DULUTH, Minn.—It was a matter of inches for the St. Cloud State Huskies who persisted to a 2-1 victory over Minnesota-Duluth at the AMSOIL Arena before a crowd of 7,149.
The play on the ice was under review when the agony of nervousness surrounded the player bench at 14:50 of the third period. When the officials pointed to center ice, a subtle cheer was heard to signify Patrick Newell’s game winning goal. Video review was not conclusive enough to disallow the tally. What ensued was one of David Hrenak’s best performances of the season after he conceded five on Friday. The bounce back performance was bolstered by 19 saves and a stalwart effort to fend off the final UMD barrage. Hunter Shepard put up 26 saves before he surrendered the net for the final 1:18 of the outing.
“They play a very good defensive game,” SCSU Head Coach Bob Motzko said. “Duluth is very comfortable playing. We had enough chances to win the game and it took until the last one. That was a big win for us. When you are struggling, in a down turn, which happens to every team, it takes a game like this to start feeling good about your game again.”
Playing poised and limiting broken passes maintained the game temporarily scoreless for the Huskies, as they handled the puck significantly more in the second game of the series. However, a clearing attempt by SCSU met Nick Swaney’s stick, who was closing in on the high slot at 8:24 of the first period, and saw the games first goal for UMD. Up by one, UMD was setting itself up for another high scoring performance.
But the composed Huskies had other things in mind. Another attempt to clear at the midway point of the first frame gave SCSU the benefit of a response. Jake Wahlin took a slap shot from the blue line that underwent a pinball effect and met multiple sticks in the congested slot. It was Jake Wahlin who put it home as he corralled a puck from Will Borgen, who was recently named a representative for Team USA at the Winter Olympics.
“Borgen played a great game tonight. Our defensemen which struggled mightily last night [Friday] with decisionmaking played great. They needed to do that they needed to respond.”
With time expiring in the first period, St. Cloud was awarded an opportune 5-on-3 power play. Karson Kuhlman was called for a hooking and Justin Richards was called for a tripping. On this man advantage, the Huskies were able to generate only a single shot—indicative of the power play woes faced by SCSU in the series.
The Huskies form took a turn for the better on Saturday while they were able to outwork and outskate UMD in the second period. Despite not being able to connect on another power play to start the period, SCSU’s ability to block lanes and force their opponent to take extra passes aided the stalemate. More importantly, SCSU did not want to test UMD’s 47-0-3 record when taking a lead into the third period—a statistic that was born out of a 4-3 loss to Miami on Feb. 21, 2015.
“It was huge to come back and play like the way we did tonight,” Will Borgen said. “We were trying to not let them score the entire game and trying to be better than we were last night in the defensive zone.”
