In the CCHA, which used to be the WCHA for both men and women, it couldn’t be more competitive. Bemidji State leads with 37 points on an 11-7-2 record; St. Thomas and Bowling Green are tied with 35 points and identical 11-8-1 records. Minnesota State Mankato also has 35 points and an 11-7-2 record. 

This weekend, things could get straightened out a bit — or even more tangled — in the CCHA when Bemidji State faces two games at St. Thomas, while Lake Superior State invades Mankato, Michigan Tech is at Bowling Green and Northern Michigan at Ferris State.

In the Big Ten, Minnesota stumbled at Notre Dame, but came back from a 6-1 embarrassment to gain a 3-2 overtime victory in the rematch when Jaxon Nelson scored late to tie it, and Jimmy Snuggerud scored at 1:18 of overtime to win it.

Nevertheless, Minnesota’s stretch of 9-1-1 was broken, as was the Gophers hope to vault up into the top spot in the conference. At 12-6-4, the third-place Gophers have 37 points to stay ahead of Notre Dame, but they still trail first-place Michigan State (46 points, 14-4-2 record) and second-place Wisconsin (13-6-1, 39 points). The Gophers are idle this weekend, while last-place Ohio State heads for Michigan State after ruining Wisconsin’s title hopes with 3-2 overtime and 3-1 victories for the Buckeyes last weekend.

The NCHC, meanwhile, which had some struggles early, has now settled into its usual position as the nation’s best conference. The top five teams could legitimately feel as though they could win any other conference in the country. Those top five are North Dakota, St. Cloud State, Colorado College, Denver and Western Michigan, and they are all bunched within eight points.

Rough weekend for UMD vs. Denver
Minnesota Duluth isn’t among the NCHC title-chasers this season, but if they can pull all their loose ends together for the final six regular-season games, the Bulldogs may well decide who wins it. The Bulldogs languish in seventh place after being swept 5-4 in overtime and 5-2 by Denver last weekend at AMSOIL Arena. While Denver looked like the best team any hockey fans in Duluth have seen this year, they trail the leaders: North Dakota (11-6-1, 37 points), St. Cloud State (10-4-4, 36 points) and surprising Colorado College (12-6, 33 points). Denver is 11-6-1 with 31 points.

UMD, having lost twice to powerful Denver, now finishes the regular season at North Dakota this weekend, at Colorado College and back home against St. Cloud State. How’s that for a playoff tuneup?

Last Friday night’s game might have been the most entertaining and exciting games of the season for the Bulldogs who, if they didn’t have their torturous loose ends together, they pulled them together in that wild finish with two goals after pulling goaltender Zach Stejskal to tie the game 4-4 — only to fall on a goal by Aidan Thompson at 1:46 of the 3-on-3 overtime.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all within about four minutes of elapsed time.

The loose ends came back to haunt UMD Saturday night, after another similar rally seemed to lift the Bulldogs from a horrible three-goal opening deficit fashioned in a shaky first seven minutes, to self-destructing when two of their promising scorers — Ben Steeves and Anthony Menghini — wound up sharing penalty box time for misconduct penalties through the final minutes to eliminate any chance of continuing the rally.

It was, in a word, embarrassing. That, after an embarrassing start of three goals on five shots that caused coach Scott Sandelin to pull Stejskal and send in Matthew Thiessen.

“And you know what the most embarrassing thing was?” Sandelin said, challenging three media types who showed up after the game. “That stuff at the end. Having two guys sitting there for mouthing off. It’s frustrating, and I get it, but I’m sorry, if they don’t learn it’s not going to bode well for us. You don’t disrespect the team.”

And with that, Sandelin stalked away from the podium. Press conference over.

That Saturday night, UMD’s fire was extinguished early when Zeev Buium scored on the first shot of the first shift, at 0:31, and Connor Caponi shoveled in a backhander at 5:25. Jared Wright got loose on the right boards and flew in to score short-side on his breakaway for a 3-0 lead at 6:39. Shots were 5-5, but the score was 3-0 Denver, and the crowd was silent. Thiessen was sent in to tend goal, and he was sharp immediately, and made saves on all eight shots the rest of the first period.

