Chasing MacNaughton

Chasing MacNaughton is a Tech Hockey Guide production about Michigan Tech hockey and the CCHA. It takes its name from the MacNaughton Cup, a trophy whose chase keeps coming up in the panel's standings talk. Tim Braun hosts. Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender are the other names in the standard introduction, and the remaining seats go to a rotating set of contributors and guests. The effect is less a broadcast than a room of invested people arguing over the board. Topics come up through a question or a disagreement, not a polished setup. Late in a season, that can mean asking whether the CCHA can get more than one team into the NCAA field, with PairWise probabilities read aloud and rooting interests mapped for games in other conferences. Once Tech's season is over, the talk turns to the transfer portal, which players might be exempt from a roster limit, and whether a goaltender without real competition for the job needed some. Opinions arrive from the gut and then get checked against something concrete: minutes played, an all-conference ballot, a matchup, the points table. Panelists correct each other mid-thought, and the analysis is better for it. Interview episodes change the pace. Shawn Harrison, a former Husky forward, recalls junior hockey with two different Buckaroos clubs, a trip to Boston from his WCHA days, a house directly across from campus and his parents' season tickets by the Zamboni door. Teydon Trembecky, a freshman out of the Western Hockey League, talks through narrowing his options to a few schools and wanting a program built to win. The questions in those conversations are plain and curious, and the stories get room to run. The episode titles show the wider range. Jared Rubado appears in several, including 'Fat Highlighter with Jared Rubado' and 'I'm Wrong A Lot with Jared Rubado', and Harrison Watt and Alex Micheletti each return more than once. Other titles carry the names Don Lucia, Paul Martin and Jerry MacInnes. The feed also holds a 'Chasing the Bag' bonus with Michigan Tech sophomore Carson Latimer and a post-game bonus on a semifinal win over Miami. For a first listen, 'Babe Ruth Moment with Shawn Harrison' shows the reflective side, while 'Gold Out with Alex Micheletti' catches the full panel previewing a CCHA semifinal against Minnesota State. Expect sponsor reads and the occasional salty word. Above all, expect the show to assume its listener already knows the names, the rinks and the rivalries.