Upset-minded Ferris State knocks SCSU from NCAA West Regional in OT

St. Paul — Everything had been building up until the point when Joey Benik scored his goal late in the third period Saturday.

St. Cloud State’s momentum seemed to grow as the final 20 minutes ticked away, and its fan contingent grew louder with every big save Charlie Lindgren made to keep the Huskies in game.

SCSU trailed Ferris State by two goals after two periods, and when the Huskies scored twice to draw even at four goals apiece, the atmosphere at the Xcel Energy Center was as electric as a half-empty 18,000-seat arena could be.

“Our crowd was awesome today,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said. “We were expecting a smaller number and they came through.

“Momentum was in the building. It was lurking around. We had to make a play to get momentum back our side. We’re not used to being down, but our guys picked it up.”

Benik assisted on a Mikey Eyssimont goal early in the third and scored his own goal to tie the game. The SCSU crowd, which populated most of each side of the rink, was in frenzy as Benik jumped up and down with arms up in celebration.

The situation seemed to make sense again, with the No. 2 overall seed in command of the momentum in a first-round NCAA West Regional game against a team that team that was 30^th in the PairWise.

All of that fell apart in 18 seconds, thanks to a rink-length rush, two SCSU defensemen getting crossed up, and a rebound off a Charlie Lindgren pad save.

Jared VanWormer swooped in untouched behind SCSU defensemen Ethan Prow and Jimmy Schuldt and swatted the puck into an open net to complete the 5-4 upset for fourth-seeded Ferris State at the 18-second mark of overtime.

“We had a number of chances where we could’ve taken the thing,” Motzko said. “We got our crowd in it and we got momentum back and then we make a mistake in overtime there.

“In the NCAAs, it’s a one-shot deal. It rips your heart out.”

Ferris State will face the Denver/Boston University winner at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center in the Bulldogs’ first regional final appearance since it fell to North Dakota in double OT in 2014.

SCSU would’ve set a program record for wins in a season with a victory Saturday (the Huskies finished 31-9-1) and would’ve advanced to its fifth straight regional final in as many NCAA tournament appearances.

Instead, SCSU ended its season in the building it had been eliminated in four times since 2010 (once in the WCHA Final Five and three times in the NCAAs).

Overtime was another trend that continued Saturday, as the Huskies played in their fourth first-round game that went to overtime since 2010.

Ferris State got on the scoreboard first three minutes into the game, but Jacob Benson evened the score 17 seconds later.

The teams appeared headed to the locker rooms for intermission tied at one, but coincidentally, it was Prow and Schuldt who VanWormer snuck past before he received the puck and put it past Lindgren to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.

Eyssimont scored his first goal five minutes into the second period, but Ferris State scored twice to take a 4-2 lead into the third.

“We knew we had to create some offense and we got that tying goal,” SCSU forward Patrick Russell said. “We kept going for that the rest of the third period.

Added defenseman Nathan Widman: “If we were going to lose, we were going to go down swinging. We were going to open up our game, take some chances and play hockey. I think guys were gripping their sticks a little bit tight and we weren’t sharp in the first and second play.”

The SCSU-dominated crowd hadn’t been able to sustain a high level of excitement throughout much of the game, but with the Huskies’ top-notch offense, there was still enough time to give their fans something to get loud about.

Just less than five minutes into the third period, the Huskies’ second-ranked power play worked the puck to Joey Benik, whose shot went wide of the goal and ricocheted to Eyssimont waiting on the other side for an easy goal.

Benik said after the game, that his missed shot wasn’t intentional and he meant to put it on net.

Playing in what turned out to be his final college game, Benik’s moment came just past the midway point of the third.

“Schuldt had the puck at the point with good poise and he threw it down to (Jimmy) Murray,” Benik said. “It slipped through a defender to me and I had an open net because the goalie went out to Murray.”

SCSU had chances to take the lead after Benik’s game-tying goal, including a Judd Peterson backhand shot that beat Smith and clanked off the crossbar with 2:30 left in regulation.

Eyssimont had a golden opportunity to complete the hat trick and put the Huskies ahead when he missed an open net late in the game.

Smith finished with 29 saves and Lindgren stopped 26 shots.

The post Husky Heartbreak appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Mr. March helps SCSU reach Frozen Faceoff final

Minneapolis — Postseason beast Joey Benik’s two pivotal points led St. Cloud State to a 4-2 National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff semifinal win over Denver on Friday night at Target Center. In the process, the Huskies snapped third-seeded Denver’s 11-game winning streak.

The No. 2 seeded Huskies will face fourth seed Minnesota-Duluth – identical 4-2 winners over top-seeded North Dakota – at 7:37 p.m. on Saturday for the NCHC playoff title.

Benik scored a goal and added a pretty assist on fellow senior David Morley’s 14th goal of the year in SCSU’s 30th victory of the season. It’s just the second time in the school’s DI history the Huskies have reached that mark.

Third period goals by freshmen Mikey Eyssimont and Jimmy Schuldt, the latter into an empty net, rounded out the scoring for St. Cloud State. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren faced just 19 shots on goal in picking up his school-record 29th win (29-8-1) of the season on Friday as the teams combined for just 35 total shots.

“I don’t think anyone thought it was going to be a defensive battle,” Motzko said. “But that’s what it sure turned out to be and it was a hard-fought, it was a tough hockey game … I think that it helps set the tone for what’s to come in the (NCAA) playoffs.”

