NMU hockey: 3 questions for the Ferris series

College hockey’s second season opens tonight, with conference tournaments starting across the country.

The Northern Michigan Wildcats have qualified for postseason play all three years in the reconstituted WCHA, but once again they will be on the road in the quarterfinal round.

NMU (15-14-7 overall), which dropped into fifth place with two losses last weekend, will visit fourth-seed Ferris State (15-14-6) this weekend in a best-of-three series. The teams split in Marquette in December and in Big Rapids a month ago.

Friday’s and Saturday’s games are set to begin at 7:07 p.m. A third game, if necessary, would be played at 5:07 p.m. Sunday.

Here are three big questions for the Wildcats as they face the Bulldogs:

Can NMU reverse its downward trend?

Over the first three weekends of February, the Wildcats went 5-1-0, with home sweeps of Alaska-Anchorage and Alabama-Huntsville and a road split with Ferris.

Since then, they’re 0-3-1 against Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech. Last weekend in a home-and-home series against the Huskies, with NMU playing for home ice in the postseason and MTU battling for the league regular-season title, the Wildcats were outscored 9-1.

The big question is whether NMU can get past the disappointment of its performance against Tech.

What happened to the Wildcats’ offense?

NMU scored just four goals in the final four games of the regular season. Obviously, that average will not get the job done against the Bulldogs, who have scored 2.66 goals per game this year.

The Wildcats need contributions from the usual suspects—all-conference second-team selections Dominik Shine and Darren Howick—and will hope to get some production from unexpected sources.

How long will the WCHA stick with its Final Five branding?

This question has nothing to do with on-ice action, but it must be asked nonetheless.

The winners of the four quarterfinal series will advance to the WCHA Final Five in Grand Rapids next weekend. The semifinal games are set for Friday, March 18, with the championship game the next day.

Four teams, three games, two days. Why Final Five?

The name goes back to the previous iteration of the league, when six teams gathered for a five-game tournament. Final Five referred to the final five games of the WCHA season.

It was a great weekend of college hockey, attracting large crowds, crowning a league champion and awarding an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

But Final Five no longer fits the reality of the WCHA. It’s time to forge a new tradition.