McKay breaks NCAA career shutout record, Mavs dominate NMU Wildcats

A new name has been added to the record books.

Dryden McKay is the new NCAA career shutout leader with his 27th shutout in his 15 save, 7-0 win against Northern Michigan.

Although it is his name in the record books, McKay doesn’t see it that way.

“I’m looking at it as a team record. …It happens to be my name that goes up there, but it’s definitely a team thing,” McKay said.

“You would’ve thought it was them breaking the record, honestly, with how excited they all are.”

McKay’s third shutout of the year is one that goes down in history in a record that may not be touched for a long while.

“That’s a record that I didn’t think would be touched,” said head coach Mike Hastings.

The bench had an unfamiliar feel to it, with everyone afraid to say the “S” word.

“You can feel it. In the hockey business, you don’t talk about it, you don’t mention it, but you can definitely feel it,” said head coach Mike Hastings about protecting the shutout for one of McKay’s biggest night’s of his career.

As McKay said, he couldn’t have earned the record without the team in front of him, who put on a clinic against the Wildcats in their highest scoring game of the season.

It’s not often that you can score a hat trick and an assist with the game-winning goal, and earn only the second star of the night, but Brendan Furry did just that.

“When you have a goalie that does something like that, that does something so special, it’s pretty unique and really cool to be a part of,” Furry said.

While he was on the ice and saluting the crowd for his second star of the game achievement, Furry wanted none of the attention. He used his time to hype up the crowd, and prepare everyone for the newest NCAA record holder.

Furry earned six points on the weekend with his two assists in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Wildcats.

In securing the game-winner on Saturday, Furry took his time in looking for a pass while sitting at the top of the faceoff circle, and caught everyone off guard when he fired the puck at the net, going five-hole on Rico DiMatteo.

DiMatteo didn’t make it more than 20 minutes in the loss, being replaced by Nolan Kent after allowing four goals in the first period.

The Mavericks had a couple of firsts on the successful weekend also, with Josh Groll scoring his first as a Maverick on Friday and adding a second on Saturday, and Connor Gregga earned his first goal of his career with 21 seconds remaining in the first period on Saturday.

After their first CCHA series of the season, the Mavs move into second place in the conference with two points.

The No. 2 Mavericks (6-2-0, 2-0-0 NSIC) will get set to head out on the road this weekend when they take on Ferris State (3-5-0, 2-1-0 NSIC) in Big Rapids, Mich.