By: Andrew Erickson @CarvellMedia

The Men’s hockey team opened up play in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff friday down at the Excel Energy Center.

They earned the chance to play in the conference by sweeping Miami (OH) the weekend prior by scores of 5-2 and 6-3.

Both of those games were dominated in large parts by the Huskies and it was a fitting send off for the senior class that have won 102 games in their SCSU careers so far. This included a undefeated mark at home during this season.

Colorado College Tigers upset #14 Western Michigan in the first round of the NCHC tournament to earn the right to battle with the Huskies.

The Tigers and the Huskies just couldn’t get any flow going on either side and that was in large part due to 13 penalties overall, two of which were 10 minute misconducts.

“It was just a weird game,” Huskies Head Coach Brett Larson said.

The scoring started with a Westin Michaud Power Play goal to give CC yet another lead over SCSU on the season.

The Huskies wouldn’t wait long to respond. Senior Patrick Newell struck on the PP at 12:27 into the first. The tie was short lived as well when freshman Nolan Walker stepped up to the second line and scored just 24 second later.

The second period only had one goal in it and it was put in by the Huskies. Senior Robby Jackson batted in a highlight reel goal. Freshman Spencer Meier shot from the point and it was tipped up to Jackson in the high slot, where he hit it out of mid air for the goal and a 3-1 Huskies lead.

Junior Jack Ahcan kicked off the scoring 7:21 into the third with his 6th goal of the season.

CC would finally answer back when freshman Bryan Yoon netted his 4th goal of the year. It was just a too little, too late for the Tigers as SCSU would push the lead back to three, two minutes later.

Junior Nick Poehling sealed the game at 16:47.

Shots finished in favor of CC 33-27. SCSU was 1-4 on the PP and CC was 2-7 on the PP. The faceoff battle was won by SCSU 34-30 and CC ended with 15 blocked shots to SCSU’s 11.

Injuries

The Huskies leave this game a man short. Junior Ryan Poehling had a scary moment when he lost an edge driving to the net and went face first into the boards. He skated off, mostly, under his own power but he was on the ice for the better part of two minutes. Larson addressed this after the game.

“He is going back to the hotel to get some rest and we’ll evaluate him in the morning. It was very scary,” Larson said. “He’s going to be okay. We’ll just see how bad the injury is.”

Ryan is expected to sit out tomorrows championship game.

Saturday Night

The Huskies will return to the ice Saturday night at 7:30 to with the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship on the line. The winner of the late game UMD will be the Huskies opponent.