Peterson’s OT winner, Lindgren’s 36 saves lift Huskies over Huskies

Fargo, N.D. — Charlie Lindgren probably wouldn’t have minded stopping another puck to help his team win the game, after all, he’d done it for the prior 67 minutes.

But waiting for the opposition to commit a costly error worked just fine for Lindgren and St. Cloud State.

Lindgren was fresh off a toe save, a sprawling dive across the crease to block another shot and Michigan Tech had more pressure brewing inside the SCSU zone.

Tech defenseman Riley Sweeney slipped and fell as the puck slid past him at the blue line.

SCSU’s Joey Rehkamp grabbed the puck, got it to teammate Peterson who scored to give No. 3 SCSU the 3-2 win over second-seeded Michigan Tech in the NCAA West Region semifinals Friday evening at SCHEELS Arena.

“It’s obviously huge right now, but we have to just enjoy it for a little bit and then park it and start preparing for tomorrow and be ready to come out at the start tomorrow,” Peterson said. “Whoever we’re playing, Quinnipiac or North Dakota, we have to be ready to jump on ‘em right away from the starting faceoff.”

The Huskies move on to face the North Dakota/Quinnipiac winner at 8 p.m. Saturday at SCHEELS Arena for a Frozen Four berth.

But for a majority of the game, it appeared the other team nicknamed Huskies might be headed to the regional final.

SCSU trailed 1-0 and its best offensive threat, Blaine native Jonny Brodzinski, needed to be helped off the ice and missed the last 15 minutes of the first period.

He returned for SCSU’s only bright spot of the second period, a Kalle Kossila power-play goal at the 1:06 mark on a man advantage that carried over from the first period.

Kossila’s goal was the only recorded shot on goal for SCSU in the second period, but perhaps more fascinating was the fact that the period ended in a 1-1 tie.

Lindgren, the Lakeville native, stopped all 14 shots he faced in the second period and many of them were the kind that can make a fan’s heart stop, and a goalie’s teammates appreciate his efforts a little more.

“We’ve been leaning on him this whole year, really,” Brodzinski said. “He’s been outstanding.”

SCSU carried the play in the third period, outshooting Tech 10-4, and didn’t put Lindgren’s heroics on hold until overtime.

But Michigan Tech broke the 1-1 tie on a goal by CJ Eick off a nice backhand feed from Joel L’Espereance for an easy tap-in by Eick.

SCSU coach Bob Motzko pulled Lindgren with two minutes left after each team took minor penalties with 2:48 left. The extra attacker gave SCSU a 5-on-4 advantage in the offensive zone.

Tech came inches from burying SCSU when one shot hit the post and another from center ice whizzed by the left pipe for an icing call.

“The hockey gods were on our side,” Lindgren said.

SCSU’s pressure had the Tech defense stretched out in the final minutes and goalie Jamie Philips sprawled out to the side of the net, trying to cover the puck.

Patrick Russell got a hold of the puck for SCSU and slid it over to Brodzinski in the left circle and he put the puck on net from the low angle.

“Their goalie didn’t really have the puck and Patrick just kicked out to me on the back door,” Brodzinski said. “The goalie didn’t have time to scramble back over and I think it went off their defenseman’s shin pad and in.”

The goal was his 21^st of the year.

In overtime, SCSU needed to lean on Lindgren just a little more. He needed to make a save with his right toes on a bouncy puck and minutes later, he sprawled across the crease to stop another chance.

“Charlie Lindgren. He was MVP of the game, for crying out loud. He was outstanding,” Motzko said. “You throw it at him for holding the fort down.”

Added Lindgren: “I have another game like that in me. Absolutely. Whichever team we play, it’s going to be tough, but absolutely.”

And all the desperation paid off at the 8:11 mark of overtime when Sweeney fell down, and SCSU’s fastest skater Rehkamp grabbed the puck and headed for the Tech goal.

Rehkamp led the 2-on-1 up the left wall and got the puck to Peterson, who finished it from there.

“I didn’t have really a lane to get it back to Rehkamp,” Peterson said. “I was going to try to get it back to him but I tried shooting it and it got blocked and it came right back to me and the five-hole was wide open.”

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St. Cloud State star fights through injury to help Huskies advance

Fargo, N.D. — St. Cloud State University men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko settled into his press conference seat with a sigh of relief.

