St. Cloud 8 NTDP U18 0: Final Scoring and Notes

There's not much to be said about this one. St. Cloud dominated an over-matched opponent and cruised to an easy 8-0 victory over the NTDP U18 team. Joey Benik scored three goals, including one with 10 seconds left in the first period, and one 30 seconds into the second period. The Huskies held a 34-18 shots on goal advantage in the game.

Here's the official final scoring:

First Period:

7:02- Nic Dowd from Joey Benik and Jimmy Murray 1-0 St. Cloud

Dowd was left all alone in front of the net and put in a rebound that Minney appeared to have saved initially, but the puck squirted through and into the net.

19:50 Joey Benik from Jonny Brodzinski and Kalle Kossila (power play) 2-0

Late in the period, the Huskies worked a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play, where Brodzinski got the puck at the left goal line and made a cross ice pass to Benik who one-timed the puck into an empty net.

Second Period:

0:17 Joey Benik from Nic Dowd and Jimmy Murray 3-0 St. Cloud

Off the opening face-off of the period, the Huskies broke into the zone and Dowd hit Benik with a pass right in front of the net for the goal.

0:30 David Morley from Kalle Kossila 4-0 St. Cloud

On a similar play, Morley received a pass from Kossila right in front of the net and scored.

Third Period:

7:24 Daniel Tedesco from Ethan Prow and Brooks Bertsch 5-0 St. Cloud

Tedesco came across the crease and snuck a puck past Minney.

8:04 Garrett Milan from Joey Holka and Ben Storm 6-0 St. Cloud

Holka won a battle behind the net and passed it out to Milan in the slot, who one-timed the puck into the net.

15:43 Jonny Brodzinski from Kalle Kossila 7-0 St. Cloud

Brodzinski beat Minney with a long shot from the high slot.

18:44 Joey Benik from Ben Storm (power play) 8-0 St. Cloud

Storm fired a cross-ice pass to Benik who one-timed the puck into an empty net from the bottom of the left circle.

Notes:

-There's different philosophies on what to do with a line-up when playing an exhibition against the NTDP. Some teams will rest their top players and give some other guys a little more playing time. St. Cloud, not having played a game in almost a month, dressed all their top guys, and with St. Cloud's top two lines, it was literally men against boys.

-St. Cloud head coach Bob Motzko was back from Sweden after coaching at the World Juniors, but opted to stay up in the press box, and let assistants Mike Gibbons and Garrett Raboin handle the game as planned.

-This was just a dreadful weekend for the NTDP U18s, losing to UMD 7-0, and then 8-0 tonight to St. Cloud. They were without two of their top forwards in Jack Eichel and Sonny Milano, but did pick up Nick Schmaltz for the weekend. Their defense looked just absolutely brutal tonight. Way too many breakdowns and guys left all alone in front of the net.

-I'll have a much more in-depth breakdown of the NTDP U18s later this week with an eye towards the 2014 NHL Draft. Among the big names for the US, Dylan Larkin, Nick Schmaltz, and Alex Tuch all improved my opinion of their play tonight, and most of the big name D will probably slide down my board a bit.