ST. CLOUD, Minn. — After a seven-goal performance last night, St. Cloud State came out strong again, knowing a more motivated Western Michigan team would be ready.
But as most coaches will tell you, a team has to play a complete game, as in 60 minutes of hockey. St. Cloud only played well for the better part of 40 minutes and as a result, the Huskies were forced to settle for yet another split.
Will Kessel scored and had an assist and Justin Kovacs broke a third-period tie midway through as Western Michigan scored three times in the final frame to rally past St. Cloud State for a 3-2 victory.
“For two periods, we played very well,” said SCSU coach Bob Motzko. “We had a great weekend, but we let it get away.”
“I think we saw it coming in the second intermission,” added St. Cloud State forward David Morley. “We knew we weren’t playing our game the right way.”
Colton Hargrove also scored for the Broncos, who responded from a 7-0 loss Friday night to gain a big NCHC series split.
“We stayed positive,” said Kessel. “We just had faith and kept going.”
Western Michigan did come out with more fire than Friday. The Broncos were able to control the puck more, set up their forecheck and had some scoring chances. However, St. Cloud State matched their intensity and was able to come out of the first period with the lead for the second straight night.
After play went into the Broncos’ zone, the puck was deflected off a WMU player. Judd Peterson picked it up and lined up a beautiful wrist shot in the slot past WMU goaltender Lukas Hafner for his third goal of the season with 1:44 remaining, making it 1-0 Huskies after one.
St. Cloud State started to take control as the second period began and progressed, doubling the lead to 2-0 on a goal by Patrick Russell just over a minute in. Morley came into the Bronco zone and made a nice drop pass to Russell, who connected with the back of the net on a nice wrist shot. It was the second of the weekend and the sixth of the season for the freshman forward.
As the second period wore down, however, Western Michigan started to generate more chances than it had all weekend and fired more shots at SCSU goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who finished with 21 saves.
“The momentum shift came with two and a half minutes left in the second period,” said Motzko, as his team settled for its seventh split of the season with only had one sweep. “I think they went from six to 13 [shots] with two and a half to go. They got life. You could feel it.”
After a penalty gave Western Michigan a huge power play at 3:18 of the third, Kessel cashed in on it 30 seconds later. A Sheldon Dries shot rebounded off Lindgren, and Kessel was there to clean it up to cut SCSU’s lead in half.
“The power play helped us get our game going,” said Broncos’ coach Andy Murray.
The Huskies appeared to restore their two-goal lead toward the middle of the third as a loose puck found its way into the net behind Hafner, who appeared to knock it in, but was covering it at the time. Eventually, the referees waved it off, and it seemed to swing even more momentum to the Broncos, who tied the game with just over 12 minutes left.
Dries won a faceoff in the SCSU zone, and he passed it to Hargrove, who found the net for his 10th goal of the season. The crowd of 4,487, which was still very upset with the overturned goal previously, booed loudly.
The boos became even louder just 1:17 later when Western Michigan completed their rally with 10 minutes left on Kovacs’ tally.
“We’d been trying all weekend to score goals,” said Kessel, who had an assist on the Kovacs goal. “Kovacs dove at it, got a piece of it and it trickled through.”
The shellshocked Huskies were unable to come away with the win and the sweep despite increased scoring chances and a lengthy 5-on-3 power play, and the Broncos were able to escape the Granite City with a stunning split.
“We need to score on those,” said Morley. “We should’ve locked that thing up. We stopped playing.”
“We had chances to put the game away, and we didn’t,” Motzko added. “When you don’t do that, you put yourself in that position with a good hockey team that can come back on you.”
Murray knows that his team came away with an important victory, especially after playing on the road for so long recently.
“Wins are tough to come by in the NCHC,” said Murray, as his team finished an eight-game stretch where it played seven of them on the road, including Saturday night.
Hafner made 33 saves for the Broncos.
Western Michigan improved to 8-2-2 in their last 12 games with the victory and overtook St. Cloud State for sixth place in the NCHC standings. The Broncos will face Miami next weekend. The Huskies, meanwhile, are back in seventh place in the standings and will travel to Colorado College next weekend for their only matchup with the Tigers this season.
