Saint John's hockey travels to face the Milwaukee School of Engineering for a pair of non-conference games over Thanksgiving Weekend this Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (2 p.m.), Nov. 25-26, at the Kern Center in Milwaukee, Wis.

LIVE COVERAGE
-Friday, Nov. 25: Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video
-Saturday, Nov. 26: Listen Live (WMIN-1010 AM/101-1. FM) | Live Stats | Live Video
*note that Saturday's radio broadcast is on WMIN-1010 AM/101.1 FM due to the SJU football game on WBHR-660 AM

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (4-2-1, 2-1-1 MIAC) earned two of the six possible points against St. Scholastica last weekend.

St. Scholastica 5, at Saint John's 2 (Nov. 18)
SJU outshot St. Scholastica 47-31 on net (80-44 overall) in a 5-2 loss last Friday night (Nov. 18) at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center (HBNHC) in St. Cloud. The Johnnies entered the contest with the country's top power play at 48 percent (12-for-25) but went 0-for-4. The Saints, meanwhile, took the ice at 4.8 percent (1-for-21) and finished 2-for-4 on the man advantage.

Senior forward Nick Michel (Waconia, Minn.), the MIAC Men's Hockey Offensive Player of the Week at the time, gave SJU a 1-0 lead 14:25 into the game. Junior forward Lewis Crosby (Edina, Minn.) won an offensive-zone faceoff back to Michel, who beat the CSS goaltender with a shot along the ice.

The Saints tied the game on a goal from Filimon Ledenkov, his first of three on the evening, with 55 seconds left in the opening frame. His twin brother, Arkhip, sent a shot wide of the net, but the rebound bounced off the end boards to Filimon in front for the game-tying goal.

Junior forward Max Borst (Edina, Minn.) gave SJU a short-lived lead, 2-1, with a shorthanded goal 2:07 into the second period. Crosby stole the puck in the offensive end and unleashed a shot on net, and Borst cleaned up the rebound.

CSS, however, scored a power-play goal 37 seconds later and added two more goals, including another on the man advantage, in the period's final two minutes to take a 4-2 lead into intermission. Filimon Ledenkov took advantage of an SJU turnover at its own blue line with 1:57 left in the second period and SJU was penalized on the scoring play, which led to a power-play goal from Tyler Hinterser 1:21 later.

Filimon Ledenkov completed the hat trick on an empty-net goal with 1:15 remaining in regulation. SJU posted a 22-7 shot advantage in the third period but could not capitalize.

Freshman goaltender Jon Howe (Chanhassen, Minn.) made 26 saves in the loss.

t-Saint John's 2, at St. Scholastica 2 (OT; SJU, 1-0; Nov. 19)
The Johnnies picked up two crucial points in the conference standings with a 2-2 tie and shootout win at St. Scholastica on Saturday night (Nov. 19) at Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth. Senior forward Jack Johnson (Bemidji, Minn.) gave SJU the extra point in the MIAC ledger with a goal in the fifth round of the shootout.

Following a scoreless first period, CSS gained a 1-0 lead with a 5-on-3, power-play goal from Filimon Ledenkov – his fourth tally of the weekend – 8:28 into the second frame. 

Michel tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal, his team-leading seventh tally and 10th point (7g/3a) in six games this season, 4:31 into the third period. Senior forward Joe Papa (St. Charles, Ill.) gave the visitors their first lead of the game, 2-1, with his fourth goal of the season 4:30 later on a feed from junior defenseman Jack Olsen (Lakeville, Minn.).

The Saints, however, sent the game to overtime with an extra-attacker goal – with the goaltender pulled – from Nathan Adrian with 42 seconds remaining in regulation.

Sophomore goaltender Bailey Huber (Mahtomedi, Minn.) made 27 saves to remain unbeaten with a 3-0-1 record this season.

The Johnnies again outshot the Saints by a large margin, 47-29.

LEWIS & NICK: The Johnnies' duo atop the team's leaderboard in points, Crosby (4g/7a) and Michel (7g/3a), have had quite the season so far. Crosby was held off the scoresheet in the season-opening, 3-1 win Oct. 29 at Wisconsin-River Falls, but has his team-leading 11 points over the Johnnies' last six games. Seven (3g/4a) of the 11 points have come on the power play. Crosby has already surpassed his season total of six assists last season. Michel, meanwhile, has 10 points (7g/3a) in six games played, including five (4g/1a) on the power play. He has a goal in each of his last five games played, including two multi-goal games. Michel missed the 4-1 win Nov. 5 at Northland (Wis.).

