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St. Cloud State University
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Hockey opens season with split at Ferris
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Monday, October 14, 2002
Missing four of their five best blue liners, it was obvious from the start that the Huskies were going to have to skate uphill to get off to the same kind of 8-0 start that they did last season.
Coming into the weekend at Ferris State, the Huskies knew they would have some major questions in the defensive zone. Senior goaltender Jake Moreland answered about 40 of them on Friday night by racking up a career high 40 saves out of the 41 shots fired on him, as the Huskies escaped with a 2-1 victory. However, the Husky blue liners would not be bailed out so easily on Saturday night as all hopes of another spectacular start were washed away by a 6-3 loss.
The only action in Friday night's game came in the second period. It was only fitting that SCSU senior preseason Hobey Baker candidate Ryan Malone would get the Huskies season started with a short-handed goal, assisted by Matt Gens, at 4:23 of the second period. It was Malone's first short-handed goal of his career.
"Gensy shot it out of our zone in the air, and while the defense was trying to glove it down. Malone just tapped it between his (Ferris goalie) legs and he was all alone," senior Joe Motzko said. "It got us going and it's always good to see him get on the board early."
Ferris State answered with a power-play goal by Jeff Legue at 8:47 of the second period to tie the game at 1-1.
Matt Hendricks then scored the Huskies' first power-play goal of the season, and what would prove to be the game winner at 17:07 of the second period, with assists from Joe Motzko and Jon Cullen.
But it was Moreland's play between the pipes that really earned the victory for the Huskies.
"He was outstanding. We had a couple breakdowns and he won the game for us. He's got the skill to play every game and play every game well," Motzko said.
Saturday night the action would once again begin in the second period. FSU's Jamie Dunlap scored the game's first goal unassisted at 1:27. Husky freshman Brian McCormack then put the Huskies on the board for his first goal of his college hockey career to tie the game at 1-1.
Later in the second period Motzko would pour in two goals in a two minute span (7:31-9:26), the first a powerplay assisted by Malone, and the second being short-handed and unassisted, putting the Huskies up 3-1.
It was all FSU the rest of the game as Carter Thomson scored at 18:21 assisted by Mike Kinnie and Skip Renauld. Just 23 seconds later Derrick McIver would put one past Husky goaltender Jason Montgomery, tying the game at 3-3.
The Huskies couldn't regroup in the third period as Kinnie scored at 16:47, assisted by Dunlap and Phil Meyer. Less than two minutes later FSU's ace Chris Kunitz would sink the nail deeper in the Huskies side with a goal assisted by Legue and Derek Nesbitt, putting FSU up 5-3. Legue would then score on an open net with 30 seconds left.
Montgomery had a frustrating night by allowing five goals, and didn't get a lot of help from his young defense. He had 26 saves on the evening.
"McElroy, Conboy and Tam made some mistakes at times but overall I think they did a decent job," said SCSU head coach Craig Dahl. "They have a bright future; it's just going to take some time for them to adjust to this level."
The Huskies had trouble being consistent at the blue line and couldn't seem to get anything together late in the game offensively, even though they out shot the Bulldogs 38-32. SCSU shut down their power play (0-3, 8 shots). As a team SCSU had a plus/minus of -22, with their offense having a surprising -12.
Although many Husky fans wanted to see another quick start, the loss was taken in stride by a team that has been crumbled by injury and eligibility troubles.
"Of course it would be nice to start off undefeated. But you're going to lose a game sometime, so it's better to lose them early than later on," Motzko said.
