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Huskies skate to split
By Yariv Amir/Special to University Chronicle
 Media Credit: Scott Reis/The Catalyst Colorado College’s Richard Petiot skates past SCSU’s Ryan LaMere Saturday night at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Tigers beat the Huskies 5-1 Saturday night. LaMere had the lone Husky goal Saturday. The Huskies shut out the Tigers 3-0 Friday night. The Huskies will take on Bemidji State this weekend in a home-and-home series.
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. —SCSU and Colorado College battled to a series split in two very similarly played games with entirely different outcomes.
The Huskies won the first game, 3-0 behind the outstanding play of goalie Dean Weasler, who made 36 saves to record his first shutout of the season, and by taking advantage of the few opportunities they were presented.
Colorado College came back and won 5-1 Saturday night. The game was very similar to the night before, but this time the Tigers took advantage of their scoring chances to gain an early lead and never look back.
Friday night, SCSU withstood an early onslaught by the Tigers to claim a 3-0 victory.
“That was an exciting hockey game,” said SCSU head coach Craig Dahl. “It was a fun one for us. Each team had some good chances, we got a few good breaks, and excellent goaltending.”
Colorado College and SCSU skated to a scoreless first period. Despite no action on the scoreboard, the first period was full of end-to-end action and good scoring opportunities. Weasler was the difference, as he made 18 saves in the period.
The Huskies broke the scoreless tie at 5:27 of the second period when Mark Hartigan’s blast from the top of the left circle trickled through CC goalie Jeff Sanger’s legs into the net.
“We just worked hard,” Hartigan said. “When you work hard, you get the bounces and tonight they went our way. Our defense played strong tonight and that helped the transition and got us some scoring opportunities, which we took advantage of.”
SCSU extended the lead to 2-0 at 7:00 of the third period when the line of DiCasmirro, Hartigan and Matt Hendricks hooked up for their second goal of the night. DiCasmirro intercepted a clearing pass at the right point and chipped it over to Hartigan who passed it to Hendricks, who in turn redirected it into a wide-open net.
Weasler made 36 saves to earn his first shutout and eighth win of the season. Jeff Sanger made 25 saves in a losing effort.
“Seeing a lot of shots early helped me tonight,” Weasler said. “It let me get a feel for the game and the puck. Tonight was my night for some reason. There were a lot of shots that I didn’t see; yet they kept ending up in my glove, or hitting my pads. I just tried to be in the right position, and tonight it worked out.”
Saturday night belonged to CC, as they were able to solve Weasler early and establish a lead en route to a 5-1 victory.
“Coach Owens challenged us after last night,” said CC forward Alex Kim. “Last night we had a lack of execution and we needed to fix that. Tonight, we stepped it up, played a full 60 minutes and picked up a hard fought win.”
The first period of play was virtually a carbon copy of last night’s. Colorado College controlled much of the play. However, unlike last night, SCSU goalie Weasler could not keep the Tigers off the scoreboard as CC converted on two of its 17 shots in the period.
Tiger forward Alex Kim opened the scoring at 4:50 of the period, on a great play of defenseman Richard Petiot. Petiot carried the puck in from the blueline and shuffled a backhander on the net as he drove toward it. While Weasler was able to stop the initial shot, he was unable to control the rebound, which ended up on the stick of a streaking Kim, who backhanded it home for his seventh goal of the season.
CC added to its lead just over five minutes later on Colin Stuart’s fifth goal of the season. The play seemed to stop as the puck appeared to be trapped under fallen SCSU defenseman Colin Peters. However, Stuart dug it out, skated behind the net, and attempted a wrap-around. Weasler made the save, but the rebound went right back to Stuart, who made it a 2-0 game.
The Tigers continued their strong play in the second period, scoring at 6:32 of the period. Tiger forward Peter Sejna carried the puck into the Husky zone on a two-on-one. He faked a pass across, which pulled Weasler off the near post, then put a wrist shot just inside that post to make it a 3-0 game.
“The bottom line was that we worked really hard tonight,” Kim said. “James Laux scored his first goal, Curtis (McElhinney) made some big stops, and got an assist on the fourth goal. We just put it all out there. Tonight was a team effort, 21 guys came together. We are 2-2 against the best team in the country. That’s pretty good. We’ll take it.”
SCSU scored its lone goal at 4:10 of the third period on Ryan LaMere’s fourth goal of the season. Hartigan received an assist.
Check back here for updates over break on men’s and women’s hockey.
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