MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Â“ Dirk Southern scored histhird game-winning goal of the season and Tuomas Tarkki picked up his thirdcareer shutout on Friday night against Miami (Ohio) to give the â€Â˜Cats the 1-0CCHA win over the visiting RedHawks.  NMU has now won seven home games in a rowfor the 2004-05 season and add two from the end of last season and the â€Â˜Catshave nine home wins in a row.  â€ÂœIt is a good win for us,â€Â Walt Kyle said.  â€ÂœItis good to get back home.â€ÂÃƒÃ‚‚  NMU was playing their first game at the Berry Events Center in over a month.

With the win the â€Â˜Cats are now 10-7-4 overall and 8-5-2 inthe CCHA.  Miami falls to 8-12-3 and 4-9-2 respectively.  Southern scored hisfourth goal of the season at 16:37 of the second period.  â€ÂœI just came off thebench at the right time,â€Â Southern said.  â€Âœ(Patrick) Murphy gave me a nice droppass. I would like to say I saw the top corner, but I just shot through thescreen and it went in.â€ÂÃƒÃ‚‚  His goal was assisted by Patrick Murphy and JamieMilam. 

Tarkki blocked 29 shots to pick up the shutout.  For hiseffort he was named the first star of the game.  â€ÂœWe had to play pretty tightdefensively and it worked out,â€Â Tarkki said.   Ã‚ ÃƒÃ‚¢Ãƒ‚€Ã‚ÂœI saw almost ever puck.  Itwas not too bad of a game.â€ÂÃƒÃ‚‚  Brandon Crawford-West had 28 saves on the nightfor the RedHawks.  Both squads were shutout on the power play on the night asthe â€Â˜Cats were 0-7 and the RedHawks 0-8.  Shots were even as both sides had 29.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday night (Jan.15) at the Berry Event Center at 7:35 p.m.