Ever had “one of those days?” Well, Wisconsin hockey had “one of those days” tonight as St. Cloud State used a massive 2nd period to burry Wisconsin, winning 5-1. The Huskies scored 3 goals in the 2nd period skating to a 4-0 advantage at the 2nd intermission and virtually locking in the win at that point.
The Huskies leading scorer on the season, Ben Hanowski, got St. Cloud State on the board early scoring the games opening goal just 4:40 into the 1st period. It was like an all-star goal as Jared Festler and Andrew Prochno assisted on the Power Play goal.
Later in the period things got amazingly chippy after John Ramage absolutely laid out Nick Oliver near center ice. Following the hit was an all out brawl by the guys on the ice. It resulted in a game misconduct penalty for a “hit to the head.” You can see the hit and judge for yourself here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yWVYug0nlw8
But the officials nailed Ramage with a 5 minute game misconduct penalty and Ramage’s night was done early. The replay also shows the Badgers getting the best of the scrum with every Badger on top of a St. Cloud player. It was about the only highlight of the night for Wisconsin unfortunately.
Overall Wisconsin had the better of the chances in the period, but the puck just wouldn’t fall right and quite a few chances would be squandered. The period ended with the Badgers and St. Cloud State tied with 10 shots a piece.
Wisconsin was hoping to regroup at the intermission and come out even more aggressive, but Ben Hanowski and SCSU had another idea in store for Wisconsin. Just 46 seconds into the period Hanowski took the puck, waited for the defense to clear and slotted home a shot past a helpless Rumpel who took a terrible angle and it was 2-0 St. Cloud State. Once again Jared Festler was in on the assist on the goal, joined by Nick Jensen with an assist.
It was just the tip of the iceberg for the Badgers as the 2nd period would be a house of horrors. In our preview we talked about the power play being key and it sure was, at least in favor of St. Cloud State as just over 10 minutes after the 2nd goal the 3rd came from David Eddy who had an easy path to the net after a bad bounce off the boards behind Joel Rumpel left him guessing as to the location of the puck and he guessed wrong as Eddy easily slid home the puck on the left side of the net for an insurmountable lead at 3-0.
The game was cemented for sure on the 3rd goal of the period as Nic Dowd slotted home his 8th goal of the season on a bad and rare mistake by Justin Schultz. He allowed Dowd to get behind him and never picked him back up after he went towards the net, leaving Rumpel helpless once again.
Going into the 2nd intermission it was 4-0, but Wisconsin held out a bit of hope as it went to the break on a power play that spilled over to the 3rd period.
However, it was no dice as the Badgers couldn’t muster anything on the power play to open up the final period.
Shortly after the Badgers power play was over they returned the favor to the Huskies and the player of the game made sure Wisconsin wasn’t coming back as Jared Feslter slotted home his 12th goal of the year and made it 3 points on the night for himself with a power play goal that made it 5-0. It was just the 2nd goal that you could say Rumpel should’ve stopped as he let it right between his legs and allowed Festler to tip in the bouncing puck.
It meant the Huskies went an astounding 3 for 5 on the power play for the night.
Credit to Wisconsin for not giving up at all, as the Badgers out shot the Huskies 32-24 on the night. The Badgers were able to avoid the embarrassment of being shutout at home thanks a blast by Frankie Simonelli that was redirected past Mike Lee at the 17:55 mark of the 3rd period. Simonelli and Brad Navin got the assists on the goal as Navin redirected it and Brendan Woods did the same for the goal.
Joel Rumpel made 19 stops in the loss with his counterpart Lee having a heck of a night, stopping 31 shots.
The Badgers and Huskies will take to the ice tomorrow night at 8pmCT. However, Brendan Woods won’t be on the ice as he was given a game disqualification late in the game after hitting David Eddy from behind and boarding him right in front of the Huskies bench.
Wisconsin will be looking to snap a 3 game losing streak after starting the 2nd half off so strong and they’ll be hoping for the puck to bounce their way to avoid the season sweep by St. Cloud State.
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