“We live to fight another day,” smiled Motzko, whose third-seeded Huskies had just upset second-seeded Michigan Tech, 3-2 in overtime in the NCAA West Regional semifinal at Scheels Arena in Fargo.

It was the second consecutive season — and third time since 2010 — that St. Cloud State had played an overtime game in the regional semifinals. That experience was key to winning according to Motzko.

Well, that and Jonny Brodzinski.

Shaking off an ankle injury, the Huskies’ junior tied the game with just 37.3 seconds left, forcing overtime. His bad-angle shot deflected off the near post, ricocheted off the defenseman’s shin pad, and slid past Tech goaltender Jamie Phillips.

“I kind of got lucky, but it might’ve went in a little cleaner than I think,” said Brodzinski after describing the play in all its pinball glory. The former Blaine (Minn.) High School sniper netted his team-leading 21^st goal of the season and 64^th of his career — and counting.

“Jonny,” Motzko paused. “That’s what Jonny does. He shoots the puck.”

St. Cloud State’s Judd Peterson capped off the rally, scoring the game-winner on a rebound in overtime. As relieved as Motzko and the Huskies were following the game, there was plenty of tension earlier.

Late in the first period, a collision in the corner to Phillips’ right looked innocent enough. But Brodzinski, whose right ankle got twisted under Tech defenseman Cliff Watson, remained on the ice long after the whistle. After a few minutes, he was gingerly helped to the bench, clearly favoring his leg. The Huskies’ bench, with the team already trailing 1-0, was as silent as Motzko had ever heard it.

“Guys like that don’t stay down,” said Motzko of his leading goal-scorer. “I think they thought, ‘What do we do now?’ Because he means so much for our team.”

Brodzinski tested the ankle out later in the period, but the experiment didn’t last long. After getting treatment during intermission, he felt better. Starting the second period, Brodzinski had a simple message for his teammates.

“He just said, ‘I’m going’,” explained Motzko.

“I didn’t think there was a question that I was going to play. If we didn’t win, this was our last game,” said Brodzinski. “I was trying to do everything I could to make the pain go down and get back out there for the guys.”

In Brodzinki’s absence, the Huskies started to go with an extra right wing, shifting Joe Rehkamp over to center. The line juggling resulted in choppy play — and not a whole lot of offense.  Michigan Tech outshot St. Cloud State in each of the first two periods, 15-8 in the first and a wide 14-1 edge in the second period.

Brodzinski’s return settled down the Huskies, however, as they outshot Tech 10-4 in the third period and scored the game’s final two goals.

“In the third period, when Jonny started to raise his game, the whole team raised its game,” said Motzko.

Peterson talked about Brodzinski’s character and the boost it gave the Huskies. “It almost gives us an extra push to keep fighting, seeing what a guy like him is doing and battling through,” said Peterson.

“We obviously need Jonny.”

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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.

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SCSU finishes “Red October” with third win

ST. CLOUD – The gauntlet that has been the October portion of St. Cloud State’s schedule hasn’t seen a team ranked lower than fifth.

But the Huskies are right where they wanted to be five games into the season, with three wins.

SCSU handed No. 1 Minnesota its first loss of the season, 4-1, in nonconference action Friday in front of a capacity crowd at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

“Every series we play the Gophers here, it’s always great because it gets absolutely packed,” said SCSU forward and Blaine native Jonny Brodzinski. “So playing in front of a crowd like this, especially when everyone is in costumes, it’s awesome.

SCSU’s Kalle Kossila’s two-point night (1-1–2) helped lift the Huskies over the Gophers on Friday. (SCSU Athletics Photo / Brad Olson)

“We’ve started Fridays out just terrible this year so we wanted to put the foot down on the gas early.”

Brodzinski finished with a goal and two assists and Kalle Kossila had one of each for the Huskies.

SCSU entered last weekend’s series with No. 2 Union coming off a split at home to No. 5 Colgate, a bye week and was still in snooze mode when Union scored three in the first period.

But a 3-2 win the next night, earned the split and got SCSU back to .500.

The Gophers, coming off a comeback win and sweep against Bemidji State, got a few good chances early but then couldn’t continue into an offensive rhythm despite averaging 4.25 goals per game entering the weekend.

