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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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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Featured image courtesy of St. Cloud State University Athletics.

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—St. Cloud State made its long-awaited National Collegiate Hockey Conference debut a successful one on Friday night in the opening game of the first-ever NCHC series held at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Junior defenseman Andrew Prochno’s first goal of the season at 12:36 of the third period completed a five-minute, three-goal rally as SCSU held on for a 3-2 win over North Dakota.

Prochno’s shot from the left point found its way through heavy traffic in front of the UND net and slipped past goalie Zane Gothberg for a 3-1 Huskies’ lead at the time.

“I was just trying to get it through,” Prochno said. “If there was no traffic at all, it would have been an easy glove save; it was just kind of a seeing-eye goal.”

Kevin Gravel and Kalle Kossila also scored for the Huskies while goaltender Ryan Faragher, who improved his record to 3-1-1 in five career games at the Ralph, earned the game’s No. 1 star honor with 29 saves.

UND got off to a strong start and took a 1-0 lead just 3:10 into the contest on a brilliant individual effort by sophomore Drake Cagguila. The 5’9” Cagguila raced down the right side and beat 6’4” St. Cloud State defenseman Kevin Gravel with a nifty inside-out move before finishing the play with a short-side, top- shelf rocket past SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher for his third of the year.

The mere presence of Cagguila on the ice was welcome relief for his UND teammates and the fans after a scary open-ice collision in last weekend’s exhibition win over the U.S. Under-18 team. He left the ice on a stretcher and was sent to an area hospital where he was evaluated and later released that same night.

Cagguila, whose spectacular goal was immediately put on YouTube and included in ESPN’s SportsCenter Top-10 plays of the day, said he, “felt good out there.”

North Dakota maintained that one-goal lead into the second intermission despite three power-play opportunities for the Huskies. But Gothberg—a Grand Forks native who grew up in Thief River Falls— made 18 saves through two period, part of his 27 overall, and North Dakota’s top-ranked penalty kill managed to keep St. Cloud State in check through 40 minutes.

The Huskies came out with a fury in the third period and finally got on the scoreboard when Gravel scored his second of the year at the 2:36 mark on a slapshot from the slot past a screened Gothberg. St. Cloud State kept the pressure on and captured a lead it would not relinquish less than two minutes later when sophomore Kossila knocked in a rebound of a Ben Storm shot for his second of the season.

“We just had a mental lapse for the first five, six, seven minutes,” Cagguila said. “Every line was guilty of it. I don’t know if it was effort, but it was a lot of mental errors on our part.”

Prochno’s goal provided the Huskies with what turned out to be a much-needed two-goal cushion as North Dakota wasn’t quite finished. Mark MacMillan drew UND within one with 4:21 to play in regulation and they continued to apply pressure in the game’s final minutes but Faragher and a stingySCSU defense—which made for it difficult for North Dakota to get much going offensively all night— withstood the barrage.

“We just couldn’t get the puck up ice cleanly and into the zone,” North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said after his team failed to register a shot in three power-play opportunities. “We didn’t get a whole lot going on.”

St. Cloud has the opportunity to become the first team in four years to sweep North Dakota in Grand Forks in Saturday night’s series finale while North Dakota will be looking to salvage a series split. The puck is set to drop at 7:07 p.m.

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