SCSU beats Minnesota State, earning trip to elite eight
Minnesota State had its chances Thursday in the NCAA men's ice hockey tournament against St. Cloud State.
But, the red-hot No. 6 Huskies (25-12-3) prevailed, winning 4-0 in the round of 16, moving on after shutting out the No. 10T Mavericks (25-13-1) despite being outshot 34-21.
“It’s playoff hockey and everyone is (playing hard) this time of year,” SCSU coach Brett Larson said. “You’re going to have to sacrifice, you’re going to have to take hits to get pucks out, you’re going to have to win wall battles and net-front battles and that whole game felt like that. It didn’t feel like there was any space out there to move or make an easy play. You’ve got to earn every inch out there.”
One of Minnesota State’s chances came seconds before Zach Okabe’s goal to put the Huskies up 3-0 with 6:57 left in the third period.
The puck sat unattended in the SCSU crease behind goalie Jaxon Castor, who was sprawled out of position. The Mavericks were inches from cutting the Huskies’ lead to 2-1, potentially giving life to the team, but SCSU senior defenseman Ondrej Trejbal managed to clear the puck forward, setting Aidan Spellacy and Veeti Miettinen up for the assists.
Minnesota State’s powerful offense came out hot, but Maverick shots clanged off posts, clapped the back boards or over and over were turned away by senior Jaxon Castor, who was tapped to play in goal for the fourth straight game. Castor had been platooning with junior Dominic Basse, basically splitting time, until Basse let up four goals March 11 in a conference tournament loss to Minnesota Duluth.
“(They’re) so well coached, they're in the right positions, they work so hard, their sticks are great, they're strong and physical, there's no room,” Larson said. “You could see our breakouts early, we couldn't get out of our end and then they just extended shift after shift after shift.”
Larson said the defense settled in and Castor absolutely shut down the Maverick attackers, despite the onslaught of shots. Larson said the number of looks might have actually helped Castor get in the zone, not giving him time to think about the moment.
In addition to Trejbal, St. Cloud’s defense is anchored by other veterans like senior Spencer Meier, a Sartell graduate, and graduate Brendan Bushy, who on Thursday set SCSU’s record for most games played at 177.
Both teams had extensive NCAA tournament experience entering the game, with each making five consecutive trips to the big dance, tying for the longest active streak. In 2021 SCSU defeated Minnesota State en route to a 2nd place finish and last year the Mavericks lost 5-1 to Denver in the national championship.
St. Cloud State players had four penalties in the game, giving teeth to the natin’s best scoring powerplay. Minnesota State nets a goal in 28.1% of times with a man advantage. SCSU’s powerplay is decent too, ranked sixth nationally with a 25.3 percentage, but its penalty kill is not as adept. It’s kill percentage is 76.1, 55th nationally. The kill has been hot of late, however, going 6-0 in the past two games.
“We knew it was going to have to be our strength,” sophomore defenseman Jack Peart said “In the postseason, games are won and lost in special teams, and we knew that (the team) kind of fell off a little bit with the penalty kill.”
Veeti Miettinen scored SCSU’s first against Minnesota State while on a power play, whipping a pass from Grant Cruikshank past goalie Keenan Racier from the right wing.
A few minutes later, after another hot shift from Miettinen’s line, which includes Jami Krannila and Okabe, Peart scored his third goal of the season, and what he said is the biggest of his career to put the Huskies up 2-0, giving the dogs some momentum.
Grant Cruikshank scored the last goal, an open netter. Micah Miller assisted and Grant Ahcan, Jack Rogers and Adam Ingram also assisted goals earlier in the game.
Though the longtime rivals have played 135 times, including Thursday, the Mavericks and Huskies have only played twice in the NCAA postseason. The all-time series now sits even, 61-61-13, and 33-19-6 since 1987, when the programs transitioned to Division I.
In October at home SCSU swept Minnesota State during the teams’ two-game regular season series, winning by just a goal in both games.
More recently, the Huskies have won four straight games and five of their last six. They faced tough battles in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament, dropping one game to Minnesota Duluth and playing North Dakota and Colorado close in physical games.
“In the first period tonight, Mankato took it to us, and I was a little worried that we may have expended too much energy through that process, but I think it went the other way,” Larson said. “I think having to fight for every inch of the ice for six games coming into this thing helped us stick with it and not get frustrated when it seemed like they were certainly owning most of the play.”
SCSU moves on to face No. 1 Minnesota (27-9-1), which absolutely came alive in the third period, scoring 6 goals in the frame and 8 unanswered to beat Canisius (20-19-3) by a score of 9-2. The winner of SCSU vs. Minnisota at 6:30 Saturday will play in the Frozen Four in Amalie Areana, the home of the Tamba Bay Lightning in Tampa, Florida.
Elsewhere in regional play Thursday, two-seed No. 5 Boston (28-10) beat No. 10T Western Michigan (24-11-3) to advance. It’s opponent will be No. 13T Cornell (21-10-2) after the Big Red beat defending NCAA champion and one–seed No. 4 Denver (30-10) .
Coming off a Big 10 championship upset of the Golden Gophers, No. 3 Michigan (24-11-3) plays No. 25 Colgate (19-15-1) on Friday in the Allentown, Pennsylvania regional, and the winner will face the winner of two-seed No. 8 Pennsylvania State (21-1-1) and No. 10T Michigan Tech (24-10-4).
Also playing Friday, one-seed No. 2 Quinnipiac (30-4-3) faces off against four-seed No. 13T Merrimack (23-13-1) and two-seed No. 7 Harvard (24-7-2) plays three-seed No. 8 Ohio State (20-15-3)
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: SCSU shuts out Minnesota State
