St. Cloud State goaltender Charlie Lindgren always seems to make it look easy every time he starts in net.
He was certainly up to the challenge of facing a desperate Minnesota State team, and he got plenty of help from his teammates.
Lindgren made 30 saves to post his second shutout in as many starts, and the Huskies got goals from four different players in a 4-0 victory over Minnesota State Friday night.
“Our defense did a really good job letting me see pucks; [They] made my job a lot easier,” said Lindgren, who became the first Huskies goaltender to post back-to-back shutouts since Dean Weasler accomplished it in February 1999. The win was also his fifth career shutout.
“It was a good team effort tonight,” said St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko. “It was a heavyweight fight.”
David Morley, Jimmy Schuldt, Patrick Russell, and Kalle Kossila all lit the lamp for St. Cloud, which improved to three games above .500 for the first time since the 2013-14 regular season. They were never more than two games above .500 last season.
On the other side, a talented Mavericks team suffered their second shutout loss in as many games, and they’ve now gone six straight periods without scoring dating back to their home sweep last week at the hands of Omaha.
“The only thing that’s gonna get us out of this is us,” said Mavericks coach Mike Hastings. “We’ve gotta do work. You’ve gotta find a way to get a pretty one and find a way to get an ugly one.”
“I think it falls quite a bit on me,” added MSU forward Bryce Gervais. “This team relies on me to score goals.”
The lone goal in the first period belonged to Morley, and it came off a Mavericks’ turnover. The ensuing two-on-one break led to the rebound goal, his second this year. Mankato played better than SCSU in the period overall though, especially offensively, as they had more chances. Schuldt knows the game could’ve gone differently because of it. His team got the message during the first intermission.
“[Motzko] just said, ‘Keep playing hard,'” said Schuldt. “He told us to establish a forecheck more.”
Lindgren and the Huskies simply wouldn’t let their old rivals back in it. They came out stronger in the middle frame, getting a forecheck going and generating more scoring chances. It soon paid off.
Schuldt doubled the SCSU lead with 9:05 left in the second period when he blasted a one-time pass from Niklas Nevalainen over the glove of MSU goaltender Cole Huggins. It was the first collegiate goal for the freshman defenseman.
“He ripped it; he knows how to shoot that puck,” said Motzko.
St. Cloud State added a wraparound goal from Russell at 10:39 of the third, and Kossila capped the game’s scoring with a snipe from the right circle that found its way in four minutes later.
Huggins stopped 29 shots for Mankato, which suffered its fourth straight loss against the Huskies dating back to their days together in the old WCHA. Gervais knows his Mavericks, who were the No. 1 overall seed in their early exit in the NCAA tournament last year, need to get out of this funk fast if they want to get back there.
“We just gotta get to the net and do whatever we can to put one in,” Gervais said.
The two teams will conclude their nonconference series Saturday night at 7:07 CDT.
