After splitting their first two conference series of the season at home, No. 17 Minnesota-Duluth needed to make a statement this weekend at the National Hockey Center.
Beating No. 7 St. Cloud State Friday night for the first time in over seven years was a good start. Their Saturday night victory was even more impressive, and at the end they accomplished something they hadn’t done in 15 years.
Dominic Toninato and Austin Farley had first-period goals, and Justin Crandall’s late third-period empty-netter iced the cake as the Bulldogs defeated the Huskies, 3-1, sweeping their in-state rivals on the road for the first time since November 12-13, 1999.
It’s also the Bulldogs first sweep of St. Cloud since the WCHA playoffs in the 2010-11 season, the year they won their first national championship.
“It means a lot,” said Alex Iafallo, who had two assists. “Huge game for us all around. We played a very strong game.”
SCSU came out flat for the second night in a row, and Joey Benik knew it.
“We didn’t come out to play right off the get-go,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys that aren’t playing well and they haven’t found their groove, so that’s obviously a huge negative.”
The Huskies couldn’t generate any offense and didn’t take care of the puck very well early on. Minnesota-Duluth took advantage of that and claimed another early lead.
After Justin Crandall picked up a loose puck off a St. Cloud State turnover, his wrist shot rebounded off Huskies goaltender Charlie Lindgren and right to Dominic Toninato, who put the puck away for his seventh goal of the year just 3:22 into the game.
As the period went on, St. Cloud State found itself unable to set up anything offensively, and only managed five shots. With 36.7 seconds left in the period, the Bulldogs doubled their lead when a trickling puck found its way into the net behind Lindgren. It was eventually credited to Austin Farley, and his third goal of the season made it 2-0 Minnesota-Duluth after one.
“We got off to a good start,” said Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin, as his Bulldogs improved to 4-2 in NCHC play. “Our first period was really good. We got the lead to take the crowd out of it.”
It was the second straight night in which the Huskies trailed after the first period, and coach Bob Motzko addressed another shaky start.
“We were not good,” he said bluntly.
Early in the second period, the Huskies finally found some life. On a power play, Benik’s fourth goal of the year cut UMD’s lead in half at 1:41, waking up the raucous crowd of 4,618.
“It wasn’t a good first period, but our guys rebounded from it,” Motzko said. “After that, we did a lot of things.”
When asked about the St. Cloud State power play, Sandelin responded, “They’re good. Reminds me of our power play in 2011.”
SCSU had to kill off some penalties as the second period went on to keep Duluth off the scoreboard, which included Kalle Kossila’s checking-from-behind game misconduct. They managed, and went into the final period with just a one-goal deficit.
When the third period began, SCSU kept generating chances, but couldn’t muster the equalizer despite an early power play.
“We definitely had chances; we just couldn’t capitalize,” Benik said.
Kaskisuo was the reason they couldn’t capitalize. For the second straight night, he played great in net, and he finished with 27 saves.
With a minute remaining in the game, UMD clinched it with an empty-net goal by Crandall, his second of the series. As the final horn went off, the Bulldogs surrounded Kaskisuo and celebrated their early NCHC sweep.
“We kinda had to play at a higher intensity,” said Iafallo. “That’s what we did this weekend and it worked out for us.”
Minnesota-Duluth climbed into first place in the NCHC standings after the sweep, and face old rival Minnesota next weekend in a home-and-home nonconference series.
St. Cloud State, meanwhile, will travel to Western Michigan for the first time next weekend to continue conference play.
