As the conference playoffs roll around, Denver knows that home-ice advantage is a big deal.
Despite not getting the job done in the regular-season finale, the short-handed Pioneers got a little outside help and the road to a conference tournament title defense will now go through Magness Arena.
Jonny Brodzinski scored twice to snap a seven-game goal-less streak, Charlie Lindgren made 35 saves, and St. Cloud State held off No. 8 Denver 4-2 in their final home game of the season Saturday.
“It’s nice to get the monkey off my back this late in the season,” said Brodzinski, who also had an assist. “It gets frustrating, but if you keep working hard, goals will come your way.”
After Tanner Jaillet made 40 saves last night for Denver, he was given Saturday night off. Evan Cowley started in his place, but his counterpart outshined him.
“Lindgren was the reason [Denver lost],” said Pioneers coach Jim Montgomery.
Asked if Lindgren stole the game from Denver, Huskies coach Bob Motzko replied, “Yeah; he played awful well for us.”
David Morley and Joey Benik also had goals for the Huskies, who snapped a three-game losing streak with the victory.
Trevor Moore and Zac Larraza scored for the Pioneers, who played without an injured Joey LaLeggia, leaving a big-hole in the tough Denver defense.
After a slow-moving first period, Motzko said that his assistant coach, Garrett Raboin, said that someone has gotta leave a footprint in this game. That someone turned out to be Jonny Brodzinski, and he came out flying after the first intermission.
Brodzinski got the somewhat sparse crowd of 4,746 at the National Hockey Center fired up by snapping his lengthy goal-scoring drought. His low wrist shot beat Cowley at 1:39, giving the Huskies the opening lead. Prior to the goal, St. Cloud State had gone 10 straight periods without scoring an even-strength goal.
The next drought lasted all of 33 seconds, as Brodzinski scored his second goal of the game. The Hobey Baker candidate’s 19th goal doubled the SCSU lead, and Morley matched his jersey number with his 13th tally six minutes later. All of a sudden, the shell-shocked Pioneers found themselves in a 3-0 hole. That score held up at the end of the second period, but with two minutes left in it, Minnesota-Duluth lost 3-0 at Western Michigan to hand Denver home ice for the first round of the NCHC playoffs.
“Our number one goal was to get home ice,” declared Montgomery. “The number two thing was to get as high as we could in the PairWise.”
As the third period began and progressed, Denver tried to mount a furious rally. With 14:10 left, Montgomery pulled Cowley for an extra attacker. After two minutes of offensive pressure, Cowley went back in. Just over a minute later, the Pioneers got on the board when Trevor Moore buried a backhander for his team-best 19th goal. Zac Larraza had a backhander of his own three minutes afterward, and just like that the re-energized Pioneers were back within one.
“We had a good lead there, then some textbook what not-to-do to give a lead up,” said Motzko. “We ice the puck; we stopped making a few plays there.”
The Pioneers kept the pressure up throughout the rest of the game, but Lindgren simply would not be beaten again. Cowley was pulled for an extra attacker again, but Benik clinched it with an empty-net goal with 54 seconds left. Despite St. Cloud State playing rather softly in the final period, the Huskies came away with the potentially season-saving win.
“I think we really didn’t get much pressure toward the end of the third period,” Brodzinski said. “They were just taking it to us the entire time. [Denver] played a good third period. It very easily could’ve been 3-3 with a couple of nets they missed.”
While the victory did not improve the Huskies’ seeding in the NCHC playoffs, it did put them at No. 16 in the PairWise. However, a rule put in place in 2007 forbids them from making the NCAA tournament with a losing record.
As for the Pioneers, they were disappointed not to get the series and season sweep, but Montgomery knows that doesn’t matter now. Denver currently sits at eighth in the PairWise and is still in position for a high seed in the NCAA tournament, but the Pioneers have work to do.
“I loved our effort, but now we’re heading into the second season,” Montgomery said.
Sixth-seed St. Cloud State will open the NCHC playoffs next week at third-seed Omaha. The winner of that series will advance to the Frozen Faceoff in Minneapolis for the first time. Fourth seed and defending Frozen Faceoff champion Denver will open the conference playoffs next weekend at home against fifth-seeded Minnesota-Duluth.
