St. Cloud State rolls on
St. Cloud’s impressive offense continued to have success as St. Cloud posted an impressive sweep of Boston College. On Friday, after falling behind 2-0, the Huskies rallied for a 5-2 win. The three Poehling brothers continue to be spark plugs. Ryan assisted on Kevin Fitzgerald’s goal at 10:48 that started St. Cloud’s rally, and then Jack scored the tying goal just 1:22 later, while Nick scored an empty-netter at 19:59 of the third. Ryan also assisted on Jack Ahcan’s game-winning power-play goal in the third, a bullet shot from the blue line.
In Saturday’s 3-1 win, Jack started the scoring with a power-play goal just 2:17 into the game, with an assist going to Ryan, and then Ryan scored at 12:47. Mikey Eyssimont scored the game-winner at 19:30 on a power play. David Hrenak, making his first start in net, made 36 saves. Defenseman Jimmy Schuldt, who leads the team in scoring and is average two points a game, had three assists on the weekend for the undefeated and untied Huskies.
St. Cloud’s offense is currently tie with Northeastern for the top offense in the country, averaging 4.6 goals per game. The Huskies power play is 12th in the country, clicking at a 29.17 percent success rate.
North Dakota’s inconsistent offense overcome with stout defense
The Fighting Hawks renewed their fierce old WCHA rivalry with Minnesota over the weekend, emerging with a split. On Friday, the offense again struggled in a 2-1 loss, firing 34 shots on net and only getting a single power-play goal past Eric Schierhorn. Saturday, the power play was productive for North Dakota with three goals, including two from Christian Wolanin, one at 19:59 of the first period and one at 3:43 of the second. Ironically, the only even-strength goal North Dakota scored all weekend turned out to be the game-winner, a goal from Nick Jones at 4:59 of the first.
Cam Johnson was in net for both games, and made 16 stops in Friday’s loss and 22 in Saturday’s win. Behind Johnson and a strong corps of defenders, North Dakota has the best team defense in the country, giving up only 1.17 goals per game, and has the second-best penalty kill, clicking at 96.3 percent.
Miami records first win of year
Miami went on the road to Orono for a pair against Maine, and recorded its first win of the year, which is the positive. The negative is the RedHawks gave up 11 goals on the weekend. Friday, Miami’s Gordie Green assisted on Karch Bachman’s power-play goal at 5:16 of the first, then scored 19 seconds later to give Miami a lead it would never relinquish. Green had two more assists in the second period, including on Kiefer Sherwood’s four-on-four goal at 17:44 of the second that made it 5-3, and then scored just eight seconds into the third to make it 7-3. However, Maine made it interesting by scoring twice in the third for a 7-5 final. The Black Bears then used that offense to strike quickly Saturday, building a 5-0 lead in the first period, including two five-on-three power-play goals, before Miami scored its first goal. Patrick Holway had a goal and two assists for the Black Bears in the first.
