Making the most of its shots and power play chances resulted in an Ice Breaker Tournament title trophy for Michigan Tech University Saturday in Duluth.
The Huskies converted on their first three man advantage opportunities of the night and scored on four of the 17 shots they put on net in a 4-3 championship game victory over the University of Minnesota Duluth at AMSOIL Arena.
The No. 6 Bulldogs, who opened their 2017-18 season by downing No. 3 University of Minnesota 4-3 in overtime in Friday's semifinals, took a quick 1-0 lead just 39 seconds in when sophomore left winger
Riley Tufte rapped in a loose puck for his second goal in as many nights. Eight minutes later, sophomore defenseman
Nick Wolff's shot from the left faceoff circle careened off the right post to double the UMD advantage. Michigan Tech (2-1-0 overall) then answered with three straight power play goals, including a pair 62 seconds apart midway through the second period and another 6:58 into the second. With UMD up a man, rookie defenseman
Scott Perunovich went five hole on Michigan Tech goaltender Patrick Munson (who was without a stick) to draw the Bulldogs even at the 8:29 mark of that same period. Just two minutes after that, Justin Misiak potted the game winner -- the Huskies' only even-strength goal of the game -- to close out the scoring.
Third-year sophomore
Nick Deery, making his third career start (but first since Oct. 14, 2017), finished with 13 saves while his Michigan Tech counterpart, Partick Munson, made 33 stops -- including 13 in the first period when the Huskies were outshot 15-4.
Both Tufte and Perunovich were joined on the six-person Ice Breaker All-Tournament team by forwards Joel L'Esperance (Michigan Tech) and Anthony Rinaldi (Union College), defenseman Mark Auk (Michigan Tech), who was named the event's Most Valuable Player, and goaltender Eric Schierhorn (Minnesota).
"We learned a little bit more about our team this weekend," said UMD head coach
Scott Sandelin, whose Bulldogs lost for just the second time in their last 11 games with Michigan Tech (7-2-2). "Last night we had a big, emotional win, and tonight I thought we came out okay but maybe after getting a couple of goals we thought this was going to be easy. We let up a bit at the end of the first period and got kind of sloppy.
"Give Michigan Tech credit -- they battled and capitalized and got the win. But I do like some of the things I saw from us."
UMD will take on Bemidji State University this Friday (Oct. 13) in Bemidji, Minn., before returning to Duluth the following evening to complete the home-and-home non-conference series.
