ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Coming off a sweep at the hands of a strong defensive-minded Denver team last weekend, St. Cloud State came home to another tough opponent.
This time, though, SCSU was ready for the challenge.
After doing nearly nothing on offense in the Mile High City last weekend, the Huskies did nearly everything on offense Friday night, getting production from many players.
David Morley scored twice and Joey Benik added four assists in an offensive barrage as St. Cloud State overwhelmed Western Michigan in a 7-0 victory at the National Hockey Center.
“It was a good bounceback for us,” said St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko. “We needed to respond. [Western Michigan] is playing as good as any team in the country right now.”
“The guys competed hard. It was a good 60 minutes for us,” added Huskies’ goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who made 23 saves to post his first career shutout.
Jonny Brodzinski and Joe Rehkamp added a goal and assist each for the Huskies, who won their third straight home game.
Frank Slubowski made 17 saves in a relief appearance for Western Michigan, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Broncos suffered just their second loss in their last 11 games (7-2-2). They were coming off a tie/shootout victory and regulation victory on the road against a very good Minnesota-Duluth team.
“Our team was on a roll for a bit,” said Western Michigan captain Will Kessel. “[St. Cloud] gave it to us tonight. They had more grade-A opportunities.”
“St. Cloud’s a good team. We need to be better,” said Broncos’ coach Andy Murray, as his team fell a point behind the Huskies in the NCHC standings.
Western Michigan is now in seventh place with 15 points, while St. Cloud State is sixth with 16 points.
After looking flat on offense in getting handily swept at Denver, SCSU came flying out of the gates, establishing a two-goal lead after one period.
Brooks Bertsch had the first tally for the Huskies, picking up a WMU turnover and then swooping in and going top-shelf at 12:50 for his third goal of the season. The Huskies doubled their lead just 1:40 later when Morley took a pass from Benik and sent a long wrist shot from high in the slot off the pipe and in for his sixth goal.
The goal was also enough to end the night of starting Western Michigan goaltender Lukas Hafner, who stopped only six of eight shots. Slubowski came in to make three saves in the first period.
“I thought the first period was key,” Motzko said. “After what we did last week, getting one each night, we needed to get some life on our bench.”
The Huskies added three more goals in the second period to give the bench even more life.
Rehkamp picked up a loose puck at the side of the net, went out in front and backhanded it softly in for his fourth goal of the season at 4:10. Then with 1:10 left in the middle frame, after a goaltender interference call on WMU’s Sheldon Dries, a Benik shot was tipped in by a sliding Patrick Russell, giving him his fifth goal and the Huskies their first power-play goal in two weeks.
“Our power play scoring was big; they needed to do it,” Motzko declared.
Brodzinski capped the second period scoring with three seconds remaining as he blasted home a one-time feed from Rehkamp, making it 5-0 after two.
Western Michigan seemed to be playing catch-up all night and the Broncos remained one step behind the Huskies, who controlled them on both offense and defense.
“We need to have the puck more; we were chasing them all night,” said Murray. “That’s not a good thing when you’re playing a skilled team.”
“They played a great game,” Kessel said. “We gotta be harder and stronger on pucks. simplify our game.”
With the game already well in-hand, the Huskies added two more goals to complete the break-out of their recent scoring slump. Kalle Kossila joined the scoring party with his third goal of the season halfway through on a power play and the crowd of 4,067 exploded. Morley capped the night with his second of the game with just under five minutes remaining.
As many players and coaches will tell you, you need to have short-term memory in order to succeed. Lindgren agrees.
“We gotta rest and get ready for tomorrow,” he said.
When asked about where the puck commemorating his shutout would go, Lindgren laughed and said, “I’ll probably give it to my parents. They got a little puck box at home.”
That box now will contain a very good college hockey achievement the moment the puck is put in there.