The Huskies’ sticks were disruptive on defense, getting in passing lanes and poking pucks off Minnesota’s blades before it could take shots.

“It was just an all-around tough game. We didn’t match their tenacity. We just didn’t have it today,” Minnesota alternate captain Seth Ambroz said.

“We got off our game, taking the penalties and looking for any reason, looking to blame the refs. You could tell we lost our composure there. We were punched in the mouth and we weren’t able to punch back. Tomorrow, we’re going to have to play desperate and come out with the victory tomorrow.”

Charlie Lindgren, a Lakeville native in his first year as SCSU’s full-time starting goalie, wasn’t as flashy with the glove but caught his share of pucks in the shoulder and he didn’t give up many juicy second chances.

“He made key saves at key moments,” SCSU coach Bob Motzko said. “One early in the game where (Minnesota) could’ve gone up but we get a power play goal and it let us get our feet underneath us.

“I think Charlie is going to get a lot of credit for this win.”

The Huskies got first-period goals on Kossila’s wrist shot from the left circle and David Morley’s swipe at a floating puck into the open net with less than two seconds on the clock.

SCSU got a power play goal 1:12 into the second period by Brodzinski on a shot that beat Minnesota goaltender Adam Wilcox 5-hole and Joey Benik was able to stuff in his second goal of the season early in the third period.

The Minnesota power play still leads the nation in goals scored (6) and effective percentage (31.6) but was held without a goal in two opportunities.

The Gophers finally got one past Lindgren at the 4:18 mark of the third period when Hudson Fasching scored on a wrister, which beat Lindgren high.

“We’ve talked about it all year. We have improvement to do,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “You play a good team on the road it’s never going to be easy, but you can’t give up a couple power play goals and put yourself down 5 on 3 and some of the positions we put ourselves in.”

The Gophers had previously gone unbeaten in 16 of their last 17 games against in-state opponents. They fall to 4-1-0 overall.

And though SCSU’s month of high difficulty has closed, the weekend has not.

Motzko told his players after the game to expect a different Gophers team when they meet again at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis.

“Coach said what (Minnesota) is going to do after the game,” Kossila said. “’They’re going to get on the bus and be quiet and they’re going to be ready tomorrow.

“Our plan is to get as much rest as possible so we can be as pissed off as they’re going to be.”

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McIntyre a unanimous selection to NCHC’s first ever Preseason All-Conference Team.

On the eve of its second-annual media day, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference unveiled its first ever Preseason All-Conference Team on Wednesday (a team was not selected prior to the league’s inaugural season).

Five NCHC teams are represented on the six-man NCHC Preseason All-Conference Team including a pair of Minnesotans in St. Cloud State junior forward Jonny Brodzinski (Blaine) and North Dakota junior goaltender Zane McIntyre (Thief River Falls). They are joined on the team by Miami senior forward Austin Czarnik and junior forward Riley Barber up front along with Denver senior Joey LaLeggia and Colorado College sophomore Jaccob Slavin on defense.

The team was chosen via a poll of local media members from each school and select national media members.

Brodzinski was named NCHC Honorable Mention in 2013-14 while finishing fourth in the conference with 41 points, including 21 goals.

North Dakota G Zane McIntyre makes one of his 26 saves against Minnesota on April 11, 2014 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

McIntyre, who garnered NCHC Honorable Mention as a sophomore, earns his first honor since legally changing his surname from Gothberg to his mother’s maiden name of McIntyre in the offseason. McIntyre compiled a conference-best 1.99 goals-against average a season ago, while posting a .926 save percentage and went 20-10-3 between the pipes with the 20 wins tying for the league lead.

NCHC Preseason All-Conference Team
F – Austin Czarnik, Miami, Sr. – 23 votes
F – Jonny Brodzinski, St. Cloud State, Jr. – 19 votes
F – Riley Barber, Miami, Jr. – 12 votes
D – Joey LaLeggia, Denver, Sr. – 19 votes
D – Jaccob Slavin, Colorado College, So. – 13 votes
G – Zane McIntyre, North Dakota, Jr. – 25 votes (unanimous)

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Featured Image:
Minnesota’s Justin Kloos celebrates after watching Nate Condon’s game-winning goal elude St. Cloud State goalie Ryan Faragher in the Gophers’ 4-1 win on Jan. 24 in St. Paul.
(Photo/Jeff Wegge)

Much of the focus leading into this weekend’s inaugural North Star College Cup tournament was on St. Cloud State’s No. 22 Jonny Brodzinski’s first time facing his younger brother, Minnesota freshman defenseman Michael Brodzinski, as an opponent.

