Article Written for Cam Anderson

The 9-3 St. Cloud State men’s hockey team is making a trip to Colorado Springs this weekend in a NCHC conference series on the 18th and 19th. This will be the second time the team will be at the new Ed Robson which was built last summer. The Huskies had success the last time around as they earned the sweep on the road winning 3-2 and then 4-1 in game two. Later in the season they also had a dominating sweep against Colorado College in March back home at the Brooks center in St. Cloud. And it has been the same story over the past decade as St. Cloud has a record of 28-5-3 against CC since 2012.

This Husky team is going down there in hopes of getting another sweep after splitting series with their opponents the past three weekends after starting the season off at 6-0. Ranked at four in the polls, they should have an upper hand on this Colorado College squad. It is expected that goaltender Jaxon Castor will be in goal on Friday night, and Colorado college transfer, Dominic Basse in goal for Saturday’s game for his return to his former school. There will be a change in the lineup with some players filling for the Huskies as they are expected to be without defenseman and captain, Spencer Meier, as well as senior forward Kyler Kupka. Also, most recently according to Mick Hatten, writer for The Rink Live, forward Chase Brand will miss out due to taking big collisions to the head in back-to-back weeks.

This Colorado College team has returned home after getting a win and a tie on the road at Miami (Ohio) last weekend. With a record of just 5-6-1 this season, the Tigers are currently in 3rd place in the NCHC. They have been great on home ice, winning four of five games there including a 5-0 win over Minnesota-Duluth. We will see first-year goaltender, and NHL prospect Kaidan Mbereko in both matchups as he has taken over the starting job  there. With four players tied for the lead in points at 10 so far, this CC team has shown more depth scoring than in prior years. They are going to have to rely on that depth, as well as strong goaltending to take down this St. Cloud State team.

This weekend’s games should be highly competitive and closer than most people would expect. With crucial games in both the national rankings and the NCHC standings, these are meaningful games. Both squads are going to want to take advantage of this, especially with the long winter break right around the corner. The Huskies are familiar with traveling down there as they went to Denver just two weeks ago. They won in overtime and got a big split against Denver University, who is the number one team in the Nation. With success the last time in Colorado, the Huskies are confident they can come back St. Cloud with a pair of wins.

 

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