[SAINT PAUL, MN]
Every team probably earmarks or highlights those games on the calendar against teams that you grade yourself against. Teams that, depending on where you are in your development as a hockey club, either hope to be on pace with or hope to someday be at their level. For the Minnesota Norsemen, they are in that in-between area with some of their Canosa Conference foes. Recently, Mike Yeo’s team took to the road for what could be considered a three-headed monster of a roady and came out of it 1-2 against Hamilton (3-1 loss), Georgetown (2-1 win) and Reykjavik (4-1 loss).
“It was a good test for us as a team,” said Yeo in his pre-game against the Long Island Express on Thursday from Herb Brooks Olympia. “We obviously hoped for better results in a couple of those games. But we tried something different every game, and hopefully, we will come more prepared and battle-tested the next time we face those teams, and respond with more authority here at home.”
Respond the Norsemen did indeed. A young team that is fairly loaded with some offensive juggernauts, Minnesota has struggled to keep pace with the opposition in the shots department and taking advantage of having the man-advantage. That changed on Thursday night.
Down early 1-0, Charlie Coyle got the Norsemen back even in the 1st period with a power-play tally from Jonas Brodin and Sami Vatanen. In the 2nd period, the home team found themselves down again, but two rookies came to the rescue. Brandon Carlo (PPG), then Mitch Marner (PPG) notching each their 2nd career CCHL goals. Coyle opened up the scoring in the 3rd on a breakaway, highlight reel goal. Dustin Brown brought the Express within one a couple minutes later. But the Captain was on fire and got the hat trick and his sixth of the season for the 5-3 win in St. Paul.
“There wasn’t a guy in this room that was happy about how we played in Iceland,” said Coyle. “We know we’re better than how we played there, and it was definitely something that we took into practice and into this one here. We had to before this one, and have to continue to up our tempo and play at maximum effort every single night. We have a bunch of really good teams in this Conference, and definitely, some in the Corfield when we get to the inter-conference games. We had some issues here tonight that we still need to clean up. But I was happy with the compete level and energy we had in a bounce-back situation.”
The Norsemen will continue their homestand on Saturday when the Springfield Isotopes come to town.
3-STARS vs Long Island:
(*) Charlie Coyle [MIN] – 3 goals (2 PPG)
(**) Brandon Carlo [MIN] – 1 PP goal & 1 assist
(***) Mitch Marner [MIN] – 1 PP goal
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