The Michigan Tech Huskies finally have possession of the MacInnes Cup again.
The Huskies claimed the two-day total goals Winter Carnival series after skating to a 1-1 tie with Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday evening at MacInnes Arena.
Tech (7-18-3, 5-15-2), which last won the trophy in 1998, defeated the Bulldogs 3-2 in Friday’s opener.
“Getting the cup back was one of our priorities for the weekend and we did that,” said Michigan Tech coach Mike Sertich. “I thought we played better tonight than we did last night. I thought that Adam Coole was very good.”
Coole, who got some help from a few shots that hit the posts, was solid for the Bulldogs, making 40 saves.
“It was a game of bounces for me,” said Coole. “I got a lot of bounces tonight. I’ve got my confidence back now and I feel a lot better.”
“We played with poise and every point matters,” said Tech senior Jarrett Weinberger, who claimed the Winter Carnival MVP award on the strength of his hat trick on Friday. “We would have liked to have gotten two, but it’s a tough conference and we’ll take every point we can get.”
Early in the game, Weinberger nearly picked up where he left off the previous night as he broke in alone from the blue line and faked out Coole, just to lose control of the puck at the last second.
Minnesota-Duluth grabbed a 1-0 lead when defenseman Andy Reierson beat Brian Rogers from the top of the left circle for a power-play goal at the 7:40 mark of the opening period.
Tech had a difficult time finishing its numerous scoring chances until Brad Patterson finally buried one 7:36 into the second period to make it a 1-1 game.
The Huskies’ Jaron Doetzel had a chance to put his team in the lead in the waning seconds of the middle period. While shorthanded, the speedy junior streaked up the left side on a breakaway, but was stopped by a composed Coole.
After an exciting third period, neither team had any legitimate scoring opportunities despite a few exciting end-to-end rushes in overtime.
“I’m disappointed to not get a win,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “Right now, we’ve been having trouble winning games so maybe this is a start. You’ve got to start somewhere and at least we came away with a point.
“I was kind of looking forward to hopefully seeing a shootout there,” said Sandelin, referring to what would have happened had the two teams been tied in the total goals department for the series. “That would have been a fitting end for this weekend.”
During the first intermission, long-time Michigan Tech radio broadcaster Bob Olson was honored when the center portion of the press box at MacInnes Arena was renamed the Bob Olson Broadcast Center.
