Box ScoreST. CLOUD, Minn. – Saint John's hockey celebrated seven different goal scorers in a 7-2 win over No. 15 St. Scholastica on Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
The Johnnies (4-7-2, 3-3-0 MIAC) tallied three goals in the first period and four in the second, including three in a span of 48 seconds.
SJU entered the game averaging 1.83 goals per contest (12 goals in 22 games). The seven goals are the program's most since a 7-4 home win over St. Olaf on Nov. 16, 2013 in St. Cloud.
Junior goaltender
Tyler Nelson (Champlin, Minn.) made 25 saves to earn his first collegiate win in his first varsity start.
Senior defenseman/forward
Tyson Fulton (Champlin, Minn.) put SJU on the scoreboard first with his first goal of the season, and 15th career point, 4:19 into the game. Freshman forward
Connor Kelly (Chaska, Minn.) fought for the puck behind the net and found classmate
Matt Colford (Champlin, Minn.) out front, who fed an open Fulton to the right of the goaltender. Colford tallied three assists on the night.
Freshman defenseman
Sean Lang (Apple Valley, Minn.) capped a furious power play for SJU, in which the Johnnies bombarded CSS's Corey Koop with seven shots on goal, with his fourth goal of the season 5:06 later. Junior forward
Kevin Becker (Roseville, Minn.) and sophomore forward
Huba Sekesi (Germering, Germany) were credited with the assists.
CSS (6-3-1, 4-2-0 NCHA) cut its deficit in half with a power-play goal of its own with 1:45 remaining in the opening period. The Saints were ranked No. 15 in the latest USCHO.com poll released Dec. 7.
SJU was not done, however, as sophomore defenseman
Zach Glienke (Eagan, Minn.) lit the lamp for his first collegiate goal 27 seconds later, with assists going to Colford and Fulton.
Kelly started the second-period flurry with his first collegiate goal 7:44 into the frame, with assists going to Colford and Fulton.
Sekesi found the back of the net 29 seconds later for his fifth goal of the season. Senior captain
Andrew Commers (Edina, Minn.) and senior defenseman
Joe Freemark (Lakeville, Minn.) tallied the assists.
A dump into the zone by junior forward
Ross Stecklein (Roseville, Minn.), off the ensuing faceoff played a weird carom off the end boards, past a diving CSS goaltender to a hard-charging
Sam Valerius (Maple Grove, Minn.) in front of the net only nine seconds later.
Dylan Nowakowski stopped the bleeding for the Saints at the 10:27 mark, but senior
Neal Smith (Rogers, Minn.) answered with 1:55 to play in the second period. Becker and senior forward
Dan McNamara (Grand Rapids, Mich.) collected the assists.
Smith had another goal disallowed, on a nice deflection off a shot from freshman defenseman
Joey Lindberg (Woodbury, Minn.), due to interference with the goaltender 4:34 into the third period.
SJU out-shot the Saints by a 39-27 margin and both teams scored a goal on their lone power-play opportunity in the first period.
The Johnnies return to action in the New Year with a pair of road games at nationally-ranked Wisconsin-River Falls (Jan. 8) and Wisconsin-Superior (Jan. 9).
