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St. Cloud State University
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Sports
Youth displays talent in exhibition win
By Bobby Hart
Published:
Monday, October 13, 2003
The SCSU Men's hockey team found itself swarmed with questions of offensive production prior to this season. It found some answers in their youth and a bigger/ faster Mike Doyle in a 8-2 exhibition win over St. Clair College Saturday night at the National Hockey Center.
SCSU was without last year's top five leading point producers. Jon Cullen, Joe Motzko and Ryan Malone, who combined for 115 points last season all graduated. Senior Matt Hendricks (36 points) and junior Peter Szabo (23 points) were given the night off to test the youngsters.
Doyle stole the show with a hat-trick, but it was the freshmen defenders that combined for a plus-5 and were the heroes behind the scenes Saturday. Casey Borer assisted three goals, Grant Clafton assisted twice and Justin Fletcher scored a power play goal, and also added an assist.
Overall, head coach Craig Dahl and the older players were thrilled with the youngsters' first collegiate game, but with co-captain Ryan LaMere and Colin Peters (also had the weekend off) back in the line-up next week against Wisconsin, there won't be enough room for all three. �
"They made some mistakes, but like I've said, those three freshmen have some offensive skills and I think they have pretty good poise for young guys," Dahl said. "The problem is that I can't find a spot for all of them at the same time."
The young Huskies are welcoming the competition.
"We all live together and know the circumstances here," Borer said. "Not everyone's going to play every weekend. We go out and battle, but when we're off the ice we get along really well. There's no cliques or anything, all the freshmen hang out, but when we're on the ice it's all about business."
Another first-year student who played well was Brent Hill. He had an assist while playing alongside Doyle and Dave Iannazzo who added three assists on the first line.
Doyle, who gained 20 lbs. of beef over the summer after working with a personal trainer in Alaska, put his strength to use in a physical game.
"That's a luxury I have because now I can be more patient in the corners by holding guys off a little longer and try and make a play off that. Adding some weight this summer helped a lot," Doyle said. Last season he dropped ten goals, compared to his impressive 32-point first-year campaign.
The junior forward won numerous battles along the boards, where he was rarely found in his 2002 slump, and buried his offensive opportunities.
Doyle scored the first goal of the game off a rebound from Hills shot from between the circles 6:19 into the first period.
After St. Clair's Ryan Caicco fired a bullet under sophomore goalie Jason Montgomery's arm nearly five minutes later, sophomore forward Conrad Reeder tipped in a Joe Jensen backhand at the 13:45 mark for the go-ahead goal.
Fletcher then capitalized on the first Husky powerplay of the season by beating St. Clair goalie Ryan Schuchard glove-side with a wrister, three minutes left in the period.
The Huskies put the game away in the second period with a four-goal barrage. Two-time Husky Most Improved Player of the Year Garrett Larson and first-year red-shirt Billie Luger each scored the first two goals of the period to cushion the SCSU lead to 5-1.
The Huskies then showed off an impressive penalty kill when Doyle and Matt Gens each scored shorthanded goals with under two minutes left in the period.
Doyle finished his hat trick in the third period after St. Clair's Derek Graansma scored on a breakaway against first-year goaltender Tim Boron.
The Huskies will face a well-prepared Wisconsin team next weekend for the WCHA opener. The game will prove to be the first real test for the Huskies, who will add Hendricks, Szabo, LaMere and Peters to the line-up. The Badgers were picked to finish seventh in the WCHA preseason poll (of ten teams), one ahead of the Huskies and have already played tough competition in a 2-6 loss to Maine and 4-3 win over the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
"We're going to have to step it up about five to 10 notches," Borer said. "Tonight was a good base-builder, but if we want to compete next weekend we've got to boost up the pace. That'll be a good test of where we are so far and where everyone fits in."
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