St. Cloud State (10-8-3, 5-7-1 WCHA) snapped a six-game losing streak against the University of Denver (11-10-2, 8-5-2) with a 5-1 victory over the Pioneers on Friday in Denver.
The Huskies opened the game’s scoring at 5:44 of the first with a tally by senior forward Joe Jensen, who dug the puck past DU goalie Glenn Fisher. Assists on the play were credited to senior forward Billy Hengen and sophomore defender Matt Stephenson. The goal was Jensen’s team-leading 13th of the season and it was Hengen’s team-leading 16th assist of the season.
Hengen padded SCSU’s lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 9:04 of the first period. Jensen notched his 10th assist of the season on the play along with a helper from senior forward Brock Hooton. The Pioneers posted their lone first period goal at 14:08 with a score by Matt Carle, with the assist credited to Geoff Paukovich.
The Huskies got back on track offensively with a goal by junior forward Gary Houseman. He scored his fourth goal of the season at 16:11 of the first period with assists from junior defender Justin Fletcher and sophomore forward Nate Dey.
In the second period, sophomore defender Aaron Brocklehurst posted his second goal of the season at 5:45. The lone assist on the slap shot from the point by Brocklehurst was collected by junior defender Grant Clafton. The goal prompted DU to pull its starting netminder and replace him with Peter Mannino.
To end the second period offense, junior forward Dan Kronick pushed the margin to 5-1 with a goal at 19:43. Junior forward Nate Raduns tallied the solo assist on the play.
DU outshot the Huskies, 19-15, in the first period, but a tough SCSU defense limited Denver to just six shots in the second period. In the game, SCSU was outshot by the Pioneers, 31-28, but the Huskies were 1-of-5 on the power play while DU was 0-of-6. In the nets, Bobby Goepfert was impressive with 30 saves.
The Huskies and Pioneers will play again in Denver on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 8:07 p.m. (CT).
