantage after pulling their goaltender. Owen Bartoszkiewicz made a couple of big saves before Isaac Gordon cleared the puck over to Stiven Sardarian. He took his time and wristed a long shot from his own blueline and into the empty net for the final tally.
Shots favored the Huskies 31-27. Owen Bartoszkiewicz earned his sixth win of the season and the 17th of his career with 26 saves. He was inches away from a goalie-goal late in the third, but the puck hit the outside post and was called icing.
NMU starter William Gramme had nine saves on 12 shots. Oliver Auyeung-Ashton finished the game for the visitors, making 18 saves.
The teams combined for 13 penalties, and both were 0-for-5 on the power play.
Tech improved to 6-3 overall and 3-0 in the CCHA with the win. The two teams will wrap up the series down in Marquette on Saturday at 6:07 p.m.
