Will this season ever end?
 
Playing in a rare Sat-Sun WCHA matchup, the St. CLoud Huskies swept
MTU Huskies at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
 
Sat's Game:
 
MTU 0 0 1 0 - 1
StC 1 0 0 1 - 2 (OT)
 
Ist Period:
 
StC Paradise 11 (lund) 8:07 shg
 
3rd Period:
 
MTU B. Peterson 20 (P. Mikesch) 1:37
 
OT
 
StC: Gagnon 18 (Holcrin) 3:47
 
Saves:
 
MTU Ram     12 16 13 4 - 46
StC Sjerven  3 10 10 0 - 23
 
powerplays:
 
MTU 0 of 6
StC 0 of 8
 
Stars:
 
  3rd: Sjerven
  2nd: Ram
  1st: Gagnon
  Superior Player: Ram
 
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Sunday night:
 
MTU 1 2 0 - 3
StC 1 3 0 - 4
 
1st Period:
 
MTU B. Peterson 21 (Garvey) 11:14
StC Santare 6 (Holem) 16:33
 
2nd Period
 
StC Holcrin (Santare) 4:25 ppg
StC Gruba ( Lieber) 12:20
MTU Machecek (Figliomeni) 14:35
StC Johnson (unassisted) 17:37
MTU Perrault (B. Peterson, Lebel) ppg
 
Saves:
 
MTU Caraveggio 16  9 13 - 38
StC Sjerven     4  8  8 - 20
 
Powerplays:
 
MTU 1 of 4
StC 1 of 11
 
Stars:
 
3rd Santare
2nd Caraveggio
1st Holcrin
Superior Player Caraveggio
 
Commentary:
 
Of the two games, Saturday night's was the best. What must MTU
do to get a win?  Apparently, a shutout is the only answer. Ram
gave it his best. The first score was a short handed breakway by
Lund and Paradise. Ram stopped the puck with his glove but the
ricochet went in. MTU's lone score came in the 3rd when B. Peterson
with men hanging on him managed to take a pass from Mikesch and
place the puck past Sjerven.  Then in the OT, Gagnon took a long
shot from the blue line. Again Ram got a piece of the puck but it
went through on the lower left side. In over three minutes of
overtime play, MTU did not get off a shot on goal.
 
In Sunday night's game, Referee Mike Brant called the game completely
different from Saturday night. Since he seem to play the MTU end,
his calls were predominantly anti-MTU. MTU lost the game though, not by
calls, but by poor playing. MTU's power play killing kept them in the
game but could not take advantage of opportunities. As Coach Mancini
said after the game, if a team is going to win, it can not count on
doing so in the last few minutes of the game or in OT. It would be nice
to be up by two or three goals at least some time during the game. MTU
has not done this since November.
 
MTU cam out well in the first period but lost confidence when they got
scored on short handedly and then took a series of penalties.
The first goal of the game came when Brent Peterson intercepted a pass
meant for a cherry picking Gagnon from Lund. St Cloud did a lot of
cherry picking and this time they paid for it. Sjerven blocked Peterson's
first shot but Peterson followed up with a scoring rebound. St. Cloud's
Holem brought the puck to Caraveggio's right but couldn't fake him out.
Passing the puck to Santare on the left side, Santare got off a quick
shot before Caraveggio could react.
 
Holcrin (I doubt I am spelling this name correctly) on a powerplay
shuttled the puck between Santare and himself and finally took a scoring
shot. St. Cloud's Tony Gruba, with Hanchuk hnaging on him puck a shot
on net when Caraveggio was crashed out of the net by another St. Cloud
player (no call). MTU's Figgy stole a pass and shot the net. Sjerven's
rebound was followed up by Machacek's scoring shot. Then MTU's Jason Wright
gave up the puck directlyu in front of the MTU net to Eric Johnson who
knew exactly what to do with it. The last score was a powerplay goal
by Perrault just 8 seconds after a slashing call on Markstrom.
 
Hopefully, next week end will put MTU out of its misery for this season
as they meet the Wildcats from Northern Michigan on a home and home stint.
Then a new season with the playoffs ... (Dare I hope?)
 
Walt Olson
MTU