Article by Felicity Harding. Photo by Felicity Harding.
The Huskies were at home on Friday night taking on the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in a very crucial series to determine their playoff matchup. A regulation win would give the Huskies a chance to pass Duluth to play Arizona State. A loss or overtime/shootout win locks them in at eighth to play Western Michigan.
The Huskies started Sophomore and NCHC Goaltender of the Week Isak Posch while the Bulldogs started freshman and NCHC Rookie of the Week Adam Gajan in net.
The Huskies took a holding penalty late in the first sending the Bulldogs on a powerplay. Early into the power play, freshman forward Max Plante was at the bottom of the right faceoff circle. Plante received a pass from his brother freshman forward Zam Plante and then returned the pass to Zam. Zam was able to get a shot off from the top of the right faceoff circle beating Isak Posch on his blocker side only 14 seconds into the powerplay. Zam’s goal came 16:54 into the first and was assisted by Max Plante and freshman forward Callum Arnott.
The Bulldogs had a 1-0 lead at the end of the period after outshooting the Huskies 10-3 in the first.
After the Huskies failed to clear the puck and ended up turning it over in their zone, senior forward Dominic James was able to pick up the puck and pass it to a wide-open sophomore forward Anthony Menghini who was coming down the center of the zone. Menghini shot the puck and was able to get in past Posch going five hole. Menghini’s goal was assisted by James and freshman forward Harper Bentz.
The Bulldogs then turned over the puck right in front of their net. Sophomore forward Adam Ingram and senior forward Nick Portz were able to get the puck and Portz was able to sneak the puck past Gajan’s pad and into the net 18:08 into the period.
The Bulldogs had a 2-1 lead at the end of the second after being outshot 10-8 by the Huskies.
Both teams had a slow start to the third period as the two teams were going back and forth for the majority of the third.
The Huskies pulled their goalie with 4:18 left in regulation to try and tie the game up. After a failed wrap around attempt by sophomore forward Daimon Gardner, Gardner was able to pick up his rebound and send a pass to junior defenseman Josh Zinger. Zinger whiffed on his first shot but then got his second attempt past the glove side of Gajan to tie the game with 20.9 seconds left regulation.
The game was all tied at two at the end of regulation after the Huskies outshot the Bulldogs 14-9 in the third period.
With 3:19 left in overtime, the Bulldogs were called for a slashing penalty giving the Huskies a late powerplay. Setup for their powerplay, the Huskies had sophomore forward Tyson Gross in the left faceoff circle and freshman forward Austin Burnevik at the top of the blue line. Gross fed a pass to Burnevik who initially whiffed on catching the pass, but Burnevik was able to recover and fed a backhand pass to junior forward Cooper Wylie, who was in the right faceoff circle. Wylie was able to get a shot over the glove side shoulder of Gajan, winning the game for the Huskies with 28.6 left in overtime.
The Huskies and Bulldogs both had two shots on goal in overtime.
The Huskies won by a final score of 3-2 after both teams had 29 shots. The Huskies were 1/3 on the powerplay and 1/2 on the penalty kill while the Bulldogs were 1/2 on the powerplay and 2/3 on the penalty kill. Huskies goaltender Isak Posch had 27 saves on 29 shots for a save percentage of .931. Bulldogs goaltender Adam Gajan had 26 saves on 29 shots for a save percentage of .897.
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