St. Cloud State (4-0-0) beat Michigan Tech (2-2-0) 7-3 at home Saturday night, earning a weekend sweep and giving the Huskies their best-ever start in Division I play.
SCSU sophomore Matt Hendricks earned his first-ever collegiate hat trick in the contest. Hendricks notched one goal in the second period and added two in the third to help the Huskies bring home the win.
St. Cloud jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first with a goal by Ryan Malone followed by another SCSU tally in the second period by Peter Szabo, his first collegiate goal.
Hendricks posted his first goal of the game at 12:54 of the second, giving St. Cloud a 3-0 lead. Michigan Tech got onto the board with a shorthanded goal by Jon Pitts just 15 seconds later.
St. Cloud’s Nate DiCasmirro followed with a power-play goal at 14:11 of the second, which held up to be the game winner, and the second period ended with the Huskies leading 4-1.
In the third period, Chris Durno’s goal for Michigan Tech at 6:02 narrowed the Husky margin to 4-2, but Hendricks’ second goal at 7:46 quickly made it a 5-2 contest.
At 10:21, Mark Hartigan notched his 98th career point to give St. Cloud a 6-2 lead, and two minutes later Hendricks completed his hat trick with a power-play goal, making it 7-2 St. Cloud.
Jaron Doetzel had Michigan Tech’s final goal at 15:05.
The Huskies outshot MTU 31-27 and were 5-for-9 on the power play, while Tech went 0-for-5.
Junior Jake Moreland was the goalie of record for SCSU with 24 saves to his credit, while Brian Rogers and Cam Ellsworth combined for MTU. Rogers was tagged with the loss as he had 22 saves in the game.
