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Huskies need first sweep right now
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
Matt Hendricks will need to be a key contributor this weekend without captains Ryan Malone and Jeff Finger, both out with knee injuries. Hendricks has scored four goals in the last four games.
With almost all said and done, and two weeks left in the regular season, the hockey gods haven't been smiling on the SCSU men's hockey team.
But with costly penalties and third period collapses pushed aside, there remains hope. That hope may seem too delicate to speak of for a few different reasons:
Exhibit A: With two weekends remaining, the Huskies are three points behind both UMD and Denver. Both are currently tied for the fifth and final home ice spot in the WCHA playoffs. This spot is crucial for the Huskies' postseason hopes being that they are 4-7-2 on the road this season. If they don't have a fairly impressive conference tourney, it's unlikely that they will be saved by the Pairwise rankings and escorted into the NCAA's.
Exhibit B: They are without both assistant captains in Ryan Malone (dislocated knee), who leads the team in goals scored with 18, and their best defender Jeff Finger (torn and strained knee ligaments) for at least one more weekend.
Exhibit C: They have yet to sweep a conference series yet this season.
The Huskies will need to throw Exhibit C out the window this weekend at home against the 0-20-6 Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves.
If they want to have any glimmer of hope of the friendly confines in the National Hockey Center come playoff time, they must have a sweep.
"There's four points available this weekend and we need them," junior Matt Hendricks said. "We've got to buckle down. We're starting to feel the pressure and we need to start winning. It's hard to talk about winning over and over, but at a point if we don't, the season is going to come to an end pretty quick."
The Huskies earned only one out of four points last weekend to the bottom-feeding Wisconsin Badgers. If they earn a sweep this weekend, they could find themselves back in the race if they get some help from some divisional foes in the WCHA home ice race that is beginning to resemble a soap opera.
That help won't be very farfetched since Denver must play at Mariucci against the No. 7 Gophers this weekend and then play a home-and-home series against No. 1 CC next weekend. UMD may also run into some trouble since they'll be traveling to the 'Ralph' to play No. 10 UND this weekend. UND is currently in the fourth spot in the conference, only four points ahead of SCSU.
Although the race for home ice will be the talk of the league entering the weekend, the Huskies prefer to focus on themselves.
"We still hold our own destiny in my opinion," Hendricks said. "We have four valuable points that we can get this weekend. We need them. We can't depend on other teams to do our work for us."
Hendricks has come up big for the Huskies in the last couple weeks by contributing four goals and will need to continue to do so with Malone and Finger out.
"He's trying to do all he can to help us," head coach Craig Dahl said. "You take Malone out of the lineup and he's good for a point or two a game. This past week that probably would've spelled the difference. Finger is such a good physical presence back there and plays 25-30 minutes a game. Obviously when you take those good players out of the lineup it doesn't help."
A major problem SCSU has been facing with two captains out is the additional leadership baggage that has yet to be claimed. Their confidence has been torn up ever since their third period collapse to Colorado College Feb. 15.
"That's a problem," Dahl said. "Obviously (Jon) Cullen is trying to do the best he can, but we really need Joe Motzko to play his best hockey of the year right now. We need Hendricks and (Peter) Szabo to chip in. Some of those guys are going to have to carry the load."
With all eyes on the WCHA soap opera, there is one thing the Huskies can be sure of. If they don't take a stand this weekend and heal their confidence with all four points, they probably never will.
If they do accomplish their first sweep of the season their glimmer of hope will probably carry into the final series of the season next weekend against Minnesota. But with losses against Michigan Tech and Wisconsin in the past month, looking that far ahead could be costly.
"This team has had problems in the past with getting too far ahead of itself. We just need to worry about playing well in the first period on Friday night," Dahl said. "A lot of water is going to go over the dam in the next few weeks and I couldn't even begin to tell you what's going to happen. It's going to be a dogfight."
Around The Rink
-There will be a total of five freshmen forwards in the lineup this weekend: Joe Jensen, Konrad Reeder, Jonathan Lehun, Brian McCormack and Brock Hooton.
-McCormack will return to the lineup this weekend for the first time since Dec. 6. The British Columbia native was benched for unknown reasons and was replaced by freshman Brock Hooton who has played most of the season. Dahl was very high on him at the beginning of the season, comparing his style to that of former Hobey Baker candidate Mark Hartigan when he was a freshman. McCormack, who had two goals out of the first three games of the season, will join Garrett Larson and Andy Lundbohm on the fourth line.
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