By Alexander Fern / Sports Director / @AlexInTheBooth

The (RV) St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey team is looking to get back on track and begin November strong when the Miami (OH) RedHawks come into town this weekend with puck drop on Saturday set for 7:37 P.M. and on Saturday at 6:07 P.M.

LAST TIME OUT

SCSU is coming off of a home series split with (RV) Alaska Fairbanks where the Huskies controlled play on Friday, and felt like they played a full 60 minutes on Saturday as well.

“I felt that we played our best 5 on 5 hockey so far this season.” Head Coach Brett Larson said.

So far this year, the Huskies have struggled to garner 5 on 5 chances, and have relied on their power-play to pot some much needed goals.

The Huskies are tied for 15th in the country for most PPG’s with 7 (Michigan leads with 17)

Coach Larson thinks that this team has a lot of room to grow when it comes to learning how to play the game at the college level, and at a very high level as well.

PREVIEWING THE REDHAWKS

The Huskies play host to the surprising Miami (OH) Redhawks this weekend.

Miami is coming off of last weekend where they played 16th ranked Arizona State very well (5-4 OTW / 1-1 Tie)

Miami is led by their leading scorers in Matthew Barbolini (3-7-10) and John Waldron (3-5-8)

Husky fans will remember Waldron as the man that scored a grand total of 5 goals against the Huskies in 4 games last season, including a Hat-Trick in Oxford. Waldron has been a pain in the side of SCSU since entering the fray.

The biggest surprise for Miami so far this year however is Goaltender Logan Neaton.

Neaton has come out of the blue after the departure of long time tender Ludvig Persson heading to UND, and has posted eye-popping statistics.

Neaton is posting a 4-1-1 record with a .920 save percentage and has started every game so far for the RedHawks. Head Coach Chris Bergeron talked a lot about the goaltending situation at NCHC Media Day earlier this year, and was very high on Neaton coming into this season, and it appears that the confidence is paying off.

GROWING PAINS

The Huskies sit at a record of 2-4-0 thus far, which is their worst start since the 2019-20 shortened season (3-3-4 thru 10 to start that season).

Coach Larson is not worried and has said that this team just needs some time to learn the game at the college level, and he still has as much confidence in his team as he’s had in his coaching career.

PREDICTION… KINDA

This series is very tricky to grasp. On one hand, the Huskies haven’t lost to Miami at home since 2017, and that was in OT. On the other hand, the Huskies haven’t beat Miami since their first meeting in Oxford last season.

Miami looks to be finally turning a corner for the first time under Bergeron, and that is a good thing for college hockey.

Husky fans will look at the on paper match-up and think that SCSU should sweep the weekend, but it’s just not that easy.

This is the point in the season where every point matters. After this weekend, SCSU travels to Kalamazoo to play the Broncos in an arena where the Huskies have never fared well. So this weekend is massive in terms of Penrose races and playoff standings.

This weekend will be hard, smash-mouth Hockey and will turn out (At least I think) as a low scoring slug-fest.

A split would be the easy answer to what I feel would happen, but something along the lines of a regulation win for SCSU and an OT toss-up sounds like a good choice.

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG

This series will be broadcasted live on 88.1 FM KVSC with Brian Moos, Alexander Fern, and Zac Chapman on the call with Gavin Nelson back in studio. Pregame on Friday begins at 7:00 P.M. and on Saturday at 5:30 P.M.

Saturday will also mark the first Husky Hockey double header of the season as the SCSU Women’s Hockey team will also be in action against the Wisconsin Badgers. Friday’s game against the Badgers takes place at 3:00 P.M. and will be carried live on 97.5 RadioX.

The women’s game on Saturday will be broadcasted on KVSC with Max Steigauf and Zac Chapman on the mic, and Gavin Nelson right back in studio. Pregame for Saturday’s game on KVSC begins at 12:50.