Melanie Pudsey scored a pair of power-play goals and assisted on another to lead St. Cloud State (6-12-0) past Quinnipiac (3-13-0) at the National Hockey Center.
The teams traded goals throughout with the Huskies getting on the board first when Abby Cooper scored on the power play, five minutes, 58 seconds into the opening period.
That lead would hold up for nearly 20 minutes before the Bobcats got the first of their three power-play goals, with Caitlin Peters scoring at 4:22 of the second period.
The only even-strength goal of the game came barely four minutes later when St. Cloud’s Katie Hauge notched her second goal of the season.
Quinnipiac responded again at 16:16 with a Katie O’Hara power-play tally but Pudsey’s first goal came with 44 seconds left in the middle frame to reestablish the Huskies’ one-goal lead entering the second intermission.
Gillian Gallagher tied the game for the third time just 3:13 into the final period but St. Cloud began to control the game from that point, outshooting its guests 15-5 in the final period with Pudsey’s goal at 11:02 breaking the tie and giving the Huskies their sixth victory of the season.
“It took us a while to get the dust off,” said SCSU head coach Jason Lesteberg, referring to his team’s 23-day layoff from competition. “At times we played well and got the puck on net, but we took too many penalties.”
The Huskies gave up five power-play chances, of which the Bobcats converted on three. St. Cloud was 3-for-6 on the power-play.
“Since we’ve come back (from break) our power play has looked pretty good,” Lesteberg said. “Beyond that, we just need to work hard for 60 minutes.”
St. Cloud State returns to WCHA play this weekend with a home-and-home series versus No. 3 Minnesota, beginning Friday night in St. Cloud.
Quinnipiac continues its five-game Midwest trip with a pair of games at North Dakota, Friday and Saturday.
