I've taken the liberty of copying Kevin Allenspach's blog and posting it here....
Roe's released from the hospital, X-rays negative (update) Posted 3/19/2010 7:48 PM CDT on sctimes.com
First off, Garrett Roe is OK. According to his father, Larry Roe, Garrett was X-rayed and examined and later released from Regions Hospital in St. Paul after his header into the boards during Friday's 2-0 WCHA Final Five smeifinal victory over Wisconsin. Larry Roe said his son's neck is "stiff and sore," and wouldn't rule out that he would want to play in Friday's championship. The Huskies say that's a game-time decision. I wrote more about this in the game story and a sidebar on Roe for Saturday's paper. (Since this was an afternoon game, I copied the game story and sidebar below so you won't have to wait until midnight to read them.)
Lee, Huskies lock up spot in title game<
Rookie goalie makes 37 saves, Lasch ties career scoring mark with game-winner in 2-0 win over Badgers<
By Kevin Allenspach<
ST. PAUL – Mike Lee was as cool in front of the hot lights of the postgame interview room as he was on the ice Friday at the Xcel Energy Center.<
He made 37 saves to lead the sixth-ranked Huskies to a 2-0 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in the afternoon semifinal at the WCHA Final Five, then proceeded with his routine “just another game” assessment. As though such shutouts are common for 19-year-old freshman goalies.<
Such an approach was just what St. Cloud State needed, however, especially since the Huskies got only a late power-play goal in the second period by Ryan Lasch, an empty-netter at the end by Travis Novak, and lost their leading scorer, Garrett Roe, to a head injury early in the third period.<
“I think it was just the overall type of game we played – it was sound and a hard-fought playoff game,” said Lee, who allowed seven goals in a loss to Wisconsin a month ago. “They got their chances, as did we, and their goalie was on tonight, too. That’s playoff hockey. I thought we didn’t get much at all through the first two periods and that’s what happens when teams tighten up defensively. That’s what we have to expect from here on out.”<
That path will travel through tonight’s Broadmoor Trophy championship game (7 p.m., Fox Sports Net North), which the Huskies have won once (in 2001) and appeared in two other times (1994, 2006).<
They might be without Roe, who was taken to Regions Hospital for X-rays after he slid into the boards while killing a penalty. His father, Larry Roe, said his son underwent X-rays and an examination but was released.<
“He’s pretty stiff and sore right now,” said Larry Roe, who was watching the game with his wife, Julie. “They’re going to check him out (today). I’m sure Garrett will want to play, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing for him to do right now.”<
As Roe was wheeled off on a stretcher he gave the thumbs up while his teammates tapped their sticks and picked up their play.<
“That was obviously a big loss, and with him out we had to become closer as a team and play harder,” said Tony Mosey, Roe’s left-winger, who had two assists. “He’s always working hard for us and we felt that every guy needed to step up for him. Not just one or two guys. It gave us a spark. We responded pretty well after that.”<
Especially Lee. As the Badgers threw everything they could on net to try and find the equalizer, Lee made pad save after glove save after toe save – with or without his stick.<
“I think we’re going to tape it to my blocker,” Lee joked after it was kicked out of his hands and skidded to the blue line in the third.<
Lee was steamrolled midway through the third by Wisconsin forward Craig Smith, then later had an equipment issue with one of his skates. He finished with 20 third-period saves – and got a little help when Brendan Smith’s point shot with barely a minute remaining clanged the right post.<
“He played well and he was lucky there,” Brendan Smith said. “That’s part of the game, but I think he had a little Irish in him there.”<
Lee, a third-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes, has a .961 save percentage in his three postseason college games. Tonight, he’ll go for his second title on this rink. He backstopped Roseau High School to the state title in 2007.<
“This is a confidence booster for everybody,” Lee said. “We beat a team that’s highly ranked after we split with them twice this year. It’s a confidence booster for me, for sure. You want to play well in the playoffs and give your team a chance to win. That’s your job. I’ve just got to keep everything out of the crease.”<
That was especially difficult late in the first period. Lee had to go left-to-right and make a toe save on a power-play one-timer by Wisconsin’s leading scorer, Michael Davies.<
“I feel like we made it easy for him in the first period,” Davies said. “We didn’t get traffic to the net and get that many pucks on net. We were good in the third period, and he played well then. You’ve got to give credit to him. But we’ve got to be ready from the drop of the puck.”<
Lee’s save on Davies was especially big after the Huskies failed to stake their goalie a lead on a 57-second, two-man advantage early in the game.<
“I think every save is as important as the next one,” Lee said. “You make a save like that on the power play, though, to get us out of that situation – that’s pretty big. They had good chances all night long.”<
