Huskies Blowout Badgers

Senior Night (and the whole weekend) a smashing success!

What a great weekend for the Huskies and its seniors this weekend. The Huskies finished off the last regular home series of the season with a sweep of the #13/14 Wisconsin Badgers. The Huskies dominated the Badger team all weekend long from start to finish and has (with this last weekend and the last couple weekends) shown people the talent that really does exist on this Husky team. On Friday night, the Huskies controlled the tempo for the first 30 minutes of play as they outshot the Badgers 26-15 in the first two periods. The first goal of the game came from SCSU forward Travis Novak. Not more than a couple minutes later, Husky forward Jordy Christian made the game 2-0. Another minute or so later, senior Garrett Roe scored bring the score to 3-0 where it would remain until the 3rd period. Wisconsin came out hard in the third period and scored within the opening seconds to bring the score to 3-1. Roe notched his second goal of the game with a pretty breakaway goal to bring the score up to 4-1. Wisconsin was luck to get another goal in during a powerplay opportunity to make the score 4-2 despite the dominating play of the Huskies. The Huskies had 35 shots in the contest compared to the Badgers 27. You can read more about the game here:

• Huskies Collect Big 4-2 Win Over #13/14 UW
• Huskies run with puck

Senior Garrett Roe puts two goals in Friday AND two in Saturday. WOW!

Dunn gets the job done in his first appearance in months.

On Saturday the Huskies continued to show the WCHA why they are the "dark horse" (according to INCH) team of the conference. The Huskies beat the Badgers on Senior Night to the tune of a 7-3 victory (should have been 7-1 but the last 30 seconds of the game the Huskies were already in celebration mode as they let 2 in). Garrett Roe opened the scoring in the first couple minutes of the first period. The Huskies would not score again until the second period when Travis Novak netted a goal.  Wisconsin then put one in to make it 2-1 as they tried to stay in the game. Senior Aaron Marvin put a goal in to make the score 3-1 at the end of the second period. Then the Huskies started loading them in during the final period. Roe added his 2nd for the night and his fourth for the weekend bring the score to 4-1. Senior Nick Oslund made it 5-1. Sophomore David Eddy (who has been hot during the Huskies comeback) scored to make it 6-1. Captain Aaron Marvin scored a shorthanded goal (his second goal of the night) to bring the score to 7-1. This should have been the final score on Saturday night; however, with less then 30 seconds remaining (and emotions running high-last home game/ senior night) the Huskies allowed Wisconsin to get two meaningless/ pity goals to bring the final score to 7-3. You can read more about the Huskies great game here:

• Huskies Sweep Badgers With 7-3 Win on Feb. 26
• Huskies erupt, bury Badgers
• Men’s hockey bottoms out after sweep by Huskies

Nick Jensen looking good in the 1960s retro jersey

Interesting things to ponder (from the CIC Twitter page)

• "SCSU MHKY has earned 8 of 12 points vs UMD, UND and WI all top 13 teams in 3 consecutive weeks. Now 19 in the PWR."
• "After 4 goals this past weekend, Senior Garrett Roe is 3 pts behind Jeff Saterdalen and 7 behind Ryan Lasch for the all time career pts record."
• "Freshmen Nick Jensen HAS to be a strong contender for WCHA all rookie team. Currently the 3rd top scoring DE in leage stats. Plays PK and PP also."
• "Drew LeBlanc is #7 in league pts and Garrett Roe close behind at #9. Cam Reid tied for 7th in WCHA rookie pts."
• "Monster weekend for Garrett Roe with 4 goals."
• "Workhorse defenseman, Nick Jensen and Oliver Lauridson both +4 for the weekend vs Wisconsin. How solid are these two." 

 Something I have been pondering:

Can St. Cloud State really be considered the "dark horse" team of the WCHA?*

*I mentioned earlier in this blog post as well as a previous blog post that Inside College Hockey refered to SCSU as the "dark horse" team of the WCHA.

The Huskies were predicted early in the season to be one of the top 3 teams in the WCHA. The fact that they play really good hockey should not be surprising. However, if you asked anyone before Christmas if they thought St. Cloud would be any kind of a threat during the post season, you probably would have been laughed at. So I can see an argument for this thing either way. 

Another thought, I have been following Husky Hockey for about 10 years. Almost annually, the Huskies are UNDER ranked in the preseason predictions. In my memory (and I am probably wrong somewhere) I can not think of a time when the Huskies UNDER achieved compared to what they "experts" say they are suppose to achieve in the preseason. I only remember the Huskies ever OVER achieving compared to preseason predictions. Obviously, this year went COMPLETELY the other way. Similarly,  the Huskies seem to annually UNDER achieve during the post-season. It has almost become a joke at how bad the Huskies do in the post-season. However, this year the Huskies are playing their best hockey at the end of the year. Could we be in for some post-season glory? 

Probably not, but if the Huskies keep playing this well....anything could happen.

"We didn't want to peak in November and do nothing in March."- Garrett Roe (after this weekend with Wisconsin.


GO HUSKIES!!!