David Eddy didn’t have to play past the fifth minute of the third period to have one of St. Cloud State’s best offensive games of the season.
Eddy scored two goals to spark SCSU’s highest scoring output of the season in a 7-2 win at the National Hockey Center.
Ben Hanowski also had a pair of goals for the Huskies.
The win gives the Huskies (4-4-1 overall, 2-1-0 WCHA) four points through three games. The Badgers drop to 4-5 overall and 3-4 in the WCHA.
“I liked Wisconsin on film,” said SCSU coach Bob Motzko. “The game was much closer at times. You couldn’t tell they were a young team coming in.”
The teams meet again at 7:07 p.m. CDT Saturday at the National Hockey Center.
“We beat ourselves tonight,” said Wisconsin defenseman Justin Schultz. “Tomorrow’s a huge game for us.”
Eddy’s night came to an abrupt end when, instead of sitting in the penalty box for a five-minute head-butting major penalty, he was sent off for a game misconduct 4:15 into the third period.
It happened amidst a scrum in front of the Huskies net and somewhere during the shoving match, referee Justin Brown saw Eddy throw a head butt at a Wisconsin player.
Eddy told Motzko after the game, his helmet locked with the Badger.
It led to a five-minute Wisconsin power-play chance for the Badgers to get back into the game, down 5-2 at the time. But Hanowski, almost singlehandedly, spearheaded the Huskies penalty kill and freshman goaltender Ryan Faragher turned away five shots to kill Eddy’s penalty off.
“The penalty kill was crucial and special teams seemed to dictate the game,” Motzko said. “Our penalty kill has been feast and famine coming into tonight.”
But the shorthanded highlight of the night for SCSU was a Wisconsin turnover while on a 4-on-3 power play in the Huskies’ zone. Nic Dowd grabbed a loose puck floating near the blue line and no one around, skated in on Badgers goaltender Landon Peterson and backhanded in his fourth goal of the season.
“The five-minute power play and the 4-on-3 power play and that was frustrating,” Schultz said. “We didn’t capitalize on those, down 5-2. There was still a lot of time left.”
The Huskies went 2-for-6 on the power play, 14th in the nation at 24.2 percent against Wisconsin’s fourth-worst, 67.5 percent penalty kill.
SCSU used a power-play goal to open the scoring on an Andrew Prochno-blasted slap shot from the point at the 12:30 mark. Just 3:15 later, Eddy made a diving slap at the puck surrounded by defenders and it found its way past Peterson with 19 seconds left on a Mark Zengerle penalty.
Eddy added his second goal of the night when Jared Festler dug a puck out from behind the net and fed it to Eddy in the slot for a one-timer over Peterson’s right shoulder with 5:23 left in the second period. Eddy’s goals Friday were his first of the season.
“He was one frustrated kid because he hadn’t scored a goal coming into tonight,” Motzko said. “You saw the roof lift up when he scored that first goal.”
