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St. Cloud State University
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Sports
SCSU gets rematch with ‘Kato
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU forward Ryan Malone celebrates after scoring his third goal for a hat trick last Friday night against the University of North Dakota. Malone had five points during the series and received WCHA Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Last weekend, the WCHA proved something that Husky head coach Craig Dahl has been preaching for the last two months.
Before the season even started, Dahl had been saying that the WCHA is going to be a very tough league. It may have sounded a little too clich� for most sports fans, but this was no token coach mumbo-jumbo. As far as premature rankings go, last weekend was full of surprises.
The unranked UMD Bulldogs split with the No. 1 Denver Pioneers, then the No.15 Huskies split with No. 5 UND and last, but not least, the underdog Minnesota State, Mankato Mavericks split with the defending national champion and fourth-ranked Golden Gophers.
“Last weekend just proved what we’ve said as coaches for the last two months, that it’s going to be a very tough league and sweeps aren’t as easy to come by as people say they are,” Dahl said. “We have kind of a long range view of where we want to be in the end, and that’s what we have to try and keep in focus to keep our guys positive.”
That long range view will not be overlooked this weekend when the Huskies will have a home-and-home rematch against the Mavs, who have put together some of the biggest comebacks yet this season.
The Huskies will never forget their first series with the Mavs a few weeks ago when it started to look like a massacre in the first period when SCSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Before they knew it, the Huskies found themselves in overtime before Mike Doyle finally put in the game winner.
The next game of the series was an even bigger battle for the Huskies, who had trouble getting anything past Maverick goalie Jason Jensen who had 30 saves. The Huskies looked to have the game wrapped up when Brian Schuster finally found the back of the net late for the first, and looked like what would be the only goal of the game until, with only a few minutes remaining, MSU defenseman Peter Runkle tied the game up for good at 1-1.
The Mavericks were finally rewarded for their latest big comeback against the Gophers when they scored three goals in the third period for a 3-2 victory, and will probably be a much more confident team than the Huskies played earlier this season. Head coach Troy Jutting and his Mavericks aren’t ready to add up their change just yet.
“Our confidence is at a good level right now, but we’ve tried to keep it at an even keel by not letting the lows get too low or the highs get too high,” Jutting said. “Obviously it was a big win for us Friday (against the U of M), but it’s only one win early in the season and in this league that’ll only get you a couple quarters to rub together.”
The Huskies have gained a little bit of confidence as well, through their strong senior line of Cullen, Ryan Malone and Joe Motzko, which they finally had the luxury of using after nagging injuries kept Cullen and Malone out for a couple weeks. The line combined for 13 points Friday night, and Malone, who had five points including a hat trick, received WCHA Offensive Player of the Week honors.
“That was an excellent line for us last weekend,” Dahl said. “We’ve made steps every weekend and gotten better. Our power play is better and our forechecking is better, but I’m really looking forward to building some continuity in the lineup.”
That continuity has already begun to show in the Husky power play that had been slumping until last weekend when SCSU put together four goals with a man advantage.
“Even in practice we’re starting to move the puck a lot better and we’re starting to develop a little bit of chemistry,” Cullen said. “When you’re short a few guys here and there on the power play, you don’t find the chemistry right away and it takes a little while to develop it.”
The senior line will most likely match up against a couple of Mankato’s big guns in sophomore Grant Stevenson, who has eight points (four goals, four assists), and junior Shane Joseph, who has six (three goals, three assists). But it’ll be Jutting who will get the last line change Friday night.
“I always like to play strength against strength and we’ll try and do that if we can, but if they want to try and match somebody else against our senior line, then our senior line better come through for us and do some damage,” Dahl said.
The Huskies will also be looking for a big performance from sophomore Mike Doyle, who has been quiet as of late but has been officially labeled a Maverick killer ever since his hat trick against them last season, up to his overtime game winner during the first game this season.
“‘Doyle has some great offensive skills and I look for him to have one of his breakout weekends sometime soon.” Cullen said. “He hasn’t had the production that he had last year quite yet, but I look for him to have a good weekend.”
This weekend’s series will also feature some of the WCHA’s hottest goaltenders. Jensen is coming off of a big clutch performance in Mankato’s upset against the U of M, and is fifth in the WCHA in save percentage with .910, while being second in the league with 101 saves this season.
For the Huskies, freshman goaltender Jason Montgomery, who leads the WCHA with a .934 save percentage, will be looking for his first victory of the season. Montgomery had a big 30 save performance in last weekend’s overtime loss to UND.
“People in the locker room felt bad for him on Saturday night because he played so well and he has been playing so well,” Cullen said. “We’d like nothing better than to get him a win and he deserves it.”
