Men’s hockey is No. 1

Kevin Fitzgerald (Oak Brook, Illinois), left, and Robby Jackson (Alameda, California) celebrate a Dec. 9 win over No. 5 North Dakota.

There are 59 college hockey teams in St. Cloud State’s rear-view mirror, thanks to torrid scoring, an obstinate defense and two stellar goalies.

Men’s Huskies Hockey has a 12-2-1 record and an array of national No. 1 markers, including:

• First in the PairWise Rankings
• First in the USCHO Poll
• First in the Buccigross #CawlidgeHawkey Top 10
• First in team offense at 4.27 goals per game

All this against a schedule ranked second-toughest by the KRACH Ratings.

All this without a single skater in the nation’s top 25 scorers. In the words of Granite City Sports college hockey analyst Travis Weldon: “St. Cloud has the depth to compete with any lineup.”

The Huskies are first in The National Collegiate Hockey Conference, three points ahead of North Dakota which St. Cloud State tied Dec. 8 and defeated 3-1 Dec. 9.

The coaching staff, led by Bob Motzko ’89, has assembled a long bench of skilled skaters, some of whom wear street clothes during a given game simply because of the wealth of talent.

Nineteen players have scored goals. Eight players have game-winning goals.

The Huskies feature two nationally ranked goaltenders. Frosh netminder David Hrenak (Povazska Bystrica, Slovakia) is top-ranked with a .962 save percentage in five games. Junior goalie Jeff Smith (Maple Ridge, British Columbia) is fifth-ranked with a .928 save percentage in nine games. 

St. Cloud State’s second-half schedule kicks off with a Dec. 29-30 road series with Princeton University and a Jan. 6-7 home-and-home series with Minnesota.

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