No. 15 St. Cloud State (2-1-0, 2-1-0 WCHA) relied on special-teams play to gain a 4-2 win at Minnesota State (1-2-0, 0-1-0 WCHA) Friday. The game featured six power-play goals, as the Huskies tied a team record with three power-play goals in the first period.
SCSU broke the ice in the contest at 7:19 of the first period with a 5×3 power play goal by freshman Andreas Nodl. He was assisted on the play by junior defender Aaron Brocklehurst and senior defender Justin Fletcher.
Nodl now has seven points in his first three games as a Husky. This equals the best start by a SCSU player since Ryan Malone (who is currently playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins) had seven points in his first three games in 1999-00.
SCSU pushed the score to 2-0 with a marker by junior forward Dan Kronick at 8:33 of the first. He was assisted on the power play goal by Nodl and freshman forward Ryan Lasch. To cap the first period, junior Andrew Gordon posted the team’s third power play goal at 19:28 of the first period. He was assisted by Nodl and junior forward Nate Dey.
The last time SCSU had three power play goals in a period was during the third period in a game on Dec. 22, 2001 against Minnesota State Mankato at the NHC.
The three PPGs in the first period marked the first time since Dec. 22, 2001 that the Huskies have charted three power play goals in one period. In that contest back in 2001, the Huskies had three PPGs in the third period at the NHC against Minnesota State Mankato.
In the second period, Mankato’s Travis Morin broke the shutout with a power play goal at 1:02. The fire was quickly doused by Lasch, who charted his second goal of the season with a power play tally at 17:32. Senior forward Grant Clafton and Kronick each had an assist on the play.
The PPGs continued to flow in the game as Mankato’s Kevin Huck scored on the advantage at 5:06 of the third period, which cut the lead to 4-2.
MSU pulled its goalie late in the game, but rookie netminder Jase Weslosky stood tall with 28 saves to his credit in his first college start. Dan Tormey had 15 saves in the game for MSU, as the Mavs outshot the Huskies 30-19. On the power play, SCSU was 4-of-7 and MSU was 2-of-8.
The two squads will complete the home-and-home series on Saturday, Oct. 21, with a 7:07 p.m. game at the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud.
