Argentina scores twice for Wildcats
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Northern Michigan hockey team came away with a 3-2 upset win over the #19/19 Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday at the MacInnes Ice Arena behind a two-goal performance from Matthew Argentina and 42 saves from Oliver Auyeung-Ashton.
NMU was able to apply plenty of pressure to Michigan Tech goaltender Owen Bartoszkiewicz, outshooting the Huskies 9-3 through eight minutes, but MTU was then able to draw a pair of penalties. The Huskies thought they had taken advantage of the opportunity with the opening goal, but a successful challenge by Head Coach Dave Shyiak quickly waved off the tally due to goaltender interference. However, Elias Jansson would officially put Michigan Tech ahead 1-0 shortly thereafter, and that score would hold into the first intermission.
The Wildcats responded in the second period with a power play goal of their own as Tobias Pitka deflected in his fourth goal of the season after redirecting a shot by Peter Cisar from the left side of the net, knotting up the score at 1-1. Mathew Ward also picked up an assist on the play.
The Huskies were able to turn up the pressure in the third period, but Wildcat goaltender Auyeung-Ashton came away with save after save to keep the score tied at 1-1. Then, with nine minutes remaining in regulation, Argentina would find the back of the net to give his team the lead as the Wildcats capitalized on a rush opportunity that saw Cisar slide a rebound from a shot by Pitka across the crease over to a waiting Argentina who was ready to finish off the play. Argentina would tack on another late in the period, his third of the series and first multi-goal performance of his career, with an empty-netter for additional insurance that would ultimately become the game winner after Teydon Trembecky netted an extra-attacker goal with just over a minute remaining to cut the lead back down to one.
Auyeung-Ashton had another strong performance between the pipes with 42 saves on the night with his teammates helping alleviate the pressure with 20 blocked shots, defensively. NMU also finished the night 1-3 on the power play while the penalty kill was 5-6.
The ‘Cats will now turn their attention to a home series against the Bemidji State Beavers in the Berry Events Center with puck drop for game one scheduled for Friday, Jan. 30 at 7:07 p.m.
