UW-Superior 3, St. Olaf 2
SAINT PETER, Minn. (November 11, 2017) - A handshake and a hug between coaches. A lot of yelling from 21 players on the ice as they surround and congratulate their starting goaltender. A giant sigh of relief for all. That was the scene Saturday night at the Northfield Ice Arena as UW-Superior celebrated its first victory of the 2017-18 season.
The Yellowjackets (1-4-0, 0-0-0 WIAC) got goals from three players, one in each period, on the way to a 3-2 win over St. Olaf College.
Despite the close score, it was a dominating performance by the Yellowjackets. They outshot the Oles 40-34, but those numbers don't reflect just how strong the Yellowjackets were. More than half of the shots on goal St. Olaf had came while they were on the power play. When the teams were at even strength, however, it was all Yellowjackets.
Early on the Yellowjackets carried the play, time and again putting shots on the St. Olaf goal, only to be denied by Ole goaltender Jude Hull, who a year ago was in goal when the Oles blanked the Yellowjackets at Wessman Arena. Each team was down a skater late in the period when the Oles opened the scoring. With 2:59 left in the opening frame Roshen Jaswal scored on a slap shot from the left point to give St. Olaf a 1-0 lead.
The St. Olaf lead didn't last long, however. Moments after taking the lead the Oles took a penalty and the Yellowjackets made them pay. Slick puck movement resulted in a perfect pass between the circles to
Daniel Litchke (Superior, Wis./Superior), and the junior made no mistake, scoring a power play goal at 18:46 to even the game.
Andrew Durham (Plano, Texas/Plano East) and
Bruno Birzitis (Riga, Latvia/Riga Distance Education Secondary) assisted on Litchke's second goal of the year.
Late in the second period the Yellowjackets moved ahead. A workhorse shift in the offensive zone forced Hull to turn the puck over behind his own goal and
Liam Blais (Uxbridge, Ont./Uxbridge Secondary) finished off the play, pouncing on a loose puck in the left circle and scoring his first of the year to make it 2-1.
Evgeny Yakovlev (Belgorod, Russia) and Durham assisted on the goal that gave the Yellowjackets their first lead of the season.
In the third the Yellowjacket increased the lead when
Ian Ecklund (Twig, Minn./Proctor) took a pass in the left circle and beat Hull high on the glove side with a perfectly placed wrist shot to make it 3-1. Litchke and Birzitis assisted on Ecklund's third of the year.
St. Olaf was on the power play in the final minute and scored a fluke goal when Charlie Widmar tried to center a pass from the right corner and banked it in off Yellowjacket goaltender
Cole Skinner (Lunenberg, N.S./Parkview Education Centre) to pull the Oles to within one with under a minute to play in regulation time, but that was as close as they would get and the Yellowjackets earned the win.
Skinner got the win, the first of his collegiate career, making 32 saves in the game.
The Yellowjackets took seven penalties for 14 minutes in the game, while St. Olaf took four for eight minutes. The Yellowjackets scored one power play goal in four chances and killed off six of seven shorthanded opportunities.
Up Next: The Yellowjackets return home Friday, November 17 when they will take on Northland College at Wessman Arena. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m.