Denver took a 5-2 lead in the third period, and the air went out of the balloon. At 9:57 of the third period, it got worse. That’s when Menghini, who has scored seven goals as a freshman, was called for checking from behind. Menghini said something to the ref, and was given a 10-minute misconduct, too. Sandelin sent Steeves over to serve the minor, and it ended just as a whistle blew. Steeves skated out and, as he passed the ref, he made a comment. Bang! He also was awarded a 10-minute misconduct, with eight minutes to go.

Losing the chance to make one last bid to win was too much for Sandelin, and while he has defended his players all season, he blew up this time, although UMD’s dressing room full of players might have been a better audience than the three-person media contingent that showed up after the game.

UMD women’s hockey close to home-ice advantage
Meanwhile, on the women’s front, UMD had a more beneficial answer to the women’s WCHA run to the playoffs. Needing three points to clinch home ice for the first round, the Bulldogs edged St. Cloud State 1-0 on Clara Van Wieren’s goal at 4:33 of the third period, and goalie Hailey MacLeod held on for the victory by that score. Playing as afternoon preliminaries to the UMD men, the Bulldogs played another amazing battle with St. Cloud on Saturday, this time going 0-0 through all three periods and overtime, and sending the game to a shootout to be decided.

Goalies Jojo Chobak of the Huskies and freshman Eve Gascon of UMD were brilliant throughout, but when the shootout started, everybody scored! Hanna Baskin scored for UMD; Emma Gentry scored for the Huskies. Van Wieren scored for UMD; Laura Zimmermann matched it for St. Cloud. Then Olivia Wallin skated in but was stopped by Chobak, putting all the pressure on Finnish freshman Sofianna Sundelin, who scored on Gascon and gave the extra point to the Huskies.

In what might be a brilliant political PR performance, UMD’s MacLeod was named goaltender of the week by the WCHA for her first-game performance, overlooking Chobak’s two-game performance, stopping 28 of 29 shots in the first game and all 39 shots the Bulldogs pelted her with in the second, for a weekend tally of 57 saves on 58 shots.

UMD coach Maura Crowell admitted she was pleasantly surprised that her sophomore goalie got the award, but added Chobak’s cumulative two-game performance deserved something.

UMD senior center Mannon McMahon was cited for playing in her 164th and 165th consecutive games over an illustrious five-season career, and she admitted stopping the game to acknowledge her achievement was “a special moment.”

More importantly, the Bulldogs will play at Minnesota this weekend, after which UMD and St. Cloud will reconvene at AMSOIL Arena next weekend for the first round of the best-of-three WCHA playoffs. And the Huskies, after very impressive performances in both games of last weekend’s series, will not be bothered by not having home ice.

The post ‘Minnesota 6’ Compete for Conference Titles appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Hockey fans are the same as normal people. We don’t ever get enough hockey, so we don’t need a Christmas break from, for example, the tension and pressures of college hockey races. But the teams definitely could use a pause, and all the major Division I conferences take a Christmas break, just to recharge the systems and take a deep, collective breath to get ready for what is sure to be a wild and crazy second half.

It also gives us the perfect opportunity to evaluate the way the late, great country songwriter Guy Clark would put it: ‘Wondering what it’s coming to, and how we got this far.’

The best guess is that the final standings will bear little resemblance to what the various conference standings show now at the midpoint. But looking at the six mens Division I college hockey teams in Minnesota, we can see into three of the country’s top college hockey conferences. We all think “our” conference is the best, and they all have their moments, but which one has been the biggest surprise so far? Which teams? Which players? You decide.

