MINNEAPOLIS — In the high-tempo NCHC, great offenses have arisen. But now that playoff time has arrived in college hockey, success is driven by strong defensive performances — and on Friday afternoon at the NCHC Frozen Faceoff, No. 18 St. Cloud State claimed a semifinal victory thanks to one.
The Huskies used goals from usual suspects David Morley and Joey Benik, then rode a team defensive effort to power their way to a 3-1 victory over No. 1 North Dakota.
[scg_html_nchc2015]Other than Keaton Thompson’s point shot at 15:02 of the first, the Huskies couldn’t be broken, keeping UND’s quality shots to a minimum. The Huskies also blocked 16 in the victory and sealed it with a Joe Rehkamp empty-net goal with 1:05 left.
“I thought we blocked some real well,” said defenseman Tim Daly. “North Dakota put a lot of pucks toward the net. Our forwards did a great job defensively. Hats off to them. Our whole D corps was really good. It was great to see.”
They were backstopped by goaltender Charlie Lindgren, who has remained strong during the ups and downs of this Huskies season. Lindgren stopped 19 in the victory.
“I think all of us — his teammates especially — think he’s been dialed in for a while for us,” said coach Bob Motzko. “He is a battler. It’s one of the greatest things you can say about a goaltender — he’s just a battler. He’s wanted these moments.”
UND did exactly what it needed to do to grind out that first-period goal — Stephane Pattyn parked himself in front of Lindgren to create some havoc on top of the crease — but that recipe eluded the North Dakota offense for the balance of the game.
“St. Cloud played a really good game,” Pattyn said. “They played hard. They were hungry. They played simple — that’s something we should have started off early. On our first goal, that was the key — just getting a good grind, getting their D tired and getting a puck to the net with a lot of traffic. If we just roll off that I think we have more success than we had tonight.”
It was instead the last half minute of the first period that set the tone and quieted the green-heavy Target Center crowd. Morley tied it at 19:35 when he finished a Jonny Brodzinski pass from behind the net for his 17th goal of the year.
Then, 19 seconds later, a UND point shot banged off a defenseman and sprung Patrick Russell and Benik for a two-on-one, which Benik punctuated with a top-corner shot over a sprawled-out Zane McIntyre (21 saves).
“We weren’t sharp through a lot of the game, but certainly through the first half of the game,” Hakstol said. “That 25-second time period was real indicative of that.”
St. Cloud State’s defense kept that lead intact, and despite shift upon shift of UND cycling in the Huskies zone, the quality shots weren’t there. In fact, just five shot attempts for UND the rest of the game were between and below the dots.
“I don’t think we were in our mindset of getting to the blue paint and finding some of the second opportunities,” Hakstol said.
“We worked hard to get back into it,” he said. “But they played well, they kept things to the outside, and we didn’t get a lot to the net. We certainly didn’t get to any rebounds in that critical area.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000hRH6am8QBx4″ g_name=”20150320-NCHC-St-Cloud-State-University-North-Dakota-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.f22Fbo5BPRuXHL4BJ1cFQjCnLMT_A2c_QFluOEMRBvh3reent0w–” ]No point shots made it through either. Instead, St. Cloud State (19-17-1) got shot blocks from players from all over the lineup — including four from the forward Brodzinski.
“We do it in practice, too. It’s kind of been a mantra of this team,” Daly said.
UND (27-8-3) got more urgent with the clock waning, and McIntyre was pulled at 18:39, but despite some more chances near the net the equalizer never came. Brooks Bertsch then got an outlet pass to Rehkamp for an empty netter at 18:55.
Win or lose in Saturday’s championship, the Huskies likely will find themselves in the NCAA tournament next weekend with Friday’s victory. They’ll need that defensive confidence to continue.
“It’s safe to say we’ve kind of been known as an offensive team that pushes tempo,” Motzko said. “We’re a good offensive team — not a great one. We’ve had to become a strong defensive team if we were going to have success. Our goalie has really come into his own as a No. 1 goalie. And our guys are buying in — they’re buying in to getting back on defense. If you do that, you can lead to more offense. We’re just running out of season. I think we’re playing our best hockey at this point of the season. We want it to keep going.”
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/bQ4IUmu02_s]
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/5MYTXXS_So8]
