This isn't your typical offense-focused St. Cloud State hockey team, coach Bob Motzko said, and it took his players nearly two-thirds of the season to realize it.
"We're a good offensive team — we're not a great one," Motzko said. "But we've had to become a very, very strong defensive team if we were going to have success moving forward."
And in Friday's 3-1 victory over top-ranked North Dakota at Target Center, St. Cloud State showed exactly what its coach meant.
Joey Benik and David Morley scored less than 20 seconds apart in the final half-minute of the first period, but it was the defense — led by 19 saves from Charlie Lindgren — that helped St. Cloud State (19-17-1) grind its way through a semifinal at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Frozen Faceoff.
St. Cloud State plays Miami (Ohio) in the championship game Saturday night.
Huskies defenders blocked 16 shots and held UND without a shot on goal during a critical third-period power play. Lindgren, a sophomore from Lakeville North, stopped a second-period breakaway and made a pair of sprawling saves down the stretch.
"He is a battler, and that's one of the greatest things you can say about a goaltender," Motzko said.
North Dakota (27-8-3) came in having lost just once in regulation over its previous 17 games, and it had won three in a row against St. Cloud State. But, after scoring the game's first goal — on a long wrister through traffic from Keaton Thompson — UND struggled to generate much offense.
"The way they played us was the way we would've expected them to play tonight," coach Dave Hakstol said. "You give up a couple easy ones this time of year, it's tough to, you know, come out on top. It really is, and that's playoff hockey — it's tight."
The Huskies, meanwhile, took advantage of their opportunities.
Morley tied the score at 19:35 of the first. Seconds later, Benik scored after his own drop pass on a 2-on-1 ricocheted off defenders and back onto his stick in front of a nearly wide-open net.
Joe Rehkamp added an empty-netter with 1:05 left.
Miami (Ohio) 6, Denver 3: Linemates Austin Czarnik, Anthony Louis and Kevin Morris each had two points, and the Redhawks never trailed against the Pioneers.
Daniel Doremus had a goal and an assist for Denver, and Trevor Moore scored to cut the Miami lead to 4-3 in the third.
But the Redhawks (24-13-1) answered each time the Pioneers (22-13-2) rallied.
"There's never an easy moment when you're playing a team like Denver," Miami coach Enrico Blasi said. "They come at you in waves, and you have to bend but you can't break."