St. Thomas leads CCHA standings
My nomination is the CCHA, the league that had retained the best name in the game as the WCHA but wasn’t satisfied and switched it to another regenerated name for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. That conference has been dominated from its current incarnation by Minnesota State Mankato. There was no reason the Mavericks couldn’t do the same again, even though living legend coach Mike Hastings took the money and ran to take over the Wisconsin program in the Big Ten. Unfortunately for the Mavs, some of their top players followed along and went with him.

So after 10 or 12 games, who is leading the CCHA? As top candidates we have the usual suspects — Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, Bemidji State, MSU-Mankato, Lake Superior State, Northern Michigan and Bowling Green. Oh, and don’t forget the new guys on the block, St. Thomas.

You’d better not forget the Tommies, because they are in first place, leaders at Christmas break with a 7-5 record and 21 points. Second is Michigan Tech, 6-4 with 19 points, then comes MSU-Mankato at 5-4-1 with 17 points in third place, with Bemidji State, 5-5 with 16 points, a surprise in fourth place. Bemidji State is feeling the heat from a three-way tie for fifth at 15 points with Lake Superior State at 5-6-1, Bowling Green 5-5 and Northern Michigan 5-5. Ferris State is eighth at 3-7 with 8 points.

NCHC is full of surprises, Bulldogs struggle
For just last weekend, though, nobody pulled off bigger surprises than the NCHC, where Denver and North Dakota had switched off being ranked No. 1 in the nation, and both seemed primed to fight off the surprising challenge of St. Cloud State.

But Colorado College made what must be an historic trip to Grand Forks, stunning the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 3-2 in overtime. The Tigers finished the weekend with an improbable sweep of the Fighting Hawks, who had just been voted No. 1 in the country a week earlier. 

The shocker of the weekend, though, was in Kalamazoo, Mich., where Western Michigan broke from a 3-3 tie eight minutes into the third period in the first game, and whipped the University of Denver 7-3. The next night, Western Michigan almost struck for a sweep but lost 6-5 in overtime. 

St. Cloud State seized its opportunity, winning 4-1 at Omaha to strengthen their hold on first place. Omaha won the second game in a shootout to prevent a St. Cloud State sweep.

One of the bigger surprises in a less-positive scope is that Minnesota Duluth struggled to score goals despite being projected as a contender in the NCHC. In recent weeks, the Bulldogs had been playing better and better, but still without the rewards their determination seemed to have earned. In their final weekend before the break, the Bulldogs hit the road to Oxford, Ohio, where they faced the Miami Redhawks in a series that determined who would escape last place.

The Bulldogs took a shootout victory it so desperately needed in the first game before taking a 3-1 victory the next day after adjusting lines. Blake Biondi spent some time at center and scored in the second period. 

The NCHC standings show St. Cloud State leading at 7-0-1 with 22 points, which certainly qualifies as a surprise. North Dakota is second at 5-3 with 18 points, followed by Western Michigan (4-4) with 14 points, Denver 5-3 with 13 points, Colorado College (4-4) with 10 points, Omaha (3-4-1) with 9 points and tied with UMD (2-5-1) with 9, and Miami 0-7-1 with 1 point.

Big Ten had surprising results; WCHA women’s hockey adventures
The Big Ten also had some surprises last weekend, as Minnesota went to Columbus and claimed a 5-4 victory over last-place Ohio State, but it was a battle. The Gophers rallied for a 1-1 tie in the second game, but the Buckeyes stole the extra point in the shootout. The result dropped the Gophers to 0-3 in games decided by shootouts this season. 

But the Gophers still have work to do to get to the top, where Michigan State swept Notre Dame 5-2 and 2-1 in East Lansing to claim first place with a 7-1-2 record and 25 points. That’s ahead of Wisconsin (8-2) with 24 points, after the Badgers swept Penn State 6-3 and 4-1 in Madison. Minnesota follows at 5-4-3 with 17 points, then comes Notre Dame (4-4-2) with 15 points, Michigan (3-5-1) for 11 points, Penn State (2-5-3) with 11 points, and Ohio State (0-8-1) for 1 point.

