ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Thanks to some late heroics, Minnesota-Duluth was able to stop two major streaks.
Cal Decowski scored on a nice centering feed from Kyle Osterberg 2:06 into overtime and the Bulldogs beat St. Cloud State 3-2 Friday night to earn their first victory at the National Hockey Center since March 2007. They also earned their first Friday victory of the season, improving to 1-4.
“Osterberg really made the play happen,” Decowski said. “He did all the work and just put it right on my tape. Pretty easy goal for me. We’ve been harping on trying to come out good on Friday and come out good early, and I think we did both of those things.”
SCSU was caught out of position on the play, committing the key turnover along the boards.
“It kinda popped out in the neutral zone, and their guy kinda picked it off,” said St. Cloud State defenseman Andrew Prochno, who was in on the play. “They came in and the guy just made a back-door pass and put it in.”
Jonny Brodzinski and Patrick Russell had goals for the Huskies, who lost their NCHC opener.
Needless to say, Huskies coach Bob Motzko wasn’t happy with how the game turned out, especially toward the end.
“I thought for 50 minutes we played well tonight,” Motzko said. “You’re gonna lose some games, but you gotta let the other team earn it. That one falls on discipline, on leadership and it was self-destructed at the end of the game. That’s disappointing.”
Justin Crandall opened the scoring in the first period at 12:22 when he went across the slot, received a nice pass from Dominic Toninato and beat SCSU goaltender Charlie Lindgren at pad level to give UMD a 1-0 lead. That score stood at the end of the period, one in which neither team did much on offense. Duluth had more chances though, which led to their early lead.
“I really liked our first period,” said Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin.
The teams went scoreless in the second period. SCSU started generating more offensive pressure, but Kasimir Kaskisuo, who finished with 33 saves in a brilliant performance in net, stood tall and denied every chance the Huskies had. UMD had their chances as well, particularly on the breakaway, but they were either denied or didn’t aim their shots well every time.
SCSU finally got on the board early in the third period when the Huskies made their fifth power play of the game count. Prochno had possession of the puck high in the slot, spotted Brodzinski at the top of the left circle, passed to him and his wrist shot went top shelf to tie the game at 1.
But the Huskies weren’t done.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G00009XepTpfcm6M” g_name=”20141107-Minnesota-Duluth-St-Cloud-State-University-Bradley-K-Olson” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f2JbkCIuyOnxsXJCTmpwCUoBPsMshSd.Xx8EjQaidcxvDZhPILw–” ]After Tony Cameranesi went into the penalty box for the third time in the game, St. Cloud State finally claimed the lead on Russell’s first college goal with 11:44 remaining in regulation. At this point, many of the 3,976 fans in attendance were probably thinking that Minnesota-Duluth, the most penalized team in the nation, finally let their lack of discipline come back to haunt them.
Not so fast.
SCSU started committing untimely penalties on their own, and UMD capitalized.
Crandall was called for a trip for the Bulldogs at 12:51, but Kalle Kossila then unwisely committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to offset the upcoming power play for the Huskies. Joe Rehkamp was then called for high sticking at 14:04, giving Duluth a 4-on-3 power play. Austin Farley fed Andy Welinski high in the slot for a one-time blast and the tying goal 10 seconds later.
Just like that, the game was knotted at 2 and the crowd was stunned.
“It was a huge momentum [swing] right there,” Decowski said.
“It got a little chippy,” Prochno added. “They were able to rattle us a little bit, draw some 4-on-4 and they scored on that 4-on-3 goal.”
UMD was 1-for-4 on the power play overall and SCSU was 2-for-6.
The Huskies kept the pressure on late, but they couldn’t solve Kaskisuo and the game went into overtime.
“The game never should have been [in overtime],” said Motzko, as his Huskies suffered their second straight overtime loss. “You can’t lose your discipline like that.”
UMD carried their momentum into the extra session, setting the stage for Decowski’s winner. But had it not been for Kaskisuo, that very same stage may not have been set.
“He was solid for us, and you certainly need that in every game,” Sandelin said. “In key situations, you need good goaltending. He gave us that, and he gave us a chance to win.”
Lindgren finished with 18 saves for SCSU.
