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Men's hockey sweep Michigan Tech
By Staff Report
If you would have asked any member of the SCSU men's hockey team if they would take a pair of one-goal wins this weekend at Michigan Tech, your answer would be an emphatic yes.
After all, it was Winter Carnival weekend in Houghton, which is always the most difficult weekend of the year to have to travel to the upper-peninsula and play a weekend series, no matter where MTU sits in the standings heading into the weekend.
And again, Tech was good, but not good enough as SCSU won 4-3 Friday night and 3-2 Saturday afternoon to capture the MacInnes Cup, which goes to the team that scores the most goals during Winter Carnival weekend.
Friday night SCSU got off to a rough start, giving up a power play goal to MTU's Justin Brown 1:02 into the game. But they were able to provide an answer almost immediately as Joe Motzko took a feed from Jon Cullen to knot the game up at one. Mark Hartigan scored his fifth shorthanded goal of the season three minutes after that to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead but Tech would answer before the opening frame ended. Jaren Doetzel scored at the 11:18 mark, tying the game at two after one.
After a scoreless second period, the Huskies took control in the third. Matt Hendricks scored midway through and Ryan LaMere added another with just 1:17 to play. Tech would cut it to one on another Doetzel goal with 21 seconds left but that wouldn't be enough as SCSU out shot MTU 18-8 over the final 20 minutes and escaped with the 4-3 win.
Saturday afternoon, the Huskies picked up right where they left off. Mike Doyle and Ryan Malone both scored first period goals to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead after one. Tech got themselves back into the game in the second, though, on back-to-back goals from Jon Pittis and Brad Engelhardt but Colin Peters scored with just over two minutes to play in the third to give the Huskies a 3-2 lead.
Neither team got on the board in the third as the Huskies won their fourth straight game and improved to 25-4-2 on the year and 16-4-2 in the WCHA. More importantly, they climbed within a point of first place Denver with some help from Minnesota-Duluth. The two teams skated to a 3-3 tie on the edge of the Rocky Mountains.
The Huskies return home next weekend to face Alaska-Anchorage Friday and Saturday night at the National Hockey Center. Both games start at 7:05 p.m.
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