This week on RinkRap: a patriotic sendoff in Mankato, Tech’s Joe Shawhan is forced to adapt to reach the promised land; and a visitor’s trophy-hoist in Marquette.

Dreams of Gold

Around 9 p.m. Saturday night in Mankato, Minnesota State junior Nathan Smith took a patriotic victory lap around the Mayo Clinic Events Center, hoisting a large American flag that billowed over his head. Having just swept a pesky Arizona State squad, Smith and his coach Mike Hastings will be heading off to China this week to represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics. Smith’s patriotic skate was a sentimental sendoff for everyone in attendance.

“Yeah, you get emotional, you know all the work that Nathan’s put in, day in and day out,” said Hastings, who is confident his top-ranked Mavericks will continue to roll on despite his absence. 

“I don’t think our guys will miss a beat. Associate head coach Todd Knott has done this before, I don’t see anything changing. We’ve got a leadership group that will manage the club also. I feel very comfortable.”

Hastings and Smith are now in Los Angeles, reconnoitering with their new mates. Hastings is a long-time friend of head coach David Quinn, and is in lockstep as they stride toward the podium. 

“We’re going over with the mindset of trying to win the gold medal,” said Hastings. “We’ve got a lot of work before we get the opportunity to play our first game, but that’s the mindset we’re going over with.” 

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A Wrinkle in Time

Just when Michigan Tech climbed into the rarefied air of a No. 7 ranking in the crucial PairWise rankings, the Huskies will be facing a compressed schedule of eight games in 16 days, a glut resulting from makeup games with Northern Michigan. It will sideswipe coach Joe Shawhan’s practice schedule, a meritocracy designed to keep the Tech hockey machine humming. It’s got the fifth-year coach troubled.

“The biggest part of the concern is what it does to your overall development and preparation,” said Shawhan. “We’re at the end of the year now, and you’ve got a lineup some guys have earned over a body of work. How much opportunity are guys having within that [limited] practice time to earn an opportunity to play midweek games?” 

These next two weeks remind Shawhan of last year’s schedule compressed by COVID-19 makeup games. 

“It was like a pro schedule. We had pre-game skates and game skates for like a month straight. That’s hard for the players that aren’t skating, and hard on the players that are playing. It breaks down your cohesiveness and kind of divides the team a little bit.”

It has been a season-long climb for Shawhan’s Huskies to get into the relative safety of a top-ten Pairwise ranking. If they are to achieve the goal of clinching an NCAA berth before the CCHA playoffs, his club will have to adapt to the life of professional hockey, where one focuses on only three things: yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Yooper Hockey Treasure

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a passionate home for college hockey, with no shortage of history and glory. The three Division I schools hang seven NCAA championship banners in their collective rafters, and battle for another assortment of trophies that all originated in the U.P. 

There is the MacInnes Cup that is handed out every year to the victor of the Michigan Tech Winter Carnival series; there is the league’s MacNaughton Cup that is also part of the Tech legacy; and then there is the Cappo Cup, awarded annually to the winner of the Lake State-Northern Michigan series. Competing for the MacInnes and Cappo trophies adds intensity and pageantry to the extra-long winters in Michigan’s frosty upper reaches.

On Saturday, Damon Whitten’s Lakers claimed their third straight Cappo Cup by virtue of their  season-series victory against the Wildcats. The namesake of the trophy, the late Monsignor Louis Cappo, would probably just as soon not have been in Marquette on Saturday, when the Lakers celebrated his Cup on Northern Michigan’s home ice.

“I think he was much happier to present to the Wildcats than the Lakers, though he never let his allegiance show in public,” said former Laker A.D. Bill Crawford. “Cappo was a huge NMU fan, season-ticket holder, friend of [former NMU coach] Rick Comley, and a big Wildcat supporter. He had been appointed to the LSSU board, and had an affinity for the Lakers, too. He came up with the Cup idea to enhance the rivalry between the two U.P. Institutions.”

For the second time in three years, Whitten’s Lakers have shrugged off the burdens of a losing season to celebrate on-ice with a joyous trophy hoist. Getting the Cappo Cup airborne requires some heavy lifting. 

“The trophy is huge,” said Crawford, “not unlike the Stanley Cup.”