The Alabama-Huntsville Chargers came into the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena and had the kind of game they would likely want to forget, as the No. 8 Michigan Tech Huskies exploded in the second period for three goals en route to a 5-0 victory.
Co-captain Blake Pietila and winger Malcom Gould led the attack for the Huskies with a goal and an assist each.
“I think we had a good start,” said Pietila. “That was the goal going into the game, was to get off on the right foot. The last couple of games, we have struggled at that.”
On a power play just 41 seconds into the second period, the Huskies got to work. Co-captain Tanner Kero got the puck to Carmine Guerriero’s left. He fired a shot that rebounded out front. Assistant captain Alex Petan grabbed the puck and fired two shots before finally beating the Chargers’ goaltender at 1:08.
“I thought our team did a real good job,” said Huskies coach Mel Pearson. “I’m really proud of our players being dialed in and ready right from the get go tonight. Even though we didn’t score in the first period, I thought we had a real good start and carried the play.”
“They were good,” said Chargers coach Mike Corbett. “They were good. We chased the puck the entire time. They were going. They were hungrier than we were.”
The Chargers (7-17-3 overall, 6-13-0 WCHA) got their legs underneath them late in the first and came up with a pair of good scoring chances with about five minutes left. The first came on a two-on-one break and the other off the stick of winger Jack Prince. Prince tipped a shot from defenseman Graeme Strukoff that Jamie Phillips fought off with his right shoulder.
After scoring their first goal on the man advantage, the Huskies were awarded another power play less than a minute later and struck again.
Pietila took a pass from Gould and cut through the slot. His backhand shot appeared to hit winger Joel L’Esperance as he crashed the net and beat Guerriero at 2:32, but upon further review it went in on its own. The goal was Pietila’s fifth in the last four games.
Things went from bad to worse for the Chargers a little over 2:30 later when Gould got to a rebound by skating in on Guerriero’s right and buried it in the back of the net at 5:21. Pietila fired the initial shot.
The Huskies came out fast to start the third period and fired six shots at Guerriero that he managed to stop. Things settled down about six minutes in and both teams had scoring chances before the Huskies found the net for the fourth time.
Getting the puck in front of Guerriero, L’Esperance spun and roofed a backhand over his left shoulder at 15:21 to give the Huskies some insurance late in the game.
Center Dylan Steman capped the scoring for the Huskies with a wrist shot from the left side of the slot that beat Guerriero with 44.9 seconds remaining the game.
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