The women, not to be left out, had their own adventures in the WCHA last weekend, as Minnesota knocked off Wisconsin 5-3 in Minneapolis before the Badgers responded with a 5-1 win in the second game. First-place Ohio State extended its lead by sweeping MSU-Mankato 6-1 and 4-1 in Columbus. And St. Cloud State proved the seriousness of its intentions by splitting a series with Minnesota Duluth at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.

So, the Buckeyes are first at 13-1 for a whopping 37 points, followed by Minnesota (10-3-1) with 33 points, Wisconsin (10-4) with 31 points, St. Cloud State (8-5-1) with 25 points, UMD (8-6) with 24 points, MSU-Mankato (3-11) with 9 points, Bemidji State (2-12) with 6 points, and St. Thomas (1-13) with 3 points.

The correct answer, therefore, to the question of which conference had the most and biggest surprises through the first half of this season is — all of them! Ho-Ho-Ho! But all that does is make us certain that after a welcome pass for Christmas, the surprises will just keep on coming in the second half.

The post College Standings At Christmas appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

One of the big series finds St. Cloud State — the most surprising team in the NCHC, if not the whole country — at home on its Herb Brooks National Hockey Center ice to take on perennial CCHA contender Michigan on Friday and Saturday.

The Huskies sputtered through their non-conferemce schedule with a meager 2-4 record, but now we suspect St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson was using those non-conference games precisely as they were intended, to work newcomers into his lineup and juggle units for the regular season.

That suspicion gains credibility when you check out the Huskies once the shooting started in the NCHC. Forget the 2-4 start, because St. Cloud State has zoomed through six games to take sole possession of first place, most recently disassembling University of Minnesota Duluth with the same sure-handed force that might have been deployed to disassemble that Thanksgiving turkey on your platter.

Huskies bite the Bulldogs
Scorewise, both games on the big rink at St. Cloud lived up to the intense rivalry tendencies of Huskies-Bulldogs games over the last decade, although this time both games saw some uncommon rough stuff to end both of the St. Cloud victories last Friday and Saturday night, by 2-1 and 6-5 scores.

The first game was scoreless until Jack Reimann scored late in the second period for St. Cloud State, and UMD’s Matthew Perkins scored midway through the third period to tie the game 1-1. That put Joe Molenaar in the spotlight. Molenaar has been a trusted, loyal soldier throughout his career at St. Cloud State, but he’s never given Larson reason to expect big goal numbers. Until this year. Molenaar, who scored only two goals last season, scored the game-winner with 2:19 remaining against UMD. It was his fifth goal in the last four games. 

The first game boiled over in lost tempers in the final minute as a couple of 5-on-5 scraps broke out. The second one came at the final horn and ended with UMD captain Luke Loheit switching from peacemaker to aggressor, delivering a face-to-face cross-check that earned him a 5-minute major, game misconduct and, because the official time of 20:00 didn’t leave much for punishment, he was also suspended for the next game (last Saturday).

Unlike the defensive shutdown battle, both teams hit the ice running in game 2, and it veered back and forth. Jack Rogers staked the Huskies to a 1-0 lead at 1:46. But Blake Biondi, getting a chance to center the injury-ravaged first line, scored on a power play at 8:56 for a 1-1 tie. Veeti Miettinen — who Larson *did* expect to score this season — regained a 2-1 lead for the Huskies on a power play at 17:46, only to see Anthony Menghini tie it 2-2 in the final second of the opening period.

That pattern resumed in the second period when Tyson Gross gave the Huskies their third lead of the night at 10:38, but UMD defenseman Owen Gallatin countered that in the last minute of the middle period for a 3-3 standoff.

St. Cloud State broke through for two goals in a row to open the third period, with Kyler Kupka scoring at 0:39 and Miettinen at 3:20 for a 5-3 cushion. That made eight goals in Miettinen’s last eight games. UMD battled back for a goal by Quinn Olson to cut the deficit to 5-4, but Jack Ingram made it 6-4 with 2:56 remaining. The Bulldogs weren’t about to concede, and with 1:48 to go, Gallatin scored his second of the game to cut it to 6-5. But the Bulldogs, who never led, couldn’t get the equalizer and went down to extend their exasperating streak to 0-7-1 in their last 8 games.

