OXFORD, Ohio — The knock on the Miami Redhawks this season has been that a few listless shifts through 60 minutes tend to cost them competitive contests. Friday evening was no different, much to the chagrin of the hometown crowd. The No. 4 St. Cloud State Huskies struck twice in the opening 3:18 and hung on to secure their 18th win of the season, 5-2.
Robby Jackson opened the scoring 128 seconds into the game with his 13th of the season following a Jon Lizotte blocked shot. The junior eyed the rebound as it flipped through the air, took aim and made contact with the puck.
“It went off my skate and popped up in the air,” Jackson recounted. “My 16 years of playing baseball paid off and down it went into the net.”
Blake Lizotte joined his big brother on the scoresheet 70 seconds later with a blocker-side wrister that blazed past an outstretched Ryan Larkin, off the post and in. Mikey Eyssimont got in on the action, too, and added to his team’s lead at the 10:21 mark of the opening frame, scoring on the Huskies’ fifth shot to make it 3-0.
“[We] have to manage the puck and obviously we didn’t do that right from the get go,” Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. “When they put up a three-spot on you in the first [10] minutes, you are chasing the game.”
Just when things looked to be getting ugly in Oxford, Gordie Green popped his 12th goal of the year to bring his team within two. Spurred on by a newfound momentum, the Redhawks increased the offensive pressure until Phil Knies stuffed a juicy rebound home not two minutes after the initial Miami tally.
“I was a little disappointed with a few turnovers,” Huskies coach Bob Motzko explained. “That’s when we got them back in the game. We’ve got to learn from that.”
Both squads traded chances as the ensuing 20 minutes ticked by, but both Larkin and St. Cloud goaltender Jeff Smith refused to budge. It took until the 13:00 mark of the final period for the Huskies to find their way back onto the scoreboard when Kevin Fitzgerald buried his fifth marker of the year to double his team’s lead.
Even with a Jon Lizotte five-minute major in the late stages of the game and a minute of 5-on-3 penalty killing, the Redhawks could not find twine. Smith came up big on a number of saves and Hobey Baker hopeful Jimmy Schuldt did his part in the defensive zone to keep Miami from clawing its way back into the game. Though the Huskies would have welcomed help from the missing Will Borgen – the junior will be representing the United States at the Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in the coming days – the penalty killing unit weathered the storm beautifully.
“It was our first game without Borgen,” Motzko said. “He’s been playing 25 to 30 minutes a night. So that was a learning experience for our defensive corps. We had guys playing a lot more minutes. I think they’ll grow from it.”
The Huskies stifled a Redhawk power play that ranks third in the country for roughly 11 minutes Friday night, a feat that was not lost on Jackson.
“When [Louie Belpedio and Grant Hutton] are lining up you to have to block shots,” the junior explained. “You know it’s going to hurt but that’s what you’ve got to do. Jon Lizotte and Jimmy Schuldt came up with some huge plays. I had to block a Belpedio shot – that did not feel good, I’ll tell you that for free – but you’ve got to pay attention to those guys and give them respect.”
Jackson secured the empty net winner with 4:02 remaining to bring the game to its final, 5-2 score. The win advances the Huskies to 18-6-3 as they attempt to supplant Denver as the top team in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The Redhawks, meanwhile, have now won just once in their last eight contests and will attempt to avoid a series sweep at home Saturday.