From The Leader-Telegram
By Allan Brown
The Blugolds’ men’s hockey club got off to a slow start in its first of two games against St. Cloud at the Hobbs Ice Arena this weekend, but rebounded nicely to get three out of a possible four points in the two-game series.
Trailing 4-0 against St. Cloud State University in the first game Friday night, the home team nabbed four unanswered goals to send the contest into overtime before the Huskies scored the winning goal in extra hockey to take a 5-4 win.
Saturday afternoon’s matinee round between the two teams, however, was an entirely different story.
The Blugolds dominated from start to finish to dismantle the Huskies, 10-0. UWEC starts its season at 1-0-1, good for three points in the Western Collegiate Club Hockey Association’s Southeastern division.
Blugolds’ new Head Coach Luke Myhers explained the circumstances between the beginning of Friday night’s game and the resulting overtime finish and how proud he was of his squad’s resiliency Friday and then dominance on Saturday in their first two games of the American Collegiate Hockey Association season.
“St. Cloud came to EC with two games under their belt and had worked out any rust from last year. Their goaltender put up a stone wall initially and they scored three goals on penalties and one full strength to put us into a 0-4 deficit. With a mountain to overcome. our team chipped away to even the score in the third. With seconds left we almost closed the game out but missed the net wide sending us into overtime three on three. We lost half way through the extra period,” the head coach told the Leader-Telegram in an exclusive interview.
Myhers added that he was notably proud of how the squad handled “The opportunity to overcome the obstacles in front of them (and to use) perseverance, dedication and hard work to succeed as a team.”
“I couldn’t be prouder as a coach. To have a comeback from a 0-4 deficit and almost pull out the win really shows the character, dedication and focus of this team. Everything was left out on the ice. To come back on Saturday and have a dominant performance like they did gives me a great sense of pride,” Myhers said.
Sophomore forward Garrett Husnick said that once his team got its bearings, good things started to happen and it prompted the eventual final results.
“I think we just had to calm down and trust ourselves that we would find the back of the net. We had a lot of chances and we were out playing them, (we) just had to capitalize,” Husnick told the Leader-Telegram.
While the four-goal deficit on Friday certainly provided the Blugolds with a difficult task at hand, Husnick said there was a bigger problem the team had to overcome.
“The biggest challenge we faced during the games was are penalties. We took quite a few and put ourselves in bad situations,” Husnick said.
As to getting adjusted to playing with a team comprised of many new members this season who were all together in an actual game for the first time this season, Husnick said it wasn’t challenging, but, rather, it was exciting.
“It was great to be back out on the ice, the team was excited to get back out there playing games,” Husnick said.
That excitement will carry into this weekend, which sees the University of Minnesota-Duluth come to town for another two-game series against the Blugolds.
It’s a matchup Myhers eagerly anticipates.
“Duluth will come to play. We split with them last year at their house. We ended up on the losing end of overtime for our second game last year. It will be an exciting matchup,” the head coach said,
Puck drop for Friday’s game is set for 7 p.m. and the faceoff begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Both games will be played at the Hobbs Ice Arena. Admittance price is $5.
(Originally published at https://www.leadertelegram.com/sports/blugolds-get-three-of-four-possible-points-in-first-weekend-on-ice-this-season/article_0b67d16e-6624-11ee-a2e6-6bf50a442ea4.html)