A look at the men’s hockey conference standings
With their early growing pains providing valuable experience, the Huskies sit in first place alone with a 6-0 conference record, leaving North Dakota (4-0) second in NCHC standings. North Dakota, however, can take satisfaction from moving up to the No. 1 rank in the U.S. College Hockey Online rankings.

St. Cloud State stays at home on its Olympic-sized — 200 x 100 feet — ice surface to take on Michigan, which like Minnesota, is finding it a challenge to string victories together in the Big Ten. The Wolverines, bristling with new talent, is only 2-4-2 in the Big Ten. The top three in the Big Ten are Michigan State (5-0-1),Wisconsin (4-2) and Notre Dame (3-1-2). Michigan State, definitely the surprise team in the Big Ten, swept Wisconsin 4-2 and 3-2 to make the Badgers’ stay at No. 1 short as they plunged to No. 6. The Spartans visit Mariucci Arena this weekend to face Minnesota.

In the CCHA, the standings show nearly everybody tangled up and deadlocked. Bemidji State lost 5-1 at Minnesota State Mankato. In their second game, Bemidji State came back to rally from a 5-2 first-period deficit to cut the deficit to 6-4 after two, then rallied for three unanswered goals late in the third period to escape with a 7-6 victory. Jackson Jutting scored at 13:58 and Lleyton Roed tied the game at 14:48 before Jutting scored the game-winner at 15:46. The three goals in the span of 1:48 was enough for the victory and the hop into first place in the CCHA.

It doesn’t get easier for Bemidji State, as the Beavers make a Thanksgiving weekend trip to its closest Hwy. 2 rival — North Dakota. Another pair of CCHA highlights this week show Michigan Tech at MSU Mankato, and St. Thomas is at home to face Lake Superior State.

Women’s hockey updates
In the WCHA women’s competition, Ohio State swept Wisconsin in a battle of undefeated league-leaders, winning 3-0 and then 2-1 on Hannah Bilka’s short-handed goal at 1:17 of overtime. Jennifer Gardiner, who scored the first goal in the second game, had two goals in the 3-0 opener.

Minnesota swept two games at Duluth, both by 3-1 counts, with Abbey Murphy scoring a goal in both games and Peyton Hemp scoring an empty-netter with 0:15 left. Hemp also scored the final goal in the second game. 

The WCHA gets a chance to flex its power this weekend with an array of games against Eastern foes. UMD stays home in AMSOIL Arena to take on Colgate, which is ranked No. 2 in the country behind Ohio State.St. Lawrence is at Ohio State. Minnesota and St. Thomas travel to Washington D.C. for a weekend tournament. The Gophers face Harvard on Friday afternoon and Cornell on Saturday afternoon. Flip-flop those opponents and days for the Tommies as they face Cornell and Harvard.

The post Hockey Over The Holiday appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

 Blue-line scoring boosts Minnesota to sweep of Notre Dame

MINNEAPOLIS – An expected clash between Minnesota and the Notre Dame in South Bend four weeks ago in the Ice Breaker Tournament title game never materialized thanks to Rensselaer’s upset win over the Fighting Irish. It was hardly worth the wait for Notre Dame as No. 1 Minnesota rolled to 5-0 and 4-2 wins over the weekend to sweep its golden-domed foes out of Minneapolis.

Much of the credit must go to the Gophers’ defensive corps which posted four goals and five assists in the two games including three points each by junior Mike Reilly (2-1–3) and sophomore Michael Brodzinski (1-2–3). Had Jake Bischoff’s apparent goal on Friday been allowed to count it would have simply added to an already impressive weekend, especially considering he absence of junior Brady Skjei who missed both games due to a lower body injury suffered last week in a 4-3 overtime win over St. Cloud State.

