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New beginnings in the new year
Attitude change and having key players return have been the reason for the men's hockey team's turnaround.
 Media Credit: Blair Schlichte SCSU�s Joe Motzko skates around the net and tries to score against the University of Minnesota. SCSU tied the Gophers 3-3 Jan. 4 at the National Hockey Center.
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There is a new attitude floating around the National Hockey Center. After a problematic first half of the season plagued by injuries and inconsistencies, the SCSU men's hockey team has started playing the kind of hockey its fans have been used to seeing for the last three seasons (combined record of 83-34-6). The Huskies have been a new team over winter break going 5-1-2 and earning 12 out of 16 points, including memorable wins in Mariucci Arena on Jan. 3 where they came back to beat the Gophers 4-3, and they took five out of eight points from the Denver Pioneers, who were picked to win the WCHA in the preseason.
The first sweep of the season for SCSU finally came over Providence College this weekend. The win treated head coach Craig Dahl to his 300th win on Saturday with a 5-3 victory. Dahl is now the 10th active coach to reach the 300-win mark. Dahl said it makes him more excited that he captured every win under the SCSU logo.
"It means a lot to me because Herb Brooks and I came here and started the program from scratch," Dahl said, who was an assistant under Brooks for the 1986-87 season (one year before Dahl became head coach). "When you start something a lot of people say, 'you'll never do this,' or 'you'll never do that.' I never thought about that. I just tried to go get good players and build a base that was solid and not sand."
The team finally looks to be gelling thanks to a few different factors that were missing earlier in the year. Senior defenseman Derek Eastman arrived back on the blue line on Jan. 3 against the Gophers and has already racked up seven points in six games off two goals and five assists.
"Ever since that first Denver series before Christmas we've been rolling, clicking and getting different guys to score," Eastman said. "We just have got to keep working hard and then the sky is the limit."
The Huskies have also been getting some solid play between the pipes by both freshman Jason Montgomery and senior Jake Moreland. Moreland returned after rehabilitating a dislocated knee he suffered in North Dakota on Dec. 6. Montgomery, despite being ripped by Star Tribune columnist Pat Ruesse, did an admirable job with 38 and 46 save performances against the Gophers. He had another big game with 31 saves against Denver in the Dec. 13 tie. Moreland proved to be back in healthy shape as he is 3-0 since his return. He had a 41-save performance against Denver on Jan. 11 and followed that up with a 38-save performance against Providence on Jan. 17.
The first half of the season was no cakewalk considering the non-forgiving WCHA schedule the Huskies faced. It proved to be one of their most trying first half schedules in years.
"We've been really excited and we knew we'd have some ups and downs in the first half with all the injuries and not having Derek back there," assistant coach Brad Willner said. "As far as our strength of schedule, our schedule has been the hardest in all of college hockey. We're just really excited to get the second half rolling and be solidified with a group of guys out there that can play day-in-and-day-out."
The Huskies started the New Year ranked fifth in the USCHO Pairwise rankings, which have accurately predicted the NCAA tournament teams since it began in 1996.
Jensen Blows Up
Coming from Plymouth and playing high school hockey at Osseo, Joe Jensen doesn't have to be notified about the rich history of University of Minnesota hockey. His family would never let him forget. His father, Paul Jensen, played on Michigan Tech's NCAA championship team in 1975, beating Minnesota for the title. Paul's brother, Dave Jensen, was a Minnesota captain in 1983.
This gave Joe all the more reason to single- handedly tear apart the Gophers at Mariucci Arena on Jan. 3. He led the Huskies to a 4-3 victory there and then scored again within the first minute in St. Cloud, where the teams skated to a 3-3 tie.
Reporters outside the locker rooms at Mariucci crowded around the overwhelmed freshman and a couple more were questioning Dahl. One reporter joked, "Is this what you recruited Joe Jensen for, to score a hat trick and beat the Gophers?"
Dahl smiled and responded, "Joe Jensen really reminds me of Joe Motzko when he was a freshman, but I didn't know he was going to score like Joe. Shows you how much I knew on that one."
It's not very often when a freshman scores his first career goal and hat trick in the same game, but teammates and coaches said it was only a matter of time for a freshman that has shown numerous shades of talent in practice.
"It's a warrior mentality and that's what sports are all about," Dahl said. "It's about doing everything you can to win the one-on-one battles and I wish more of our players had it at times, but I certainly don't have to worry about Joe Jensen having it. You don't have to tell a guy like that to work hard."
Team helps senior line
The major New Year's resolution for SCSU was to get some more scorers to help out the senior line of Jon Cullen, Ryan Malone and Joe Motzko, who accounted for 29 of the Huskies' 57 goals up until Dec. 14. Since then the Huskies have scored 19 goals and only one of those came from one of the Big Three (Malone's goal against PC on Saturday).
Freshman Joe Jensen has accounted for five goals, Peter Szabo and Matt Hendricks each netted three, while Mike Doyle and Derek Eastman each scored two.
Dahl started shuffling his lines in Denver in order to split his seniors up and give his team a more balanced attack. The most consistent rotation seemed to shine in the Providence series when Motzko and Cullen remained on the first line with Jensen, while Malone skated on the third line with Szabo and freshman Brock Hooton.
"If we get that kind of balanced scoring that's wonderful," Cullen said. "Our line has had a tough time and we didn't play that well at all against the Gophers. If we can continue to get more guys scoring like that, we're going to be a threat later on this year."
Since the Huskies have been winning and playing their best hockey of the year, not having the three senior forwards contribute on the score board seems to be the least of the team's worries.
"Everybody's game has picked up and that takes some pressure off that senior line when other guys on the team score," Willner said. "It took Jensen in the Minnesota series to break through and get that going. It's going to help us out in the long run. You're not going to hold that first line down for too long before they start scoring again."
Gophers take attitude to NHC
The Husky/Gopher rivalry heated up as usual when the teams collided in a home-and-home series to start off the New Year. Probably the biggest highlight of the series came from Gopher defenseman Matt DeMarchi, who didn't use his stick, but his water bottle to make a statement. With only :02 remaining in the game, the Minnesota senior squirted Jon Cullen as he turned his back to the bench.
"I was just sitting there and we were yapping back-and-forth. Then I just felt a little water on the back of my neck and turned around and saw who did it," Cullen said. Cullen then jumped at the Gopher bench which took a while to clear up and ended in several penalties.
"It was dumb on his part because the game was over. But he's an agitator, that's his game," Cullen told the St. Cloud Times. "The thing that's funny is we were junior teammates (in the USHL), but he's definitely not my best friend on the ice. Maybe we should send him a thank you for all the dumb penalties he's taken against us over the years."
Gophers coach Don Lucia ordered DeMarchi to write a letter of apology to Cullen and to referee Tom Goddard, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
When asked if St. Cloud has become the biggest inner-state rival over the last few years Lucia played it off saying, "There are a lot of good ones. We pack everybody's building, that's just the way it works. It's the same with Duluth and Mankato. But being in the proximity, and obviously St. Cloud has had a lot of success recently, the games usually take on a little more meaning."
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