Denver forward Grant Arnold lamented his team’s ability, or lack thereof, to get to the front of the Huskies net. He said St. Cloud State isn’t “the most physical team, but they have great sticks.”

“They did a great job of bottling us up on the walls and did a great job using their sticks,” he added. “You’re not going to score on a great goalie like that getting perimeter shots.”

“Guys were selling out to block shots,” Motzko said. “That might be the critical thing. We were kind of buying into having a very good defensive night.”

St. Cloud State’s Joey Benik (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Benik’s first-period power play goal opened the scoring and ultimately ensured SCSU would never trail the Pioneers. His second period assist gave the Huskies the lead for good.

With the game tied 1-1 in the second, Benik carried the puck behind the net and and Denver goalie Tanner Jalliet bit hard on what appeared to be a wraparound attempt.

“That was my initial plan,” Benik said. “I was going to bring it around up front and last second I heard Dave yell my name so I just turned and threw it to him and he had a wide open net.”

Benik’s against-the-grain pass hit Morley’s tape and Jalliet had no chance. The assist gave Benik 21 points 10-11–21) in 19 career playoff games as a Husky.

“It’s a fun time to play and with the atmosphere that our conference brings, I mean this is a great tournament,” Benik said. “It’s easy to play in front of a lot of fans and with such high emotions. It’s a mixture of all that and everything is on the line so I mean you gotta give it all every night you go out there.”

St. Cloud State now faces a UMD team that’s won seven straight games dating back to a Feb. 26-27 sweep of the Huskies at the National Hockey Center. SCSU had last been swept in October at Quinnipiac, currently the No. 1 team in the all-important Pairwise Rankings.

Motzo said the biggest thing the Huskies learned from that experience was to move on from it.

“The best thing we did was we just parked it,” Motzko said. “Why late in the year should we make a big deal out of an off week? Because we trust our guys; we like our hockey team.”

The post Benik leads Huskies Over Pioneers appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Thriving in new position, Jonny Brodzinski leads SCSU over North Dakota

ST. CLOUD – As Jonny Brodzinski put it, the hockey gods were looking down Friday night.

The St. Cloud State junior saw one of his better shots ring off the post after he split the goalie’s pads.

On the two goals he scored, Brodzinski threw the puck off an opponent’s back and batted another puck out of the air.

“I put one between the goalie’s leg and it hits the pipe, then (Joey) Benik hits the pipe,” Brodzinski said. “Then one goes in off the breezers and another one out of the air.”

North Dakota is one opponent Brodzinski has had success against in his career, but Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center might’ve been his most influential game against UND.

The Blaine native scored the last two goals of SCSU’s 3-1 win and became the 18^th player in school history to reach the 50-goal mark having entered with 48.

Brodzinski’s achievement took him by surprise when a reporter asked him about it following the game.

“I didn’t know it was my 50^th,” said Brodzinski, who has five goals and five assists in nine games against UND. “It’s pretty special, I guess.”

Brodzinski recently moved from his wing position to center, where the transition seems to be moving smoothly.

He had one goal through nine games as a freshman and one through eight games as a sophomore, but this year Brodzinski has seven goals through 11 games.

“He’s getting chances and that’s the big thing,” Huskies coach Bob Motzko said. “I don’t know how many shots he had tonight but it looked like he had a whole pile of them.

“I love how he’s embraced playing center. Now he has to work hard on both ends of the ice and that’s the transition.”

Motzko put Brodzinski on the top line between Joey Benik and David Morley before last weekend’s series at Western Michigan.

“I played center most of my life growing up but it was a little bit of a transition since I played wing my freshman and sophomore seasons,” Brodzinski said.

“The whole defensive side of it is still a little cloudy.”

Ethan Prow, a senior from Sauk Rapids, put SCSU on the board on a shot that ricocheted off two sticks and past UND goalie Zane McIntyre 5:10 into the second period.

Brodzinski had the first assist on the goal, but Drake Caggiula tied the game eight minutes later for his sixth goal of the season.

Luck finally found Brodzinski when a wrist shot through traffic bounced off UND forward Stephane Pattyn’s back and into the net 1:38 into the third period.

Brodzinski and Benik are linemates in even-strength situations but they hooked up on the power play to put the Huskies up two goals.

Benik spent a good chunk of SCSU’s offensive zone time on the power play trying to feed Brodzinski. When Benik got a pass off, a UND defender got his stick on the puck, forcing the puck to pop up to Brodzinski.

“It probably wasn’t the best pass but the defender was coming at me so I had to get it over his stick,” said Benik, a junior from Andover. “It kind of grenade on me, but Jonny used had a good hand-eye to put it in.”

Brodzinski took a baseball swing and knocked the puck into the net at the 9:43 mark.

“In their terms, that goal was sick,” Motzko said. “You knew right away that was a good goal. You didn’t have to review it. That’s what made it a ‘wow’ goal.”

“I knew he was going to get it over to me, I just didn’t know where it was going to be,” Brodzinski said. “It popped up in the air and I just tried to get a stick on it. Luckily it hit the pipe and went in.”

Brodzinski and the Huskies hope the good fortune carries over into Saturday’s 7 p.m. series finale in St. Cloud.

The post Center of Attention appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.