State of the Union: win, tie

After giving up two late third period goals Friday night, the Huskies took care of Union College Saturday night 3-1.

The home-opening series saw nearly 12,000 fans enter the gates of the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.

Friday

The Huskies came into Friday’s game with two losses on the season and looked to right the ship against Union College.

They did that scoring three first period goals against the Dutchmen.

The first came off the stick of sophomore Jordy Christian with 2:29 on the clock in the first period. He was unassisted on the play.

It did not take the Dutchmen long to strike back, as Brian Yanovitch slid one past first-year goalie Mike Lee only a minute and a half later.

“What it showed us that Union is a good hockey team,” SCSU head coach Bob Motzko said. “It was no fluke that they got two wins last weekend against Maine.”

The Huskies came back to take the lead at 9:04 in the first period as junior Tony Mosey took advantage of the power play netting his first goal of the season.

“It’s the key for any team in college hockey, your power play has to connect,” Motzko said. “Your power play has got to score key goals for you.”

Garrett Raboin and Garret Roe got the assist on the play that gave the Huskies a 2-1 lead.

With less than two-minutes left in the first period when senior Ryan Lasch found the net for his first goal on the season.

Assiting on the play were senior defensemen Craig Gaudet and sophomore forward Drew LeBlanc.

The Huskies know that fans are a big part of their success at home.

“Our fans are a huge advantage to us; it’s been a long time waiting to play in front of these guys again,” said senior defensemen Craig Gaudet. “They’re amazing, it’s just unbelievable, they are a seventh man out there for us, and we really appreciate their support it’s huge for us.”

After a scoreless second period for both teams, the Huskies looked to be headed to their first victory of the season.

However,  in the last three minutes of the game the Dutchmen scored two goals one by Greg Coburn and another with the goalie pulled by Adam Presizniuk.

“Lee didn’t have a tough night,” Motzko said. “I thought he was outstanding.”

Lee finished with 34 saves in 37 oppurtunities.

That tied the game 3-3 and forced overtime. Nobody was able to take advantage in the extra period and home opener ended in a tie for the Huskies.

“Its such a bad feeling giving up two goals in two and a half minutes,” Motzko said.

Saturday

 The Huskies started out quick once again getting a power play goal from senior defensemen Craig Gaudet, assisted by Little Falls natives Ben Hanowski and Jared Festler.

“I got the puck and drug it to the middle, and their forward just giving me a little bit of room to snap one on net,” Gaudet said about the goal.

“Between screening and a little bit of luck it just went in there.”

The Huskies were able to strike again before the end of the period as sophomoe Travis Novak who maneuverd his way through the Dutchmen defense and scored another power play goal at the 14:18 minute mark to give the Huskies a 2-0 first period lead.

“I think number one it just got us off to a good start, last the thing you want to do is give up a lead late in the game last night and then come back tonight and be behind and be on our heels all night I think that got us in the right frame of mind,” Gaudet said.

“We were playing good hockey at the time and allowed us to just carry momentum from there.”