The game looked like it might turn on a major penalty midway through the second period. Badgers defenseman Cody Goloubef leaped into a check of Nick Oslund as the Huskies were breaking out of their own zone. Oslund stayed down on the ice at his own blue line for a few moments before he was helped off.<
The Huskies had three shots during the major penalty before Mosey negated the final 46 seconds of it with a hooking call. But the teams stayed scoreless 4-on-4 and, before Mosey could return, Wisconsin defenseman Brendan Smith took a tripping penalty the ultimately led to Lasch’s goal.<
As the final seconds of Smith’s penalty ticked away, Mosey got the puck along the right half-wall in the Badgers’ zone. He worked a give-and-go with Roe before firing a shot from between the circles. The puck trickled behind goalie Scott Gudmandson and Lasch got position on Goloubef to shove it over the goal line.<
“On the first couple of power plays, we were working the perimeter and we needed to get more inside,” Lasch said. “Toward the end of the game we needed to get more shots and attack the net. That’s what happened on that goal.”<
Gudmandson finished with 20 saves while Lee joined former SCSU All-American Scott Meyer as the only Huskies to post Final Five shutouts. Meyer stopped 23 shots in beating Minnesota 3-0 in 2001. The next night, he and his teammates hoisted the Broadmoor after a 6-5 overtime win over North Dakota. That remains St. Cloud State’s only postseason championship of the Division I era.<
“This was our fourth time here in five years and we wanted to play on our toes,” Huskies coach Bob Motzko said. “Yesterday’s meeting, we said ‘We’ve got to get after them.’ Tell you a little how much the coaches know, we wanted a shootout … instead, it ends up being 17-17 shots after two (periods) and very hard-fought defensively. That’s how the game settled in. I don’t know if it was because it was an afternoon game, but the ice did tilt on us in the third. Only we had a goalie who stood very tall.”<
Roe removed on stretcher but remains in Huskies’ thoughts<
By Kevin Allenspach<
ST. PAUL – Garrett Roe was gone but not forgotten during the final 15 minutes of Friday’s semifinal victory on Friday at the WCHA Final Five.<
Roe slid headfirst into the boards along the left side of his own zone early in the third period while trying to kill a penalty. As the Huskies protected a one-goal lead, he’d lost his stick and was trying to break up a clearing attempt headed for Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith, the top-scoring defenseman in the nation.<
“He was trying to go for my legs and knock me out and I kind of stood my ground,” Smith said. “He hit his head and it looked like his neck kind of bent back. I hope he’s not too bad. It was a weird play, a desperation play. I just wish he’s OK.”<
The latest reports Friday were that Roe had been released from Regions Hospital and had returned to his team at the Crowne Plaza hotel. His father, Larry, said his son – who was moving his arms and legs after he hit the boards – was in good humor.<
“He’s cracking jokes, so that’s a big relief,” said Larry Roe, who returned to the X on Friday night to retrieve his son’s clothes before going back to the hospital.<
St. Cloud State held on for the 2-0 win, but the memory of their scrappiest teammate writhing in pain was no laughing matter.<
“I saw him go down head-first and it was scary for all of us the way he was moving,” said Tony Mosey, Roe’s left-winger.<
Larry Roe said his son will be re-evaluated today. Incredibly, Garrett Roe hasn’t ruled out playing in today’s championship, though it sounds like that might be a longshot.<
“His neck is very sore and stiff,” Larry Roe said. “I won’t be surprised if Garrett does whatever he can to convince them to let him play, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea. The doctors (initially) were concerned there could be something that would crop up later on. When you have an injury like that, they worry about bleeding on the brain.”<
Play went on for several seconds after Roe was down. Eventually, the officials blew play dead at 4:02 of the third period. SCSU athletic trainer Bryan DeMaine and paramedics from the St. Paul Fire Department attended to Roe, who resisted becoming such a spectacle.<
“He was in pain and they brought the stretcher out and he said ‘I don’t want the stretcher,’ ’’ Huskies coach Bob Motzko said. “But at that point it was too late. The medical people take over. He asked not to be carted off, but precaution is always going to be paramount on a neck injury.<
“When he went down, there was chatter going on and we hadn’t seen that,” Motzko added. “We were a little tight at points of the second period. Maybe I’m underestimating it a little bit. It could’ve played a big part in the game. We’ve seen the reverse sometimes, where a player goes down and your team can get quiet. That didn’t happen. It was a charge. And we responded.”<
Roe, who on Thursday was named to the All-WCHA Third Team for the second consecutive season, was SCSU’s leading scorer entering the game and is on pace to supplant Ryan Lasch and Jeff Saterdalen as the school’s all-time scorer next season. Roe had an assist on Lasch’s game-winning goal Friday and is one point behind Ryan Malone (140 points) for sixth place on SCSU’s scoring chart.<
“It was scary for me as a father and a hockey coach,” said Larry Roe, who coached his son, a Los Angeles Kings draftee, back home in Vienna, Va. “That’s the last thing you want to see, going into the boards headfirst like that. I’m just glad everything turned out OK.”<
