The #3/4 St. Cloud State University men's hockey team (18-6-3, 12-4-1 NCHC) gained a share of first place in the always rugged National Collegiate Hockey Conference with a 5-2 victory at Miami University (10-14-3, 5-10-2 NCHC) on Friday, Feb. 9 at the Steve Cady Arena in Oxford, Ohio.
The victory stretched SCSU's current win streak to four games as the Huskies will complete the weekend in Ohio with a 7:05 p.m. (ET) game at Miami on Saturday, Feb. 10. Fans can watch the game live on NCHC.tv/scsu and they can listen Jim Erickson's call on The River 96.7 FM (www.river967.com).
The Huskies dominated the game early with three goals in the first period, which gave SCSU a 3-0 lead. The scoring started with a goal by Robby Jackson at 2:08 of the first period with a solo assist going to Jon Lizotte. Kevin Fitzgerald
SCSU stretched its lead to 2-0 with a goal by Blake Lizotte at 3:18 of the first period. Mika Ilvonen and Patrick Newell each had assists on the play, which was Lizotte's fifth of the season and his 17th point of his rookie campaign. Of note, the play provided Ilvonen with his fourth assist of the year. Newell now has 13th assists on the season.
The first period scoring blitz was completed by Mikey Eyssimont, who scored at 9:39 with an assist from Kevin Fitzgerald. The goal was Eyssimont's 12th goal of the year and his 92nd career point at SCSU.
Miami rallied in the second period with a pair of goals by Gordie Green at 6:12 and Phil Knies at 7:59.
In the third period, SCSU regained the upper hand at 7:00 with a goal by Kevin Fitzgerald. He took advantage of a rebound off of Jake Wahlin's scoring attempt, which gave the Huskies a 4-2 margin. This was Fitzgerald's fifth goal of the year and 16th point of 2017-18.
Jackson sealed the deal later in the third period with an empty net goal at 15:58. Ryan Poehling and Jimmy Schuldt each had assists on the play, which was Jackson's team-leading 14 goal of 2017-18. The assist was Schuldt's team-leading 22nd assist of the season, while Poehling now has 15 assists this year. Schuldt continues to lead all DI blueliners with a scoring rate of 1.04 points per game.
On the day, SCSU outshot the Redhawks 30-28 in the contest. Jeff Smith was strong between the pipes with 26 saves, including nine key saves in the closing period. Ryan Larkin was the goalie of record for Miami with 25 saves. Smith improved his season record to 11-2-3 (.781 winning percentage) in 2017-18. SCSU was 4-4 on the penalty kill in the match and it was 0-3 on the power play.
SCSU currently ranks first in the nation with a scoring rate of 3.85 goals per game. The victory also pushed SCSU into a tie for first place along with Denver at 37 points. Denver is idle this weekend but the Pioneers have already played 18 NCHC, while SCSU has played 17 NCHC games this winter. SCSU also ranks first in the latest Pairwise rankings along with Denver and Notre Dame. The three teams all have 58 PWR points this year.