Brodzinski indicated the offensive surge against No. 14 Notre Dame was by design to a degree.

“I think the big emphasis this weekend was for the defense just to join the rush and be the fourth man in—hopefully we’d get the puck—and gets some shots on net,” Brodzinski said.

Reilly, who led Minnesota defensemen with nine goals as a sophomore in 2013-14, entered the series with a team-leading eight assists but had yet to find the back of the net this year. That all changed on Friday when he one-timed a Jack Glover pass from the bottom of the right circle to give the Gophers a 3-0 lead.

“[Assistant coach Mike] Guentzel was saying the D had no goals going into this weekend besides Skjei’s empty-netter,” said Reilly whose blast on Sunday also put the Gophers up 3-0. “But we’ve been working a lot on defensemen shooting on the blue line and making sure we’re getting pucks to the net.

“It was great to get that first one and I hope it keeps going from there.”

The defensive unit’s nine points over the weekend amount to half of Minnesota’s total entering the series after combining for 17 assists, but just one goal, through the season’s first six games. While not necessarily alarming numbers, they’re not consistent with a Minnesota blue line which produced 28 goals (3rd in the nation) and 103 points (T-4th) last season.

Different team you say? That’s true as Justin Holl and Jake Parenteau have been replaced by the likes of Glover and fellow freshmen Ryan Collins and Steve Johnson. But Minnesota returned 97 percent of its backend goal production and 87 percent of its points entering the 2014-15 season so little or no drop off was expected.

Minnesota coach Don Lucia offered a fairly rudimentary explanation for the offensive outburst from his blueliners.

“We went back there more, we used them,” Lucia said. “We have guys that have the ability back there, we just weren’t using them enough and they weren’t getting enough pucks through.”

In addition to Reilly and Brodzinski, senior Ben Marshall notched his first goal of the season against Notre Dame with his tally on Friday while Glover’s dish to Reilly in the series opener earned him his first collegiate point.

“Everybody stepped up this weekend, especially the freshmen defensemen,” Brodzinski said of Glover and Collins. “They really showed us what they can do and hopefully we can bring that over to next weekend against UMD.”

The Gophers do indeed square off with the Bulldogs next weekend in a home-and-home series beginning Friday night at Mariucci Arena and concluding at Amsoil Arena in Duluth on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m. on FSN+.

Notes: Minnesota sophomore C Vinni Lettieri left Sunday’s game at the 11:50 mark of the second period after taking the full brunt of Notre Dame D Robbie Russo’s slap shot to his head. With the Fighting Irish on a power play, Lettieri dropped to his knees in an effort to block Russo’s blast but the rising shot went right at his head, narrowly missing his facemask as the sophomore turned away at the last moment. Lettieri had to be helped to the bench but walked to the dressing room under his own power. Information on his condition won’t be known until Tuesday at the earliest according to Lucia. … Sophomore RW Taylor Cammarata had a big day on Sunday with a trio of first-period assists to give him five helpers in the series. Cammarata’s linemates Sam Warning (2-1–3) and Justin Kloos (1-2–2) each chipped in three points on the weekend.

The post Irish Find Gopher Defense Offensive appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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Nic Dowd’s overtime winner earns St. Cloud State a date with Minnesota in region final.

SAINT PAUL — Nic Dowd score the game-winning goal 17:21 into overtime and Ryan Faragher made 39 saves, including 17 in the second period alone, as St. Cloud State overcame a huge deficit in shots on goal in regulation to defeat Notre Dame 4-3 and advance to Sunday’s NCAA West Region Final.

The third-seeded Huskies will face the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Minnesota, at 6:30 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.  The Gopher beat Robert Morris University 7-3 earlier on Saturday.

Dowd stripped Notre Dame’s Steven Fogarty of the puck at center ice and the loose puck went to David Morley whose backhand pass hit Dowd in stride as he crossed the Irish blue line. The Hobey Baker Award finalist rifled a wrist shot from the top of the left circle which caught a piece of Irish defenseman Kevin Lind’s stick on its way behind Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhayes for goal No. 22 of the year.

