St. Cloud rolls past Bears to win IceBreaker

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ORONO – Two of the staples of the University of Maine’s hockey success have been good goaltending and discipline.

Both were absent on Saturday night and the opportunistic and talented St. Cloud University Huskies took full advantage to collect a 6-2 triumph in the IceBreaker Cup Tournament championship game.

Freshman left wing and tournament Most Valuable Player Mike Doyle had a pair of goals, including the game-winner in the second period; Matt Hendricks and Mark Hartigan scored shorthanded goals; Nate DiCasmirro and Joe Motzko provided insurance goals in the third period; and backup junior goalie Jake Moreland, with only seven career games on his resume, made 40 saves to backstop the win. He had 20 third-period stops.

Sophomore newcomer Colin Shields scored Maine’s goals, both on the power play off diagonal passes from Tommy Reimann.

Bowling Green finished third by winning a tiebreaking shootout over Clarkson. The game was tied 1-1 after overtime.

In the title game, Maine outshot St. Cloud State 42-20 and had a 31-12 edge in high-percentage scoring opportunities.

But Maine veterans took costly penalties in the second period as Niko Dimitrakos’ high-sticking penalty resulted in Doyle’s game-winner, Marty Kariya’s holding-the-stick infraction negated a power play six seconds into it, and a five-minute hitting-from-behind major on Lucas Lawson wiped out 3:20 of manpower advantage with Maine trailing 4-2.

“We let down defensively and it hurt us. Our main focus is defense and we didn’t play that tonight. We also didn’t drive to their net like we wanted to,” said Reimann.

Maine junior center Chris Heisten said, “We made four mistakes and they capitalized on all four of them. You should never give up shorthanded goals. We weren’t coming back to the puck and helping out our goalies. Their goalie definitely played well.”

Moreland said his teammates played “awesome.

“They kept everybody to the outside. I had the jitters at first but I got more comfortable as the game went on. I’m a big guy [6-foot-1, 220 pounds] so I tried to cut the angles off hoping the puck would hit me,” Moreland said.

St. Cloud State coach Craig Dahl said Moreland did a “great job” and his team made the most of its chances.

“We have some real highly-skilled guys and if you make a mistake, they usually find a way to get the puck in the net,” said Dahl.

Shields scored 2:57 into the game but Hendricks equalized.

Doyle made it 2-1 in the second period by jamming his own rebound through Maine goalie Matt Yeats’ legs but Shields tied it up.

Doyle’s game-winner came on the power play at the 10:51 mark.

“We ran a play off a face-off. Hartigan found me back door and I just had to slid it into the empty net. He made it pretty easy for me,” said Doyle.

Just over five minutes later, Hartigan’s shorthander made it 4-2.

“I went in on a defenseman and faked a shot, hoping he’d go down. He did. I tried to outwait the goalie and kept going around and around and around. I was at a bad angle. I was surprised the shot went in,” said Hartigan.

Mike Morrison started the third period in goal for Maine and was victimized 1:24 into the period when he decided to stay back in his net while DiCasmirro poked the puck free inside the defensive zone and chased it down just over the Maine blue line.

Joining Doyle on the all-tournament team were Hartigan, Hendricks and Moreland; Maine’s Shields and Francis Nault and Clarkson’s Kerry Ellis-Toddington.

HUSKIES 6, BLACK BEARS 2

St. Cloud State (2-0) 1 3 2 ? 6

Maine (1-1) 1 1 0 ? 2

First period ? 1. Maine, Shields 2 (Reimann, Metcalf), 2:57 (pp); 2. SC, Hendricks 2 (Motzko), 14:43 (sh). Penalties: SC, Eastman, cross checking, 1:27; SC, Walsh, hitting from behind, 4:43; SC, Malone, hooking, 6:31; Maine, Loya, interference, 9:02; SC, Iannazzo, high sticking, 13:22; Maine, Metcalf, holding, 19:42; SC, Malone, hitting after the whistle, 20:00; Maine, Schutte, diving, 20:00.

Second period ? 3. SC, Doyle 2 (Iannazzo, Szabo), 2:26; 4. Maine, Shields 3 (Reimann, Metcalf), 8:03 (pp); 5. SC, Doyle 3 (Hartigan, Gens), 10:51 (pp); 6. SC, Hartigan 2 (DiCasmirro), 16:01 (sh). Penalties: SC, Hartigan, high sticking, 6:29; Maine, Dimitrakos, high sticking, 9:38; SC, Malone, cross checking, 12:09; Maine, Kariya, holding the stick, 12:15; SC, Walsh, holding, 15:33; Maine, Heisten, holding, 16:44; SC, Finger, five-minute major for charging, 17:13; Maine, Lawson, five-minute major for hitting from behind and game misconduct, 18:53.

Third period ? 7. SC, DiCasmirro 1 (unassisted), 1:24; 8. SC, Motzko 1 (Hendricks, Moreland), 2:52 (pp). Penalties: SC, Brooks, tripping, 5:25; SC, LaMere, slashing, 8:12; SC, Motzko, holding the stick, 10:27; Maine, Jackson, roughing, 18:50; SC, Finger, roughing, 18:50.

Shots on goal: St. Cloud 7-5-8?20; Maine 8-14-20?42

Goaltenders: St. Cloud, Moreland (42 shots-40 saves); Maine, Yeats (12-8), Morrison (8-6)

Power-play Opportunities: St. Cloud 2 of 6; Maine 2 of 12

High-percentage scoring chances: St. Cloud 4-3-5?12; Maine 7-7-17?31

Attendance: 5,006

FALCONS 2, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1*

Bowling Green (0-1-1) 0 0 1 1 ? 2

Clarkson (0-1-1) 1 0 0 0 ? 1

First period ? 1. C. Latulippe 1 (Poapst, Lush), :38. Penalties: C, Lush, interference, 4:29; BG, Wetterberg, holding, 6:47; BG, Bieksa, elbowing, 9:35; C, Garceau, roughing, 15:39; BG, McConvey, hooking, 17:04; C, Poapst, interference, 19:30

Second period ? No scoring. Penalties: C, Manzano, high sticking, 1:22; C, Faulkner, hooking, 4:30; BG, de Luis, hitting after the whistle, 6:47; BG, Brudzewski, hitting after the whistle, 6:47; BG, Minnabarriett, holding, 7:06; BG, de Luis, roughing, 8:47; BG, Bieksa, delay of game, 10:06

Third period ? 2. BG, McConvey 1 (Pappas), 16:37. Penalties: BG, Hewson, slashing, 1:33; C, Line, hitting from behind, 4:29; BG, Bieksa, holding, 10:03; C, Poapst, hitting after the whistle, 20:00; BG, Hewson, unsportsmanlike conduct, 20:00.

Overtime ? No scoring. Penalties: C, Evans, hitting after the whistle, 18:33; C Poapst, hitting after the whistle, 18:33; BG, Muench, hitting after the whistle, 18:33; BG, Day, hitting after the whistle, 18:33

Shots on goal: Bowling Green 8-6-6-1?21; Clarkson 15-19-8-10?52

Goaltenders: Bowling Green, Masters (52 shots-51 saves); Clarkson, Walsh (21-20)

Power-play Opportunities: Bowling Green 0-for-6, Clarkson 0-for-6

High-percentage scoring chances: Bowling Green Visitor 5-2-6-1?14; Clarkson 5-9-4-4?22

*-Falcons won in shootout 1-0; NCAA considers game a tie