Huskies forward Nick Oslund also responded and took over Roe’s responsibility between Mosey and David Eddy in the third period as the Huskies cut to three lines. That was despite that Oslund had to be helped off after Wisconsin’s Cody Goloubef delivered a blow to the head that drew a major penalty in the second period.<
“I thought (Oslund) stepped in between me and Eddy and did a great job,” Mosey said. “It could’ve been a big adjustment, because the three of us – with Roe – have been together for half the year now. But Ozzie stepped in and used his big body well. He might not have been able to see straight after he was hit (in the second period), but he was seeing straight (in the third).”<
So were the Huskies, who got an empty-net goal from Travis Novak and 20 of Mike Lee’s 37 saves in the third.<
“Our compete level and how we had to hang on there at the end was something,” Motzko said. “When Garrett Roe left, our emotions picked up on the bench. The players kept standing up more and we kept saying ‘sit down.’ It had a good feel about it, though.”<
HUSKIES QUOTEBOOK:
* Motzko on whether he would seek supplementary discipline for Cody Goloubef's hit on Nick Oslund: (A five-minute major for contact to the head was issued; Wisconsin protested Aaron Marvin's hit on Blake Geoffrion last month and Marvin earned a three-game suspension) “No, nor do I think there should be (a suspension). What’s going to happen is there’s this concern and attention on hits like that from the NHL down. It affects all of us. As coaches, we don’t want anyone hurt. We didn’t want Geoffrion hurt. Our league has too much respect for the other members for that to happen. I do believe we have to take it out of the game. We saw his hands and elbows get up and out from his body. I think a five-minute penalty was appropriate. It’s a tough situation we’re in right now as coaches, players, referees and administrators. But we will figure it out.”
* Tony Mosey, who had two assists, on Travis Novak getting an empty-net goal in the final minute: “It’s always nice to have a two-goal cushion and when the puck went down there we knew we could keep it in but, if we didn’t, they’d have an odd-man rush the other way. Novak had good support there and to score that one was a big relief.”
* Sam Zabkowicz on losing Roe: “He sacrificed his body out there, but that’s what type of player he is. He puts his team first.”
* Motzko on allowing 20 third-period shots: “We had some terrible turnovers later in the game by a couple of young guys and we play a handful of freshmen and sophomores who have never been here before. They were rattled a bit. They were feeling the pressure Wisconsin puts on you – no space, taking hits. We had to persevere and battle through that.”
Huskies notebook
As the Huskies head into their fourth Broadmoor Trophy game, they conquered a team that has given them trouble and solved a few of their own issues in the process. Motzko entered Friday's game with a 6-11-2 (.368) record against the Badgers -- his worst against any league opponent. And, the Huskies got a power-play goal after going 5-for-39 in their previous nine games. They also held the Badgers scoreless on five chances after allowing opponents 14 power-play goals on 39 chances in the previous nine games.
“I thought the key to our night was killing penalties,” Motzko said. “I think it helped us being on the smaller ice sheet. We got a little more aggressive on the sides … I’ve been real happy with our penalty kill for two weeks.”
· Ryan Lasch will polay in his 159th consecutive career game in the championship. That will tie Nate Dey's career mark for games played. Lasch, presumably, would own the record in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
· Long after the fact, attendances from last weekend’s first-round playoff games at the National Hockey Center were finally revealed. The attendance from Game 1 on March 12, a 5-4 overtime loss to Minnesota State-Mankato, was revised from the 2,992 reported that night to 3,074 in this week’s SCSU news release. That’s still the smallest Huskies home crowd since they drew 2,950 for a playoff game against North Dakota in 1995. The attendances for Games 2 and 3, which weren’t made available on March 13-14, were 3,526 and 3,501, respectively. The Huskies recorded 111,964 fans for 21 home dates this season, an average of 5,332 per game. The overall total was a slight increase from last season, however the average attendance was SCSU’s lowest since 1995-96 (5,004).
· Former Huskies forward Andreas Nodl, who would ’ve been a senior this season if he hadn’t left school after his sophomore year, is listed as the Philadelphia Flyers’ No. 5 prospect in The Hockey News’ annual Future Watch magazine. He has already played 48 NHL games, and totaled one goal, but the Flyers still believe he’s in their plans.
“He has the ability to score,” Flyers GM Paul Holmgren told THN. “Defensively, he’s fine. He just needs to gain confidence.”
Huskies forward Ben Hanowski, a freshman from Little Falls, is the No. 8 prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins. And, former St. Cloud Tech defenseman Michael Sauer is the No. 9 prospect for the New York Rangers. A 22-year-old who has missed the latter part of this season with an injury, he is expected to “get a long look at camp next season.”
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