The Huskies had their first instate game of the season this past weekend when the Bemidji State Beavers came down to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. This was the first match-up between these two 2 years.

The Beavers came into the weekend fast and were able to outplay the Huskies for most of Friday night’s game but senior goalie Jeff Smith was on his head all night after not playing the past four games. Smith had 32 saves, which included 8 minutes on the penalty kill.

The scoring was few and far between but sophomore Easton Brodzinski started it out just under 12 minutes into the first period. Junior Ryan Poehling got a pass on the goal line to the right and put it right on the stick of Brodzinski in the slot for the tip past Henry Johnson.

The game was a defensive battle all night for both teams and the momentum switched back and forth. Bemidji held onto the puck for long stretches during the game but was unable to solve Smith.

The Huskies just took care of the chances they got. They put 20 shots on Johnson and 8 of those had to be scoring chances.

The final goal came from the Huskies sophomore Kevin Fitzgerald when he buried an empty net goal with 1:11 left on the clock. The final score was 2-0 St. Cloud. This is only the third time this season that SCSU has been outshot in a game.

Going into Saturday night the feeling was that BSU could pull off an upset against this team. Their style of play was on point for beating the Huskies.

Goals were in short supply Friday but that was not the case Saturday as a goalie was even chased to the bench during this one. 

Senior captain Jimmy Schuldt started the scoring in the first when he caught his former goalie Zach Driscoll cheating left, so he put a wrist shot in the top left corner. The Beavers were able to jump right back into the game with a goal by Nick Cardelli but that was all the Beavers got in the first period.

The Huskies got goal number two when Fitzgerald played a little baseball as he batted a tipped pass out of midair into the net on the backdoor. The final goal of the first came from senior Patrick Newell when he got a pass in the slot and shot it off Driscoll’s pad up in the air. It landed back down in the slot right on Newell’s stick where he slid it into the net.

The second period scoring started with senior Robby Jackson on a goal that shouldn’t have been possible. Jackson stepped down the goal line toward the net and the puck was about a foot away from the goal line. Jackson took the shot and somehow picked the short side corner to put the Huskies up 4-1 and send Driscoll to the bench.

This wasn’t the end to the weirdness of the second period. About 40 seconds after an Adam Brady goal on the power play for the Beavers, they scored again when Alex Ierullo tried to center a puck from behind the net and banked it off of SCSU freshman defensemen Spencer Meier into the net.

Senior defensemen Jon Lizotte finished the scoring in the second on a wrist shot through traffic to put the Huskies up 5-3 and make another four goal period.

The third was tame with its three goals. The Huskies started yet another period of scoring on a tic-tac-toe passing rush that ending with a Fitzgerald goal.

The final Huskies goal of the night was from the man who started the party, St. Cloud’s captain. Newell circled behind the net and put it out to the high slot, where Schuldt put home the one-timer.

The Beavers Jay Dickman picks up the final goal in garbage time for a final score of 7-4 in favor of the Huskies. The Huskies earn their sixth straight win and third straight sweep.

The Huskies will finally get a weekend off to be home for Thanksgiving and then they fly out to Ohio to take on the Miami Redhawks in a rematch of last season NCHC playoffs first round series.

NOTES:

-The Huskies jump to the top spot in the country after UMD drops a game this weekend

-The Huskies are third in the nation in Goals per game at 4.25

-The Huskies are fourth in Goals Against at 1.83

-The Huskies last loss at home was to Miami last March.

-Jeff Smith picked up that shut out but hasn’t played an NCHC game yet. Will he get his first against Miami.