A Showdown In No Man's Land

Friday - NMU

The power play clicked twice, which was about the only highlight of the game for the Huskies. The kittens came out looking to get chippy, which Tech unfortunately played into, giving Northern too many chances, including a 5x3 that led to the GWG.

Teslak looked uncomfortable in the first period, especially after getting burned on a shortie (not entirely his fault, because someone did turn over the puck), but he did a good job of keeping his head on straight in spite of that, only allowing one goal in the next two periods. Unfortunately, our offense could not support him with any even-strength tallies.

Overall, Tech simply played down to Northern's level, and got stuck with a close loss for it. After so many similar losses last season (Mankato, UAA), this is really getting tiresome.

Sunday - LSSU


Tech came out looking pretty good in the first period, getting out to a 2-0 lead with a PP tally and an even-strength goal. I then experienced a horrible feeling of deja vu, as one of LSSU's players fired a shot from half-ice and scored with one second remaining in the period. Just like Saturday's Winter Carnival game last season, Robbie was faced with a long shot that bounced all over the place, took a weird angle that he misread, and the puck slipped through his legs for a goal.

That seemed to take the wind out of Tech's sails in the second period, as they played very uninspired hockey for the majority of the time. Robbie looked rattled, giving up some nasty rebounds that led to two goals and the lead for LSSU. Finally, with 4-5 minutes remaining, Tech seemed to pick up the slack and caught a break with LSSU's Perkovich off for slashing, making the most of the opportunity to gain some momentum going into the third frame with a PP goal from Jordan Foote.

The third period was mostly dominated by the Huskies, with Jimmy Kerr burying a point-blank opportunity from the slot early on to regain the lead, and good defensive play all around. Tech clearly wanted the win at that point.

We'll probably see the goaltending rotation again next weekend against Mankato, so Robbie will need to prove that he has shaken off the early-season jitters he seemed to experience tonight with a strong performance.

If I had to sum up the weekend, I'd say that overall I'd like to see more of the Huskies I saw in the first and third periods of the LSSU game (with continued improvement of course), and I'd rather not see the team I saw against Northern again.