STAT COMPARISONS: The two teams are very similar through the season's first seven games.

Scoring Offense
-MSOE: 3.9 gpg.
-SJU: 3.7 gpg.

GAA
-SJU: 2.39
-MSOE: 2.84

Power Play
-SJU: 39.4 percent (13-for-33)
-MSOE: 23.3 percent (10-for-43)

Penalty Kill
-SJU: 76.2 percent (16-for-21)
-MSOE: 75.0 percent (18-for-24)

A LOOK AT THE RAIDERS: The Milwaukee School of Engineering (5-2, 3-1 NCHA) erased a 4-3 deficit by scoring the game's final three goals, including two on the power play, in a 6-4 home win over Concordia (Wis.) last night (Nov. 22). Senior forward Kyle Herbster tallied a hat trick and four points, and classmate Christian Sabin added four points (1g/3a) of his own. Herbster leads the team in goals (6) and points (11). Freshman Austin Schwab (2-1, 2.52 GAA, .902) and junior Nick Stofcheck (3-1, 2.88 GAA, .877) have split time in net so far this season.

LAST SEASON: MSOE left St. Cloud with a win and a tie in two games against the Johnnies at the HBNHC last season.

Milwaukee School of Engineering 5, at Saint John's (Nov. 6, 2021)
SJU suffered its first loss of the season, 5-2, to the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Nov. 6 (2021). The Raiders scored three goals, including two on the power play, on their first five shots on net.

The Johnnies out-shot MSOE by a 42-30 margin, including a 15-4 advantage in the first period, but went 0-for-5 on the power play.

Sophomore forward Matt DeRosa (Alpharetta, Ga.) put SJU on the scoreboard with his first collegiate goal, a redirect of a shot from senior defenseman Peter Tabor (Edina, Minn.), at the 14:31 mark of the second period. MSOE, however, answered 2:18 later to re-gain a three-goal lead (4-1).

Max Osborne made it 4-2 with his first tally as a Johnnie with 2:06 left in the second period. Braden Altena '22 earned his second assist of the game on the scoring play.

Matt Hanewall ended the scoring for MSOE 8:20 into the third period.

Michael Magnuson '22 made his second collegiate start and stopped 25 shots. The Johnnies controlled the faceoff circle, winning 67.1 percent (49 of 73) of the draws.

t-at Saint John's 4, Milwaukee School of Engineering 4 (OT; Nov. 7, 2021)
The two teams ended the weekend series with a 4-4 tie on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 7, 2021). On the power play and with the goaltender pulled, Ryan Reid scored the game-tying, 6-on-4 goal for MSOE with 32 seconds remaining in regulation.

Crosby scored a hat trick for SJU, his first goals as a Johnnie, and Michel assisted on two of them. 

Borst gave the home team a very quick 1-0 lead with his first career goal 16 seconds into the game. The tally was SJU's fastest to start a game since Nov. 2, 2007 (Nate Meinz '08, 16 seconds, at Wisconsin-Stevens Point) and the fastest to start a period since Jan. 21, 2016 (Andrew Commers '16, 15 seconds into the second period at Bethel).

Crosby extended SJU's lead to 2-0 with his first goal of the afternoon, shorthanded, at the 8:09 mark of the first period. 

Sabin, who recorded three assists the night before, took advantage of a defensive-zone turnover by the Johnnies to cut the Raiders' deficit in half with 2:15 left in the opening period. Stian Owens tied the game at 2-2 on the power play 14:53 into the second period and Sabin gave MSOE its first lead of the game with 1:33 left in the frame, roughly a minute after Crosby rattled a shot off the pipe during a man advantage.

Crosby re-tied the game for SJU with 41 seconds left in the second period and tallied the go-ahead goal at the 12:38 mark of the third period.

Mac Berglove '21 made 30 saves in the tie, as SJU out-shot MSOE 36-34. The two teams held an exhibition shootout following the game, which SJU won, 1-0.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 2-2-1 all-time against the Raiders. The first meeting was a 5-4 win for then-No. 7 SJU in a neutral-site game played on Nov. 28, 2004, in Menomonie, Wis. The Raiders, then-ranked No. 11 nationally, evened the series with a 3-2 overtime win on Dec. 9, 2011, at the Municipal Athletic Complex (MAC) in St. Cloud. Prior to last season's home series, the previous meeting was a 3-2 win for SJU over then-No. 13 MSOE on Dec. 15, 2012, at the HBNHC.