Thanks to a bunch of firsts, the St. Cloud State Huskies were able to finish off paying the Omaha Mavericks back for a sweep in December.
Nathan Widman and Jimmy Murray scored, and Charlie Lindgren made 21 saves for his second shutout of the season as St. Cloud State defeated No. 5 Omaha 2-0 Saturday night at the National Hockey Center for a weekend sweep.
“I thought it was a real complete game tonight from our entire line-up,” said St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko, as his Huskies now have a winning record for the first time since November. “We played like we’ve been there before tonight, and I think that was the key.”
“I think coming off an emotional win last night, sometimes it’s tough to bounce back,” added Murray, whose late goal was his third of the year. “I think we even played better. I thought we played a very sound game. It feels good.”
The Mavericks (11-8-1 NCHC, 17-10-3 overall) were shut out for the first time all season, and they also suffered their first sweep.
“They played a good, solid game,” said Omaha coach Dean Blais. “They were better than us tonight. We just couldn’t get a goal out of it. They bottled us up pretty good.”
“This weekend’s given us a wakeup call,” added UNO defenseman Brian Cooper.
The teams went scoreless in the first period, but the Huskies scored the all-important opening goal for the second straight night in the second period. Widman came into the zone alone and let one go from the slot, beating UNO goaltender Ryan Massa (35 saves) glove-side for just his second goal of the season at 10:46.
Omaha was unable to capitalize on a late power play after a Tim Daly cross-check, and went into the final period trailing 1-0.
“They scored the first goal on what looked like a harmless shot,” said Blais. “Then they, obviously, didn’t give us a whole lot.”
Despite more pressure put on Lindgren in the third period, Omaha just couldn’t find the net. Murray added an insurance goal with 6:42 left, and despite a six-on-four power play late in regulation, the Mavericks were held off the scoreboard and left the Granite City six points out of first place behind North Dakota, which swept Western Michigan on the road. Nebraska-Omaha also fell three points behind Miami, which rallied to beat Minnesota-Duluth in overtime at home.
The Huskies (10-9-1 NCHC, 15-14-1 overall) moved above .500 for just the second time this season, but they also have their first three-game winning streak, their third sweep (second at home), and a lot of momentum going into the final two weeks of the season.
“You gotta collect as many wins as you can,” said Motzko. “We let a few get away the first half, and we paid the sins for it. Not a lot of people picked us to win this series. Now you gotta battle back. We got a fairly large series next week.”
After coming into the weekend tied for first place in the NCHC standings, Omaha is now looking up at two teams in the standings, and Cooper knows that his team needs to have a short memory and a sense of urgency to rebound from this sweep.
“We’re gonna bear down here this next week in practice,” he said.
St. Cloud State, winners of five of its last six games, will hit the road for the final time in the regular season next week, traveling to North Dakota, as will Nebraska-Omaha when it heads up to Minnesota-Duluth.