“I kind of lost mobility in my entire body after that one went in so it is tough for me to say what I was trying to do there,” Dowd said. “At this point, any shot is a good shot and it was pretty fortunate for it to have hit his stick and then find the top shelf.”

“Once I got the puck, I just heard Dowd yelling as he was flying down the wall there and I just passed it to him,” Morley said. “Then stood there and watched him work his magic there”

Motzko said the Huskies never changed a thing from a tactical standpoint and had no answer to what turned the tide in overtime to go from being outshot 36-12 through 60 minutes to a 16-6 edge in the extra session.

“The real question is why were we so quiet in the first three?” Motzko said.  “We scored quite a few goals this year and we have a team capable of doing so. In overtime it just started to work. Why overanalyze it?”

“We’re obviously very disappointed,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said. “I thought we played very good hockey for sixty minutes and we changed our game in overtime and gave St. Cloud a lot of life.”

Notre Dame never led the game at any stage thanks to the stellar performance of Faragher. The junior goaltender made several jaw-dropping saves on the night but saved his best for overtime when he denied Notre Dame’s Vince Hinostroza’s breakaway attempt.

“Give Faragher some credit, he held us in there and made the big save in overtime on the breakaway,” St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said.

Faragher raises his record to 20-8-4 this season including 10-0-1 when making 30 or more saves.

The Huskies got on the board first on Ryan Papa’s sixth goal of the season at 6:54 of the opening period. Kalle Kossila’s pin-point pass from the left circle found Papa at the right post for a backdoor one-timer.

The Irish tied it near the halfway point of the first on Bryan Rust’s 17th of the year but St. Cloud State regained the lead with just 35 seconds remaining in the period when Brooks Bertsch scored his third of the season.

St. Cloud State’s Cory Thorson gained possession behind the Notre Dame net and spotted Bertsch, who was camped out below the hashmarks in front of Summerhayes. Bertsch one-timed Thorson’s pass to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead at the break.

Notre Dame’s Kevin Lind drew the Irish even at 8:18 of the second courtesy of an assist by Minnesota coach Don Lucia’s son Mario.  Once again, however, the Huskies responded with a late goal to jump back in front before the end of the period.

This time It was Jonny Brodzinski, whose brother Michael scored for Minnesota earlier in the evening, who turned the trick with a power-play goal at 19:35 of the second giving him 21 on the season and the Huskies three goals on just 10 shots through two periods.

“[The late-period scoring] was huge for us especially because of the way were playing,” Morley said. “We weren’t too happy with our effort and to get us a couple of big goals at the end of each period to get us a lead … Those were huge for us.”

The Irish outshot the Huskies 9-2 in the third and knotted the game once again at the 9:35 mark on a goal by Thomas DiPauli but all that did was set the stage for Dowd’s heroics.

The post Huskies Oust Irish in OT appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

SAINT PAUL—St. Cloud State is back.

The Huskies are back in the sense it’s been two weeks since they’ve seen game action following a surprising pair of one-goal losses to Miami in the first round of the NCHC playoffs which cost them a trip to Minneapolis and a berth in last week’s NCHC Frozen Faceoff.

SCSU is back in St. Paul two months after beating Minnesota State 6-4 in the consolation game of the North Star College Cup.

But most importantly, St. Cloud State is back in the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2008 and is prepared to square off at 8:00 p.m. tonight against Notre Dame at Xcel Energy Center. The encounter comes just short of a year to the day after the Huskies pummeled the Irish 5-1 in the first game of the 2013 Midwest Regional en route to the first Frozen Four appearance in school history.

St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko says there are pros and cons to playing this close to home at this time of year.

“There’s a lot of good and there’s some bad with that—the distractions—but that’s all good because our fans can get down here,” Motzko said.  “We didn’t give them the opportunity to go down to Minneapolis last week, so we’re anticipating that they’ll be excited to be down here and follow us this week.”

