Game Day- SCSU vs. CC

Roe and the Huskies!

Tonight the St. Cloud State Huskies will face the Colorado College Tigers. The Huskies will be playing at home for the first time in 3 weeks, spending the last couple of weeks at Alaska and North Dakota. In both of those series the Huskies underperformed (yet again) so the return to the National Hockey Center should be welcomed. Here are your game day links and news:

• Joe Paisley of the Colorado Springs Gazette believes the 3 keys to CCs game this weekend is to: 1. Keep up the offensive balance, 2. Keep up the pressure on their defense, and 3. Expect a tough road series. You can read more about it here. 
• Former Husky Mike Doyle's 3 Keys to tonight's game are: 1. Focus on Faceoffs, 2. Seniors Step-up, and 3. Fire the Biscuit. You can read more about it here. 
• In an article titled, Tigers will need to adjust power play this weekend, Paisley also discusses the talent of the SCSU penalty kill and the absence of CC star Jaden Schwartz on Saturday.
• The Husky hockey lines for Friday nights game may look a little odd to many Husky fans. Our top line for Friday is Mosey, Hanowski, and Festler may not seem too odd (especially considering Hanowski and Festler's time together in Little Falls). However, our fourth line of Roe, Marvin, and Volpei may seem out of place. Senior leaders Roe and Marvin are not necessarily accustomed to fourth line duties and this will be only Roe's second game this season as a winger. I sure hope Coach Motzko knows what he is doing with these line combination and hopefully something will start to click soon. I am also a little surprised to see MacMillian out of the line-up as he was one of the few Huskies to actually score last weekend. Mike Lee will be in goal Friday night.
• Speaking of Garrett Roe, he was the sole nominee and selected winner of the USCHO.com WCHA "Biggest disappointment of the first half" award. They had this to say about it:

"Nominee and Winner: Garrett Roe, SCSU. Roe oh Roe, where have you been? Every other year of his career, he’s averaged well over a point per game. This year, he’s well under, at 0.62, about half as much as his worst year (freshman, 1.15). If Roe picks it up, the team might as well. Hopefully. Again, this is another category where I’m interested to hear your thoughts."

• For those who may have forgotten Roe was one of the preseason favorites for player of the year.

A couple more predictions for the weekend:

USCHO.com

Theresa: "From all accounts, the Tigers looked really good against Michigan Tech ... even though it was Michigan Tech. However, I can’t completely count the Huskies out just quite yet. Therefore, I’ll go with a split — SCSU Friday, CC Saturday."

Tyler: "The Huskies haven’t swept a team all season and a lot of the blame has to be placed on goaltending. Dan Dunn and Mike Lee are statistically one of the worst 1–2 goalie combinations in the country and CC’s Jaden Schwartz knows how to find the net as as well as anyone in the nation. Still, I have to think SCSU has to come out of this weekend with a split."

Goon's World

"Last year when these two played in Colorado Springs they split SCSU won 5-4 and then CC won 6-4. I hope this year there are many goals scored, why, because they are fun and exciting games to watch. The Huskies are getting in desperate need of points, if they want to keep in the race for home ice come March. The Tigers are right in the thick of things, in the standings, with points and they have two games in hand on the other teams around them. The Huskies need to find some ways of generating more offense, and if they can do that they should win some more games and start climbing the standings. SPLIT"

For those of you counting, putting the predictions from yesterday's blog together with today's blog brings the total to 5 saying Split and 1 saying Husky Sweep. This week I am counting on the magic that is the NHC and our awesome fan support to brings the Huskies a sweep. Final total= 5 Split; 2 Husky Sweep.

GO HUSKIES!!!