There may not be too much going on in the collegiate hockey world this week, but that just means the 2023 Great Lakes Invitational can have the spotlight, as four teams battle for the coveted title over two days (Dec. 28-29) at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Alaska will take on Michigan Tech on Thursday afternoon, while Michigan State and Ferris State meet in the evening. The winners will meet in the championship game Friday night. 

This year marks the 57th edition of the GLI.

Michigan Tech has won the event 11 times in 56 tournaments. Michigan State has 12 GLI titles in 48 tournaments. Ferris State will be making its fourth appearance, and Alaska is playing for the first time. 

He’s B a-a-a-a-ck

He’s radioactive, he’s irrepressible and for 19 consecutive games last year, he was unstoppable. 

And now, after more than nine months of swirling controversy off the rink, former Bowling Green Falcon Austen Swankler makes his 2023-2024 debut for Michigan Tech at the 2023 Great Lakes Invitational.

Swankler’s offseason was filled with well-documented travails, trials and transgressions. 

It began in September with a pair of sneakers lifted from the Bowling Green trainer’s room, and it ended with a police report clearing three players and a coach of a hazing scandal ignited by Swankler before he evaporated into the transfer portal.

Now, Tech coach Joe Shawhan finds himself with CCHA’s reigning scoring champ, and a potential migraine in his locker room. 

There is no shortage of candidates to line up next to his enigmatic new star, including crafty senior Ryland Mosley (9-7-16), freshman sharpshooter Isaac Gordon (10-7-17) and old reliable Logan Pietila (82 career points). 

Logan Pietila ties the game with his 6th of the season from Matthew Campbell! #mtuhky #FollowTheHuskies pic.twitter.com/jWGfVyPxCE

— Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) December 9, 2023

But perhaps the best spot in the Huskies lineup would be at center for Kyle Kukkonnen, the alternate captain mired in a nightmarish sophomore slump (zero goals this campaign). 

The Huskies have 10 weeks to find a niche for a guy who, like Johnny Cash, has played everywhere, man. 

The good news for Tech is that the Huskies lead the CCHA in winning percentage in league games (.633), but the bad news is that their Pairwise ranking is 40th in the nation, forcing them to win the Mason Cup in March to get themselves into the national tournament.

In a drama that echoes the classic Broadway hit “Damn Yankees,” Shawhan has made a Faustian deal by acquiring Swankler, one with potential to detonate, either good or bad.

Semifinal 1: No. 18 Alaska Vs. No. 40 Michigan Tech

A major reason Michigan Tech is in such a precarious Pairwise position is because the Huskies suffered a home loss and tie to Alaska in October, all part of their seven-game winless streak to open their season and close off a shot at a third straight NCAA at-large bid. 

The 57th Great Lakes Invitational is the ideal scenario to prepare for the Mason Cup quarterfinals, a pair of must-win games. 

The Nanooks, meanwhile, are three spots away from the NCAA Pairwise bubble spot, and since they have no conference tournament to fall back on, they are playing for their postseason lives two months before Tech will. 

Coach Erik Largen has a lineup full of battle-hardened warriors who went through the NCAA chase a year ago; they were the 17th team in a 16-school bracket. They have a bona fide sniper in Harrison Israels (12 goals) and a slick playmaker in Brady Risk (13 helpers), and unlike Tech, they are infused with desperation.

This will be a different Tech team than the one that was outscored 6-3 by Alaska at the start of the season. 

All-conference goalie Blake Pietila has rounded into form, and now all four forward lines are producing for Shawhan, if not on the scoresheet, then certainly in terms of territorial play. 

Blake Pietila is CCHA Goaltender of the Week. It's his 15th career weekly conference award. #mtuhky #FollowTheHuskies

📝 https://t.co/OE8OUQG9np pic.twitter.com/rI2Upeu69G

— Michigan Tech Hockey (@mtuhky) December 4, 2023

There are a half-dozen Huskies to watch at the GLI: scorers Mosley, Gordon and Swankler, puck-lugging defender Matthew Campbell, and gutty captain Arvid Caderoth. But the man who deserves special attention is the aforementioned Logan Pietila. 

Fans might recall Logan Pietila’s hat trick at the 2019 GLI, when he won MVP honors in Detroit as a freshman. The fifth-year forward has a knack for showing up when the stakes are highest.

Prediction: In what promises to be the best game of the tournament, Tech edges the Nanooks of the North in front of a backdrop of black-and-gold fandom. 

Semifinal 2: No. 7 Michigan State Vs. No. 62 Ferris State

Recent history is a gigantic motivational factor for heavily favored Michigan State. 

Exactly one year ago, the 11th-ranked Spartans commuted the hour west to Grand Rapids, eager to play for a major holiday championship, but Adam Nightingale’s green and white charges suffered a pair of upset losses from which they never fully recovered, none bigger than the 4-2 semifinal loss to Ferris State.

The same two schools are scheduled to meet again in the 2023 GLI semifinals, but now an angry and scarred Goliath carries a much bigger club. 

Nightingale has a boat this year, bolstered by five point-per-game triggermen, including Isaac Howard (5-15-20), Artyom Levshunov (5-13-18) and Karsen Dorwart (7-11-18). 

The favorites of Spartie Nation are the transfer duo of Red Savage from Miami (6-12-18) and Joey Larson from Northern Michigan (9-10-19), whose chemistry generates chances nearly every shift. 

The Spartans are second in the nation with 76 goals, and Nightingale would love nothing more than to run up the score on their in-state rival in this semifinal.

In Ferris State’s last game before the break, coach Bob Daniels made a sentimental move by starting his struggling backup goalie Noah Giesbrecht against Lake State. It backfired. 

Giesbrecht was lit up for five consecutive goals, as the Bulldogs fell deeper into the CCHA cellar. 

WATCH: @FerrisHockey head coach Bob Daniels' postgame thoughts vs LSSU. pic.twitter.com/r3pPUKiOJz

— Ferris Athletics (@ferrisathletics) December 17, 2023

But Daniels’ sling still has some deadly stones, particularly pugnacious power forward Antonio Venuto, who leads the Bulldogs in goals (11) and penalty minutes (34). 

Venuto’s linemate Jason Brancheau has proven he can deliver clutch goals in tight games, having notched 20 over his last 52 games. 

But if the Dogs are to survive the Spartans primetime blitz, they will need a big show from senior goalie Logan Stein, he of the sparkling .919 save percentage. It is a tall order.

Prediction: The men from Sparta will prevail, eager to claim the 2023 GLI throne.