Brian Moos / Program Director

After a disappointing opening weekend versus the Tommies of St. Thomas University, the Huskies drop an overtime loss and a 5-1 thumping to their oldest rival in Mankato. As the Huskies are less than a month away from starting NCHC conference play, the feeling from preseason to now is much different. A young Huskies squad which started as a preseason top-10 squad now moves into a fringe top-20 position in media polling. SCSU will move onto a series with Alaska-Fairbanks this weekend, but what went wrong against Minnesota-State?

Friday night’s contest saw exciting back and forth hockey. Barrett Hall continued his impressive start to his first season of collegiate hockey, scoring a goal off of an assist from fellow Freshman Verner Miettinen. Early in the 2nd period the huskies looked poised to control the contest with Joe Molenaar registering his 1st goal of the season, helped by the passing of top defensive pair, Dylan Anhorn and Josh Luedtke.

After a lackluster end to the 2nd period, and 3rd period though, the joy of scoring against a major rival seemed lost on Molenaar. The senior forward and assistant captain commented, “This being my senior year I’m only focused on winning, scoring goals and individual numbers I’m not really worried about.”

Looking to rebound on Saturday, gave up a late 1st period power play goal from Mankato captain Sam Morton. The Morton goal was the 1st time the Huskies trailed in regulation this season, a deficit that would later become insurmountable. It took just a span of 3 minutes to start the 2nd period to derail SCSU. Goals from Olson and another tally from Morton made it 3-0, a goalie change ensued, exit Basse and enter Posch. Freshman Isak Posch looked solid in limited action, but Coach Brett Larson commented that the pulling on Basse wasn’t an indictment of his play, rather an attempt to jolt the Huskies back to a competitive flow.

Senior forward Kyler Kupka would score his 1st goal of the season late in the 3rd period to give SCSU a slight breathe of life. However, 2 empty net goals from Mankato later would seal the weekend sweep and the 1st 2 wins of the Luke Strand era.

The Saturday loss is so far the only time the Huskies have been beat in regulation this season, but OT and regulation losses go down the same on the record, with the Huskies now sitting at (1-3-0) on the season. They head back home to the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center for two tilts against the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. UAF has already faced NCHC competition this season, losing 2 games to Denver. The Nanooks are coming off of an impressive weekend against Michigan Tech, winning one game and tying another.

Games will be on Friday and Saturday broadcasted on KVSC. Alexander Fern and Zac Chapman will have the call this weekend, with Gavin Nelson back in studio hosting the weekend. Puck drop on Friday will be at 7:37 p.m. CDT with KVSC’s pregame starting at 7 p.m.. Saturday’s contest will have a puck drop of 6:07 p.m. CDT with KVSC’s pregame starting at 6 p.m..