{"id":138189,"date":"2023-01-18T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=138189"},"modified":"2023-01-17T18:16:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-18T00:16:32","slug":"this-week-in-nchc-hockey-despite-losing-two-teeth-against-st-cloud-state-colorado-college-netminder-mbereko-has-arguably-been-our-best-player-all-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/01\/18\/this-week-in-nchc-hockey-despite-losing-two-teeth-against-st-cloud-state-colorado-college-netminder-mbereko-has-arguably-been-our-best-player-all-year\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in NCHC Hockey: Despite losing two teeth against St. Cloud State, Colorado College netminder Mbereko ‘has arguably been our best player all year’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kaidan Mbereko makes a save earlier this season against Minnesota Duluth (photo: Casey B. Gibson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s usually before Christmas, not after, when you hear about missing front teeth.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t tell Colorado College freshman goaltender Kaidan Mbereko about that, though, or Tigers coach and former Union and professional goalie Kris Mayotte. They\u2019ve now both lost teeth during games, after getting hit in just the right spots on their masks.<\/p>\n

Mbereko and backup Matt Vernon combined for 42 saves Friday in CC\u2019s 4-2 upset win at third-ranked St. Cloud State. Mbereko made 20 saves in the first period and had to leave the game late in the second after an SCSU shot broke his two front teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne completely broke off, and the other was cracked all the way through but still hanging there, so he had to get those taken care of first,\u201d Mayotte said. \u201cThe puck hit where the top of the chin meets the bottom of the cage. If it hits you in the right spot, it pushes that part of the mask where your mouth is back into your teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSt. Cloud\u2019s team doctors came over, and we got an appointment where he went to the dentist at 9 a.m. Saturday. They put in two fillings on top, so he had two half teeth, and now that we\u2019ve got back to Colorado Springs, he gets more extensive dental work done. He\u2019s going to get a second opinion on Thursday in terms of how deep the crack on one of them goes to see if he needs a root canal or not, but as of right now, they just put crowns on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The efforts of Mbereko and Vernon weren\u2019t all that led to what Mayotte called the Tigers\u2019 most gritty win from his year and a half to date at CC.<\/p>\n

Co-captain and top-two defenseman Bryan Yoon missed most of the game after a blocked shot forced him to seek X-rays on what ended up being a bone bruise in his knee. Fourth-line winger Ray Christy also missed time, but in the end, two Tyler Coffey goals and strong performances in net and by CC\u2019s remaining five defensemen gave the Tigers a fourth win from their last five games.<\/p>\n

Mbereko was back between the pipes Saturday, and made 23 saves. CC lost 4-0, but Mayotte felt the final score was indicative of how most of the game went. Three St. Cloud goals in the final 10:04 put the hosts out of sight.<\/p>\n

Mayotte heralded Mbereko\u2019s resiliency in a time where, across the world of sports, treatment of head injuries has mainly changed for the better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember this happening to me, I think in my first year of pro, and I turned around to the ref and showed him my tooth and said, \u2018Hey, I lost my tooth,\u2019 and he said, \u2018Well, there\u2019s nothing I can do about it,\u2019 so I put my mask back down and kept playing,\u201d Mayotte said.<\/p>\n

Hindsight helped him laugh as he finished the sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, Vern has been really good this year when called upon,” Mayotte said. “Kaidan has arguably been our best player all year, so to lose him is a big blow, but we had ‘Vern’ ready to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Vernon saw out a CC win Friday that snapped The Tigers\u2019 11-game skid against SCSU since Nov. 2019. Even better, at least for a day, the victory pulled CC level with the Huskies for second place in the NCHC standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo beat a top-five team on the road, in and of itself, is something we hadn\u2019t been able to do,\u201d Mayotte said of a CC team that is on pace for its winningest season in a decade. \u201cThat was a big win, but to find a way to do it the way that we did and have a next-man-up mentality where we had the guys step up was really impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was (junior defenseman Chase) Foleys\u2019 first game back from an injury, and on St. Cloud\u2019s (Olympic-sized) rink, our plan was to limit him to 15, 17 minutes, and when we went down to five ‘D’ right away, we had guys who we asked a lot of, but they all rose the occasion, and Vern came in cold but was great for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those games where the team proved something to themselves that they weren\u2019t sure they had in them,\u201d Mayotte continued. \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to build a program, confidence and belief are huge parts of what you can accomplish, and to that end, Friday was huge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s usually before Christmas, not after, when you hear about missing front teeth. Don\u2019t tell Colorado College freshman goaltender Kaidan Mbereko about that, though, or Tigers coach and former Union and professional goalie Kris Mayotte. They\u2019ve now both lost teeth during games, after getting hit in just the right spots on their masks. Mbereko and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":138190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[810],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in NCHC Hockey: Despite losing two teeth against St. Cloud State, Colorado College netminder Mbereko 'has arguably been our best player all year' - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s usually before Christmas, not after, when you hear about missing front teeth. 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