St. Cloud State carries confidence into NCAA hockey tournament

Bob Motzko remembers the burden his team carried in 2010, as St. Cloud State prepared for the NCAA West Regional at Xcel Energy Center. In seven previous trips to the NCAA men's hockey tournament, the Huskies never had won a game, going 0-8 — a streak, their coach said, that weighed heavily on players who were kids when it started.

"It was all the talk when I first got here,'' said Motzko, who has coached St. Cloud State since 2005. "Then when we got that first win in St. Paul, against Northern Michigan, it was like the weight of the world got lifted off us.''

The fourth-ranked Huskies and surging Minnesota Duluth will represent the state in the 16-team NCAA field announced Sunday. As the No. 2 overall seed, St. Cloud State (31-8-1) will return to Xcel this week at a much different place in program history.

Since that breakthrough in 2010, the Huskies have gone 5-4 in the tournament, winning at least one game in their past four NCAA appearances and making the Frozen Four in 2013. They enter Saturday's West Regional opener against Ferris State as a poised, accomplished and injury-free team, fresh off Saturday's 3-1 victory over No. 16 UMD in the final of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament.

UMD (18-15-5) begins play Friday, facing defending NCAA champion and No. 4 overall seed Providence in the Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass. The Bulldogs, 7-1 in their past eight games, got the last of 10 at-large berths to the NCAA tournament when the Gophers lost to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament final. Quinnipiac is the No. 1 overall seed and will play in the East Regional in Albany, N.Y. North Dakota is the No. 3 overall seed and was shipped to the Midwest Regional in Cincinnati and will open Friday against Northeastern.

"Having that experience of winning tournament games, knowing you can do it, is just a huge plus for our psyche,'' said Motzko, whose team is 2-2 in NCAA play at Xcel. "We're playing very well right now. We're healthy, confident and feeling good about our game.''

The seven seniors on the Huskies' roster — led by defenseman Ethan Prow of Sauk Rapids, a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player — form the backbone of a well-balanced team. St. Cloud State's 4.28 goals per game is the second-best average in the country, behind Michigan's 4.89. It also is ranked second in the nation on the power play (28.9 percent).

Its only stumble in recent weeks came in late February, when it was swept at home by UMD. That series was instrumental to boosting the Bulldogs to their fourth NCAA tournament appearance in the past six years. Entering that weekend, UMD had lost three consecutive 2-1 games, leaving the streaky Bulldogs with an 11-14-5 record and an uphill climb to make the NCAA field.

They held the high-scoring Huskies to one goal in each game, kicking off a seven-game win streak in which they allowed opponents a total of 10 goals. The Bulldogs still needed an assist to get into the NCAA tournament; if the Gophers had beaten Michigan in Saturday's Big Ten tournament final, they would have earned the league's automatic bid and pushed UMD out.

"We knew what position we were in the whole last month,'' coach Scott Sandelin said. "We were on the bubble the whole time.

"We lost a lot of one-goal games, and we just tried to stay the course. … There were some frustrating times, but our leaders did a good job getting us through adversity.''

Though Motzko is happy to open the tournament in St. Paul, he believes location is less important than attitude this time of year. To make a run, he said, the Huskies must adopt a businesslike demeanor, and his players already were getting on board.