While the elder Brodzinski did not disappoint, scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the year, it was the Gophers’ No. 22, junior Travis Boyd, who shined in scoring the game’s first goal and assisting on another in No. 1 Minnesota’s 4-1 win over No. 5 St. Cloud State before 14,388 in attendance at Xcel Energy Center on Friday night.

With the win the Gophers advance into the tournament’s championship game against Minnesota-Duluth which had to work overtime to beat Minnesota State earlier in the day.

The game marked the first-ever official meeting between the two schools as non-conference foes. The only other time the schools squared off outside of the WCHA came in the Hall of Fame exhibition game on Oct. 3, 1987 in Eveleth.

“Our game was efficient,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said after his team extended its winning streak to six games. “I think we can play better in certain areas than we did tonight but anytime you can beat good quality team like St. Cloud State you have to feel good about that.

The Huskies outshot the Gophers 39 to 29 for the game but Minnesota sophomore goaltender Adam Wilcox turned aside 38 shots to earn his 17th win of the season. Captain Nate Condon’s second-period goal held up as the game winner while freshman Hudson Fasching scored his seventh of the year and, in turn, set up Boyd’s seventh at 8:58 into the contest.

Despite the loss which stretched St. Cloud State’s winless streak to four games (0-3-1), Huskies coach Bob Motzko was pleased with his team’s overall play.

“We came prepared to play, we played a good game,” Motzko said. “What killed us was their goaltender was outstanding tonight and special teams.”

The Huskies came out flying right off the bat, outshooting the Gophers 16-9 in the opening period. But Boyd scored the first of two Minnesota power-play goals on the night just seven seconds after the Huskies’ Kalle Kossila sat down in the penalty box.

Off a faceoff to the left of SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher, Fasching outmuscled defenseman Andrew Prochno in the corner and fed Boyd on the doorstep.

“We didn’t come out very strong so getting the first one kind of maybe woke us up a little bit,” Boyd said. “I think we got better as the game went on but we still could improve a lot moving forward into tomorrow.”

Boyd’s goal held up past the game’s midway point until Brodzinski answered for St. Cloud State at 11:22 of the second. The former Blaine star took a trio of whacks at the puck in the crease before finally putting it behind Wilcox.

“It was a great pass by [Kalle] Kossila; [Cory] Thorson really created the whole play with that hit on the defenseman,” Brodzinski said. “It popped back to Kalle and it was just a 2-on-1 in front of the net and he made a great pass to me in front.”

Brodzinski led the Huskies with seven shots on goal on the night.

“He’s a good player, he’s physical, he’s got a heavy stick and he can shoot it a ton so he’s the wrong guy to have that many shots on goal,” Lucia said.

But Condon restored Minnesota’s lead just three minutes later and Fasching’s power-play goal, finishing off a rebound of a Boyd shot, ultimately finished off the Huskies.

“We got a puck through to the net on the power and Hudson was there to clean up the rebound, which was good for him because he hasn’t scored a goal in a while,” Lucia said. “We talked about our team kind of going through different guys going through a little bit of a drought so it was good to see Hudson get a goal.”

Fasching, who scored twice for Lucia and Team USA at the 2014 World Junior Championship in Malmo, Sweden, tallied his first on U.S. soil since scoring against Minnesota State on Nov. 16.

Charlie Lindgren replaced Faragher to start the third and St. Cloud State pelted Wilcox with another 13 shots in the final period but Wilcox, who was deservedly named the game’s No. 1 star, withstood the Huskies barrage and Seth Ambroz closed the scoring at 19:31 with yet another empty-net goal.

“They’re a good team, they put a lot of pressure on you, they’re well coached and they easily could have won the game tonight with a couple breaks,” Lucia said.

Motzko would undoubtedly concur with his counterpart.

“We made a couple critical mistakes that they capitalized on and their goalie stopped all the mistakes that they made.”

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