Struggles continue, St. Mary's downs Yellowjackets

Cody Hotchkin scored the only goal of the game for the Yellowjackets on Friday at Saint Mary's.

Box Score

Saint Mary's 3, Yellowjackets 1

Simply stated, 2013 has not been a good year for the Yellowjackets.

In the 2013 calendar year, the Yellowjacket men's hockey team has won just twice, and both of those came in the 2012-13 season. The struggles continued on Friday night, as again the team failed to generate enough offense to support the superlative goaltending of Drew Strandberg (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Westgate CV&I).

A pair of goals less than two minutes apart ultimately did the Yellowjackets in, as they lost 3-1 to Saint Mary's in Winona, Minn.

With the loss, the Yellowjackets are winless in their last ten games dating back to last season and have lost three times to start a season for the first time in three decades.

After a scoreless first period the Yellowjackets had 1:29 of power play time carry over to the second period. Saint Mary's killed the time off and quickly regrouped to open the scoring. Austin Balko entered the Yellowjacket zone on the right wing and fed a perfect pass across the slot to Brad Fusaro who tapped the puck home for his first of the year, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead just 1:45 into the second period.

The Yellowjackets answered quickly. After winning the ensuing face-off, Thomas Paine (Superior, Wis./Marshall School) carried into Cardinal territory on the left wing and dropped a pass to Pat Dalbec (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior). Dalbec's shot from the left circle was stopped, but Cody Hotchkin (Duluth, Minn./Denfeld) banged home the rebound to tie the game just ten seconds later.

Late in the period the Yellowjackets, who were already playing with a short bench due to injuries to Patrick Kinkopf (Lake Forest Park, Wash./Gilmour Academy) and Anton Svensson (Soldertalje, Sweden/Igelstavikens Gymnasium), suffered a huge blow when Dalbec was called for checking-from-behind and issued a game misconduct. The Cardinals opened the third period with a full five-minute power play, but the Yellowjacket penalty kill, which has been exemplary thus far in 2013-14, had their best kill of the game, giving the Cardinals just four shots in the five minutes and keeping the score tied.

Saint Mary's got the eventual game-winning goal at 14:56 of the third. Jonathon Elliot made a nifty stickhandling move in the left circle and played it to the front of the net. Mike Wolter drove the net and pushed the puck home for his second goal of the season to make it 2-1. Minutes later the Cardinals closed out the scoring when a Derek Stauber (Duluth, Minn./Marshall School) shot was blocked, and the puck caromed into the neutral zone where Mike Mezzano picked it up and went in alone, beating Strandberg high on the glove side to stretch the lead to 3-1 with just 3:18 to play.

The Yellowjackets tried valiantly to mount an attack in the final minutes, but the Cardinals closed the door, handing the Yellowjackets their third defeat in a row.

Saint Mary's outshot the Yellowjackets 41-21 in the game. Christian Gaffy picked up his second win of the season, finishing the night with 20 saves. At the other end Strandberg fell to 0-2-0, making 38 saves, several of them difficult, in the process.

The Yellowjackets took nine penalties in the game for 29 minutes, while Saint Mary's took seven penalties for 14 minutes. Each team went scoreless on the power play. The Yellowjackets were 0-for-4 while the Cardinals were 0-for-6.

The Yellowjackets (0-3-0, 0-0-0 WIAC) will head north to play Hamline University on Saturday, November 16. Game time from the Oscar Johnson Arena is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The game can be heard live locally on 91.3 FM KUWS. If you are outside the local listening area, you can tune in on the Internet through the iFan Sports Network or through the live stream of Wisconsin Public Radio. Jon Garver will have the call.

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