Men's Ice Hockey | 3/5/2018 9:18:00 PM

Leading their team to a win and a tie on the final weekend of the regular season, the Bauer National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Offensive Player and Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 26-March 4, 2018 are St. Cloud State sophomore forward Ryan Poehling and SCSU junior blue liner Jimmy Schuldt for Defenseman of the Week. These are the final Bauer NCHC Players of the Week for the 2017-18 season.

This is the first career NCHC weekly award for both Poehling, while Schuldt collected his fourth Defenseman of the Week honor this season and of his career.

Ryan Poehling

A sophomore from Lakeville, Minn., Poehling powered St. Cloud State to a win and a tie at North Dakota to close the regular season, tallying three goals in the series. In Friday's opener, the Montreal Canadiens first-round draft pick single-handedly led the Huskies to a win with his first career multi-goal game. With the game tied 2-2, Poehling used an incredible move on a breakaway to put SCSU in front in the third period, with his playing coming in at No. 3 on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 that night.



After UND forced overtime, he then scored again, striking on the power play 2:48 into the extra session for the game-winning goal in a 4-3 victory. He put four shots on goal and was First Star of the Game Friday. The next night, he started a two-goal comeback with SCSU down 2-0 in the third period, as he scored his second power play goal of the weekend to get the Huskies on the board in an eventual 2-2 tie. Poehling finished the series with three goals, an even plus/minus and five shots on goal. On the season, he is fourth on SCSU in team scoring with 29 points on 12 goals and 17 assists in 30 games.



Schuldt was a force at both ends of the ice, helping SCSU earn four points at North Dakota last weekend with three points of his own. In Friday's opener, he notched a pair of points, assisting on the Huskies' first goal, which tied the game at 1-1 in the second period. A Hobey Baker Award candidate for 2018, Schuldt then scored a goal of his own on the power play two minutes later to put SCSU in front, 2-1, in an eventual 4-3 overtime win. He fired five shots on goal Friday and also blocked five shots, while helping the Huskies penalty kill go 3-for-4.



The next night, Schuldt dished out another assist on the Huskies' first goal, which started an SCSU comeback in the third period after UND went up 2-0. He blocked three more shots in Saturday's 2-2 overtime tie. Schuldt ended the series with a goal, two assists, an even plus/minus, five shots on goal and eight blocked shots. The co-captain also helped hold UND to five goals on the weekend, including only two even strength markers. Schuldt ranks third nationally among blue liners with 36 points on the season, including eight goals and 28 assists in 34 games, while his +23 plus/minus is tops in the NCAA.



The #1 Huskies will open the NCHC playoffs with first round playoff action on March 9-11 at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center against Miami University. Game time on Friday, March 9 is slated for 7:37 p.m. The game on March 10 will begin at 7:07 p.m. and the game on March 11 (if needed in this best of three series) will start at 7:07 p.m. The winner of the series will advance to the 2018 NCHC FInal Faceoff at the Xcel Energy Center on March 16-17.



