After last weekends quarterfinal action, the conference took all four winners up to St Paul, Minnesota to compete in one game series final four of the conference tournament. The #1 team in the country, St Cloud State, was the first to secure their spot in St Paul after a convincing sweep of Miami (OH). Squaring off against the Huskies was the Colorado College Tigers, who upset the WMU Broncos on the road in three games. Then we have the Denver Pioneers who swept North Dakota and the UMD Bulldogs who swept Omaha.
1 St. Cloud State vs 6 Colorado College
These two teams have played exciting games all season. The Tigers have seemed to figure out a way to play with the Huskies, but it was going to be a challenge to take down the red hot Huskies in a one-game series. The Tigers struck early in the first to take a 1-0 lead, but SCSU scored twice in the next three minutes to go ahead and they never looked back. It was all Huskies the rest of the way and they easily defeated the Tigers 5-2. Goals for the Huskies were scored by Patrick Newell, Nolan Walker, Robby Jackson, Jack Ahcan, and Nick Poehling. St Cloud advances to play in Saturday’s championship game.
2 Minnesota Duluth vs 4 Denver Pioneers
The winner of this game was going on to face St Cloud in the finals and no one wanted it more than the Bulldogs. After taking two overtime losses to St Cloud a couple weekends ago, the Bulldogs are hungry for revenge. UMD took total control over this game and won by a score of 3-0. The Pioneers struggled to get anything going and the Bulldogs hunger drove them to a dominating victory.
Championship Game Preview
As mentioned prior, SCSU and UMD squared off in the final games of the regular season. Not much as changed since that series. SCSU continues to roll whole the Bulldogs have gotten back to their winning ways. The Bulldogs will have trouble slowing down Hobey Baker finalists Patrick Newell and Jimmy Schuldt. However, conference goaltender of the year, Hunter Shepard, will be looking to shut down the electric Huskie offense. The keys to this game are similar to what we previewed in their last meeting, which you can find here.
I like St Cloud to continue their dominance Saturday night and take home their second conference title of the season. They’re unbeaten in their last 13 and no one seems to be able to slow them down. Look for the Huskies to be celebrating in St Paul Saturday night.