Nov 28, 2022

COLUMN: What We Have Learned About SCSU 33% of the Way Through The Season

By Alexander Fern / @AlexInTheBooth

St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey has completed one-third of their season and sit 11-3-0 on the year and also sit at #3 in the country.

I’m sure if you said that St. Cloud State would be sitting 11-3 heading into December, most Husky fans would’ve jumped and been shocked at that statement. And honestly, I would have too. In this little bit of a recap/opinion piece, I will highlight some reasons as to why this team has preformed above expectations.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Last season, St. Cloud State was one of the best power-play teams in the country hitting on about 31% of their chances (45-144) and had the most dangerous penalty-kill in the country notching 10 shorthanded goals and having a 81.5% PK.

This season has proved the same, as St. Cloud State has a top-10 penalty kill in the country at 85.5% and already has 5 shorthanded goals before the half-way point. The power-play has cooled down a little and sits at 22.2% but it is still very formidable.

I think if SCSU keeps up this pace, which I think they can do throughout the rest of the season, I’d think that any team that has to play SCSU down the stretch would have to be very worried.

STRONG DEFENSE

The “D-Core” as they are called was thought to have been the strongest group in this Huskies team coming into the season, and so far they have proven those predictions correct.

St. Cloud State is very veteran-heavy in the defensive side of things with guys like Captain Spencer Meier, Brendan Bushy, Ondrej Trejbal, etc. returning and fortifying a very strong defensive core. And then you throw in returners like Wild draftee Jack Peart, and the returning Josh Luedtke, you are bound to be somewhat solid.

I won’t get into the Freshman until a later segment, but there are a few defenseman who are worth noting.

FRESHMAN

St. Cloud returned a lot of their players from last season, but still lost over 1,000 games played with the departures of Easton Brodzinski, Nolan Walker, and Kevin Fitzgerald to name a few. So this is the first time in a while that St. Cloud has had a full “freshman class” in a while.

Freshman Nashville draftee Adam Ingram has played very well this season and has shown flashes of NHL talent, including an absolutely beautiful goal that was on SportsCenter Top 10 in October. Jack Rogers, Grant Ahcan, Ethan AuCoin, and Ryan Rosborough have all played very solid, but have kind of alternated spots in the lineup this season.

On the Defensive side of things, Mason Reiners has played very solid throughout the beginning of his career, but Cooper Wylie entered the lineup in Wisconsin and has not allowed the coaches to take him out of the lineup with how well he has played.

TRANSFERS

St. Cloud has found some absolute gems in the transfer portal this past offseason, and in fact, 2 of the top 3 scorers for SCSU are transfers.

Grant Cruikshank, who before St. Cloud State spent time at Colorado College, and Minnesota, has shown up and become the Huskies leading scorer (11-6-17), is 4th in the country in goals, and has done everything right so far this season.

Cruikshank has been an animal on the forecheck, and plays power-play, and penalty kill minutes. Cruikshank has acted as the “pest” for SCSU as he appears to get under his opponents skin a lot of the time and he is just really fun to watch.

Dylan Anhorn was someone that has kind of come out of the blue for St. Cloud State and he has been a “diamond in the rough” find for Brett Larson.

Anhorn was at Union College before transferring to SCSU this season and got off to a scorching start to the season. He has since cooled off a little bit, but is still second on the team in scoring at 3-12-15 and is the second highest scoring defenseman in college hockey.

GOALIES

You thought I forgot about the other transfer didn’t you?

On the flip side of the defense, the goalie situation was undoubtedly the most uncertain part of this Huskies team coming into the season. The departure of David Hrenak mean that for the first time in about 4 years, SCSU would have to look for someone else to skate between the pipes.

Jaxon Castor took over for Hrenak when he had pneumonia during the National tournament last season and in all honesty, did not play well. Castor let in 6 goals on 15 shots against Quinnipiac and the Huskies were knocked out of the tournament.

Brett Larson has said that Castor has come into this season with something to prove. And since the drop of the puck against St. Thomas, Castor has looked like the second coming of Tim Thomas. Castor sits 4-2-0 with a .915 save percentage this season and has made some ridiculous saves.

On the other side, transfer Dominic Basse has thrived in this new environment and has proven why he is an NHL prospect. Basse was at Colorado College for two seasons posting a 3.21 Goals Allowed Average with a .891 save percentage.

In contrast, Basse has been great for SCSU with a 1.51 Goals Allowed Average and a .935 save percentage. I wonder how much you can accredit his success to being supported by a very good defense for the first time in his college career, but either way, he has been fantastic.

One usual statement in hockey is “if you have two goalies, you don’t have one.” But the tandem has worked very well for St. Cloud so far this season, and Head Coach Brett Larson has been very open about this battle between Castor and Basse still being a competition. Eventually there will be a decision made on who the number one goalie is, but for now, it looks like SCSU will keep the tandem going forward.

IN REVIEW

St. Cloud has put themselves in a really good position for this season and look to be a tournament team and has surpassed many expectations including my own. It will be very exciting to see how this team looks down the stretch, and we will be there with you every step of the way.

NEXT SERIES

The Huskies are back in action this Friday (7:30) and Saturday (6:00) in a rivalry series against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

The games will be on 88.1 FM KVSC or streaming online. pregame begins 20 minutes before puck drop with Max Steigauff in studio. And live coverage will be provided by Brian Moos on Play-by Play and Alexander Fern as analyst.

Thank You Underwriters

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