The 1974–75

Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey The Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey team is an NCAA Division I college ice hockey program that represents Michigan Technological University. The Huskies are a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). They play at the Ma ...

team represented

Michigan Tech University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public university, public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Pen ...

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

. In its 19th year under head coach John MacInnes the team compiled a 32–10–0 record and reached the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in its history. The Huskies defeated

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

6–1 in the championship game at the

St. Louis Arena St. Louis Arena (known as the Checkerdome from 1977 to 1983) was an indoor arena in St. Louis, Missouri. The country's second-largest indoor entertainment venue when it opened in 1929, it was home to the St. Louis Blues and other sports franchis ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, a rematch of the previous season's championship game.

Season

Streaking

After coming up just shy in 1973–74 Michigan Tech entered the season with one goal; winning the national championship.

Jim Warden James Warden (born June 22, 1954) is a former professional ice hockey goaltender. High school career Warden attended The Blake School (Minneapolis) for his junior and senior years, where he earned all-state honors. College career At the 1975 NC ...

, as the only goaltender on the team who wasn't a freshman, was given the opportunity to assume control of the Huskies' crease and played well at the start. With MTU's high-powered offense clicking the Huskies easily won their first four games, outscoring the opposition by a 27–13 margin, winning each contest by at least 3 goals. However, when Tech met their first tough competition they hit a rough patch. Over a three-week span, despite playing four of six contests at home, the Huskies lost five of six games, all against

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

opponents. Michigan Tech was able to score in most games but their defense surrendered no less than four goals in each match. The losing streak left Tech with a .500 record overall and a 3–5 mark in conference; disastrous numbers for a team hoping to challenge for a national title. Warden and the defensive corps led by team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Bob Lorimer Robert Roy Lorimer (born August 25, 1953) is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Lorimer started his National Hockey League career with the New York Islanders in 1976. He also played for the Colorado Rockies and ...

needed to raise their game and the weekend series against three week conference opponents couldn't have come at a better time. A six-game winning streak countered their losing skid and the Huskies were back in contention for home ice in the WCHA Tournament. Just before the winter break Tech headed to

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

to take on the defending national champions and saw their rise up the standings halted with two losses to

Holiday Season

At the end of December Michigan Tech made their way to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

and served as host for the 10th

Great Lakes Invitational The Great Lakes Invitational (GLI) is a four-team National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's ice hockey tournament held annually at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit around the New Year's holiday as part of College Hockey in the D. The ...

. The Huskies dominated

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

in the first game then squeezed past

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

with a 3–2 win to capture their first GLI championship in three years. After two weeks off the Huskies resumed their schedule against the Wolverines and split the home series. The win came in the second match and provided Jim Warden with his first shutout of the season. After spending two weeks walking over bottom-feeders

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

Tech made their first appearance in the new

Munn Ice Arena Clarence L. Munn Ice Arena is a 6,114-seat hockey-only arena in East Lansing, Michigan on the campus of Michigan State University, situated across Chestnut Road from the Intramural Recreative Sports Center West and Spartan Stadium. It is home ...

. The Huskies housewarming present was to defeat

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

twice and raise their record to 20–8.

Down the Stretch

Michigan Tech held its Winter Carnival at the beginning of February and played host to Minnesota–Duluth. After raising their winning streak to 8 games Tech lost the second contest which left them just two points ahead of

Colorado College Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduates at its campus. The college offer ...

in the standings. After taking both games at Notre Dame Tech was shutout by

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

before rebounding in the second match. With only one weekend series remaining, Tech found itself tied with CC as both had identical 20–10 conference records. The Tigers were going to take on 9th-place Denver with the Huskies were faced with Minnesota, who had already won the WCHA championship and guaranteed themselves the top seed. The Gophers were flat in their first game, allowing Tech to easily take the contest 7–0 with Warden tying the school record with his third shutout of the season. CC lost their first game against the Pioneers so all Tech needed was a tie to get the second seed. In their second match Minnesota gave the Huskies all they had but Tech was able to pull out a 5–4 victory and give themselves home ice for the duration of the conference tournament.

