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Mavs still winless against SCSU
 Media Credit: Leslie Andres SCSU’s Matt Hendricks fires a shot on goal in the game against Minnesota State University, Mankato, Friday night at the National Hockey Center. The dramatic game ended in a 6-5 overtime win for the Huskies after they took an emphatic 5-0 lead in the first period. SCSU tied 1-1 against the Mavericks Saturday in Mankato.
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The SCSU hockey team came into the home and home series against Mankato over the weekend with history on their side, owning 10 consecutive victories over the Mavericks, and being the only WCHA team the Mavs haven't beaten since they joined the conference in the 1999-00 season.
There was some good, bad and even a little bit of ugly play on both sides of the ice in the series. Both games proved to be the most exciting games in the WCHA's opening weekend where SCSU would win 6-5 at home, and tie 1-1 in Mankato.
On Friday night the National Hockey Center was turned into an amusement park, equipped with an emotional roller-coaster, that nobody could have ever expected after a 5-0 Husky lead in the first period.
It was smooth sailing for the Husky offense, but defensive struggles in the second period led to three Mankato goals. Before the Huskies knew it, the game was tied up 5-5 at the end of regulation. It was sophomore Mike Doyle who put an end to the frantic ride when he tapped in a blue line pass by Jeff Finger 40 seconds into overtime.
The first period looked as if the Huskies were on a 20 minute power play the way they controlled the puck and outshot the Mavericks (32-14). This all occurred without captain Jon Cullen who was resting an injured shoulder. Freshmen Brian McCormack and Jonathan LeHun shined in their first WCHA game and provided the sparks in the first period as McCormack added his second goal of the season, while LeHun scored two goals off perfectly timed rebounds.
"I just tried to do my job and play nice conservative hockey and when we got our breaks I just tried to bury them," LeHun said. "Motzko and Doyle went to the net hard both times and the puck just popped out and came right to me."
Matt Hendricks and Ryan Malone each added a goal to make the game appear to be out of reach as both teams headed into the locker room at the end of the first period.
Little did the Huskies know the plot was just about to thicken. In the second period head coach Craig Dahl's nightmares became reality as the Husky defense collapsed, giving up three goals and cutting the score to a 5-3 deficit.
"We really stood around and watched quite a bit of the second period," he said.
The second period could have been a lot worse for SCSU, but their penalty-killing units came up huge when Finger picked up back-to-back roughing and elbowing penalties during the last six minutes.
The third period was a little more evenly played, but Mankato found a way to keep eating away at the deficit. Goalie Jason Jensen, who replaced Jon Volp after the first period, shut down the Huskies and ended up with 17 saves.
Mankato sophomore Grant Stevenson scored his second goal of the game at 15:31, and set up Shane Joseph for the second time to tie it with less than two-and-a-half minutes to go. The reason Joseph got so open was because Malone was unable to stick with him due to an injury to his hip he sustained in a collision during the second period.
Just as it seemed as if all the momentum had completely shifted, the crowd of 6,297 (the 28th straight regular-season sellout at the NHC) came to life as the puck dropped to start the first period of overtime. Mike Doyle, who was relatively quiet all game, passed it out to the blue line over to Finger, who was playing with a cast on his hand. Finger faked a slap shot, and made a perfect saucer pass to Doyle who tapped it home.
"All I was thinking was just get your stick on this and hope for the best and luckily it went between ( Jason Jensen's) legs," Doyle said.
Luck would be a tough claim to back up. It seemed as though Doyle was destined for his first career overtime winner against a Mankato team that he dominated as a freshman. In last season's opener, he had a hat trick.
"When you start out so well and then play such a bad second period it's hard to regroup. In overtime we just had to stick with our guns and stay within our system and continue to fight," Doyle said. "When 'Welcome To The Jungle' comes on they get a little more rowdy than usual. They definitely pushed us."
Saturday night would be a different story all together at the Midwest Wireless Center.
There would be no first period onslaught, or for that matter no scoring at all until late in the third period, when SCSU's Brian Schuster looked as if he'd be the unlikely hero scoring his second career goal off a pretty move. He faked out one defender and partially lost control when he took the shot. It caught Mankato's goalie Jason Jensen off-guard as the puck slipped past him with just a little over three minutes remaining. Just 30 seconds later Mankato's senior defenseman Peter Runkel would tie the game at 1-1 with a deflection from a Steven Johns shot, which would lead to a scoreless overtime.
"Last night I said to our guys, did you think a WCHA team wouldn't come back and play hard down 5-0?" Dahl said. "They're competitors. They were recruited to play WCHA hockey, and we were coming back into their barn tonight. Our guys knew right off the bat that it was going to be a good, tough hockey game because (the Mavericks) gained a lot of confidence last night."
It was a well-played defensive game on both sides of the ice as the Huskies freshman goalie Jason Montgomery ended up with 30 saves, in what he thought was a much better display than his 6-3 loss to Ferris State.
"When you're in a game like this you feel like you can save everything," he said. "I was seeing the puck tonight. There wasn't many that just hit me or went wide. The (defensemen) were clearing the front of the net pretty good. There were less odd-man rushes (than against Ferris State)."
The Husky defense that gave up a five goal deficit in Friday's game came back with a lot more consistency, and the penalty- killing unit (that has given up only one goal this season) came up big once again, even though they were shorthanded for 20 minutes.
It was the Husky offense that was having trouble getting things going without both Cullen (shoulder injury) and Malone (hip injury). SCSU couldn't capitalize on any power play opportunities against Maverick goalie Jason Jensen, who had another big night with 30 saves.
"We played eight freshman in the lineup and they all played pretty well," Dahlia said. "When your in tight games like that, I think it's good for them because you could see what happened in the last couple minutes of the third period when there's stress. All the sudden we couldn't break out of the zone like we were before, and we got away from that."
The Huskies faced a scare shortly after Runkel's goal. Mankato junior Grant Stevenson put a shot off the left post and bounced about an inch in front of the crease behind Montgomery where McCormack shoved Mav defender Jon Dubel, the puck, and Montgomery all in the net. As the light went on, and the crowd of 4,215 erupted, the goal was waved off by referee Jon Campion.
"My question to the referee was that if the puck is in front of him, why would the net go off before the puck crossed?" Mankato head coach Troy Jutting said. "The puck obviously had to be in front of him for him to knock the net off, but the ref did a great job overall and it wasn't (Campion's) fault. It was a bam-bam play."
That was only one of the many scrambles that Montgomery saw all night. Another came right before Schuster's goal, when Rick Kisskeys took a slap shot that was tipped by Dana Sorensen who raised his arms as if he thought it went in, but sure enough Montgomery had it buried in his pads.
The Mavs outshot the Huskies 62-51 in the game and controlled the puck most of the time after Schuster's goal.
When asked if he was surprised when Mankato answered back so quickly, Dahlia said quietly with a smile, "I was more surprised last night."
The Mavericks continued their winless streak against the Huskies at 13-0-3. The teams will play another home-and-home series again on Nov. 15 and 16. Next weekend the Huskies will play Rensselaer Polytechnic (RPI) at home for the first time since a 1987-88 series split.
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