By Andrew Erickson / @CarvellMedia / sports@kvsc.org / Photo by SCSU Athletics

Huskies Men’s Hockey team finishes off a sweep of the University of Miami at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The Huskies really bounced back at home this weekend as they home turn on the season begins.

SCSU picked up wins of 4-2 and 3-0 over the RedHawks and that marks over a year and a half since they have beat the Huskies

Friday

Coming into the weekend off a sweep at the hands of Western Michigan the Huskies needed to get back on track in NCHC play and that was exactly what happened with a 4-2 win over Miami.

Miami started off the scoring in the second when Alec Capstick put one past junior David Hrenak. The four goal man freshman Zach Okabe netted his fifth on the backdoor to tie the game around the 11 minute mark.

Miami quickly answered to put them back up 2-1 but that wouldn’t hold to the third. Junior Easton Brodzinski hit double digits for goals on the year and tied the game with two minutes left in the second.

With just over six minutes left in the game senior Jack Poehling wound up a slap shot and peppered it past the goalie for the game winning goal. Sophomore Micah Miller would seal it with the empty netter at the end.

The penalty kill was a huge point in practice this week for head coach Brett Larson and co. The focus paid off as that unit was 3-3 in stopping the RedHawks in game one.

Shots in this one were 35-21, face-offs were 31-30 and those were both in favor of SCSU.

Saturday

Coming off a strong win on Friday men’s hockey was looking for their second sweep in a row at home and set a tend for the second half of the season.

Miami put in their freshman netminder to push their squad but this was only his seventh start of his career.

That trend would continue as the Huskies shut out the RedHawks 3-0 earning them a sweep.

Unlike last night the Huskies started the scoring in this one. Miami was served a bench minor and senior Nick Poehling buried a goal on the power play.

The Huskies would never look back and continued in the third at the 15 minute mark. The lead was doubled by Miller and his sixth of the year from the Poehling twins.

The scoring finished when Brodzinski danged through the legs of a defenseman and walked the goalie to extend the lead a final time to 3-0.

Shots were 38-18 in favor of SCSU. Face-offs were tied at 23, not something we see very often. Also, not many draws in this game that held a fast pace.

The focus still on special teams was evident as Miami when 0-2 on the PP and the Huskies went 1-2. They were 5-5 in shutting the RedHawks PP down over the weekend, a number coach Brett Larson will like.

Hrenak picked up the ninth shutout of his Huskies career and that moved him into a tie for first all-time and ties him with former Huskies goalie Scott Meyer. A mark that could certainly fall this season.

Upcoming

The Huskies look toward Colorado College next weekend and a team that swept them in November. The Tigers have been swept three weekends in a row coming into the weekend. The games are at 730 and 6 p.m. respectively.

The Huskies return home in three weeks against the University of North Dakota. 88.1 KVSC will have those games with Andrew Erickson and Nick Maxson on the call.