Playoffs

Notre Dame arrived in

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada * Houghton Townshi ...

for the first round of the conference playoffs just two days after the regular season wrapped up. While both teams were presumably tired the Huskies shut the Irish down, winning both games with Jim Warden setting anew program record with his fourth shutout of the season (still a Michigan Tech record as of 2019). The Huskies were able to rest for a day while both the 3rd- and 4th-seeded teams lost, leaving Michigan State as the Huskies opponent. While the Spartans only had a short way to travel from

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, they were forced to play games on four consecutive nights while the Huskies were able to get a day off in between the two rounds. The tired Spartan defense was no match for Tech who put up 15 goals in the two games and won both to earn their second consecutive WCHA Tournament championship and 7th overall. Even more impressive was the fact that Michigan Tech produced a 30-win season, only the second such occurrence in the history of college hockey (and the first of only two times they've accomplished that feat as of 2019). Michigan Tech made their 8th NCAA Tournament appearance as the 2nd western due to Minnesota being the other WCHA winner. As a result, MTU was pitted against ECAC champion

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

who had the offensive firepower to rival their own. The Terriers opened the scoring in the semifinal and the two teams traded leads in the opening frame before heading to the locker room tied 2-all. When the second period began the Huskies charged out of the gate and scored three times in under six minutes. BU was able to get one goal to close the gap but

Bob D'Alvise Robert D'Alvise (born December 23, 1952) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Early life D'Alvise was born in Etobicoke. As a youth, he played in the 1965 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with the Toronto Faustina ...

' second goal of the game restored the 3-goal lead. with just under two minutes to play in the period

Mike Fidler Michael Edward Fidler (born August 19, 1956) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played 271 games in the National Hockey League between 1976 and 1982. He played for the Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars, Hartford Whale ...

was called for a major high-sticking

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

, giving MTU a 5-minutes man-advantage. Bill Steele scored just 21 seconds into the power play while George Lyle and

Mike Zuke Michael P. Zuke (born 16 April 1954) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centreman who played eight seasons in the NHL between 1978 and 1986. Zuke was drafted 79th overall by the St. Louis Blues in the 1974 NHL amateur draft. He played ...

added their own markers early in the third period. With the score 9–3 as a result the game was essentially over and though the Terriers netted two more before time expired the Huskies had proved themselves the better breed.

National championship

The championship game became a rematch of the previous year's finale with Tech looking for revenge against Minnesota. Interestingly enough, both Minnesota and Michigan Tech had entered the NCAA tournament as the first teams in 14 years to record 30 wins and with each having won their semifinal meetings both shared the record for the most wins in a season. That record, however, was secondary to the game itself. The two teams played before a crowd of nearly 7,000 people, far below the maximum capacity of the

but much more than they were used to seeing. Michigan Tech scored first, just past the halfway mark of the opening frame and added a second from Zuke with 64 seconds remaining. Tech's defense held the Gophers to only 7 shots in the period and continued their stifling play throughout the game. The Huskies themselves were held to only 5 shots on goal in the second but they made them count, doubling their lead to 4–0 after forty minutes. The final period saw more of the same with the Huskies tying their own championship record with six consecutive goals from the start of the game. Minnesota's

Tom Younghans Thomas Anthony Younghans (born January 22, 1953) is an American former professional ice hockey player who played 429 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Minnesota North Stars and New York Rangers between 1976 and 1982. Younghans fea ...

finally got the puck past Jim Warden midway through the final period but by then it was too late and Michigan Tech won their third national championship as well as set a new NCAA record with 32 wins on the year. With his almost shutout of the Gophers,

was named as the tournament MOP and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by

and

Steve Jensen Steven Allan Jensen (April 14, 1955 – November 29, 2022) was an American professional ice hockey player and owner and director of Heartland Hockey Camps. Jensen was a forward who appeared in 438 games in the National Hockey League from 1976&nda ...

. D'Alvise finished third in the nation in scoring and was named to the AHCA All-American West Team. He also made an appearance on the All-WCHA First Team with Warden while Lorimer and

made the WCHA Second Team. The following year Warden would be the starting goaltender for the US national team at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, joined by fellow Michigan Tech alums

and Paul Jensen.

Standings

Schedule

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Roster and scoring statistics

Goaltending statistics

1975 championship game

(W1) Minnesota vs. (W2) Michigan Tech

Players drafted into the NHL/WHA

1975 NHL Amateur Draft The 1975 NHL Amateur Draft was the 13th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers made the most noise at the draft, trading Bill Clement, Don McLean, and t ...

1975 WHA Amateur Draft The 1975 WHA Amateur Draft was the third draft held by the World Hockey Association. NOTOC Selections by Round Below are listed the selections in the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft. Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1974-75 Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey season Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey seasons

Michigan Tech Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. ...