The Huskies are vying for back-to-back trips to the Frozen Four this weekend which would earn them a trip back to Pennsylvania, Philadelphia specifically, after a disappointing loss to Quinnipiac in Pittsburgh to end last season.

While St. Cloud State will have to accomplish the feat without the only three players on last year’s team with tournament experience (Drew LeBlanc, Ben Hanowski and Taylor Johnson) and their 87 points (30-57–87) due to graduation, the Huskies’ roster comes equipped with 22 players carrying over from 2013’s Frozen Four run. But the Huskies don’t necessarily believe the experience gives them much of an edge.

“I guess I’d be lying if you say you know exactly what you’re in for,” senior captain Nic Dowd said. “Having been there one year, does that make a bigger difference than coming in last year? I don’t think so. I think Kevin (Gravel) said it best in a previous interview. You’ve got to expect the unexpected.”

“We have a lot of guys back this year that played last year and played a lot of big minutes in a lot of big games and that can be looked at as a positive,” Gravel added. “But, at the same time, you face a new challenge every time you come into a game like this, in a tournament like this.”

With the loss of his seniors combined with skilled, minutes-logging defenseman Nick Jensen’s decision to forgo his senior season to sign with the Detroit Red Wings’ organization, Motzko was concerned heading into the 2013-14 season that his team might succumb to a Frozen Four funk.

But SCSU got off to a 11-1-2 start including 6-1-1 in the NCHC, a league it led or tied virtually from start to finish, and won its second straight regular season conference title.

“I think that was the telling-tale of this team, we started the year right where we left off,” Motzko said. “We had a bounce from it, we didn’t have a setback … and that really stemmed from the leadership of our team and how we handled last year’s success. We carried it right from day one this year.”

That begins with Dowd , the senior Hobey Baker Award Top 10 finalist from Huntsville, Ala. whose list of accolades seems to grow daily after a 39-point season (21-18–39) season. In addition to the Hobey nomination, Dowd earned first-team All-NCHC and All-NCHC Academic honors, the NCHC Defensive Forward of the Year award and was named NCHC Student-Athlete of the Year.

Like Jensen, Dowd too had the opportunity to sign a pro contract over the summer. However, the seventh-round (No. 198 overall) selection by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2009 NHL Draft opted to return for his senior season but not for the reason that immediately comes to mind.

“It wasn’t what we had coming back and the possibility of winning another championship, it was the team and the university and my head coach and my roommate [Gravel], who I’ve known for a while, that drew me back,” Dowd said. “I think one of the biggest things I learned from seniors above me is guys want to leave their mark on a program and you want to give back as much as the university, my coaching staff and my teammates have given to me.

“It’s almost like something bigger than yourself and playing at St. Cloud State has been the best four years of my life.”

As devastating as the playoff losses to Miami were to St. Cloud State’s hopes of playing for a conference playoff championship, the Huskies played the second half of their season without a bye week and fatigue was setting in. The unwanted weekend off allowed Motzko to give his team a breather while giving banged up players a chance to heal.

“It’s been good. I think Coach has done a good job managing not only the length of our practices, but the days that we choose to practice on and days off, and workouts, et cetera,” Dowd said. “It left a pretty bitter taste in our mouth when we didn’t make it to the conference tournament. …But from the standpoint of not having a bye the second half of the season, it felt pretty good for our guys to get a mental break.”

Motzko used the extra time to engage in some fine tuning of his team with few short but pointed practices before focusing attention on Notre Dame.

“We went back to detail in a handful of small areas,” Motzko said. “We wanted to just get our good habits going again.”

In Mozko’s eyes, the tournament doesn’t truly get started until after the first game and has been imparting upon his players the importance of getting off to a good start.

“You’ve got to win to get momentum going and to be part of the tournament,” Motzko said. “It’s a terrible feeling to lose the first game and then go home.

“We’ve got great leadership, they’ve handled every challenge that’s come upon them this year, and we have to leave it in their hands to be ready.”

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