Fifteenth-ranked St. Cloud State added another twist to the WCHA race with a 4-2 win over No. 1 Colorado College Friday.
In the first period, the two squads dueled to a 0-0 gridlock as the Huskies outshot CC 14-10.
The scoreboard continued to show zeroes until three-fourths of the way through the second period. SCSU finally marked the first goal of the game when junior Matt Hendricks posted his eighth goal of the season at 14:36, on the power play and with assists from Ryan Malone and Derek Eastman.
CC came back with a goal at 15:17 of the second period by Joe Cullen. But the Huskies took advantage of another power play late in the period when Malone scored his 13th goal of the season at 18:24 with assists from Joe Motzko and Eastman.
In the third period, CC knotted the game once more when Brett Sterling scored on the power play at 1:16 with assists from Andrew Canzanello and Tom Preissing.
SCSU’s Jon Cullen — the cousin of CC’s Joe — collected the game winner at 4:40 of the third period with an assist from Motzko.
The Huskies’ Matt Gens iced the contest at the buzzer with an empty-net goal.
The Huskies were outshot 44-35 in the match but senior goalie Jake Moreland was impressive with a career-high 42 saves. Curtis McEhlhinney had 31 saves for the Tigers. On the power play, CC was 1-of-5 and SCSU was 3-of-8.
The game also snapped national scoring leader Peter Sejna’s 31-game scoring streak, as he was held pointless by the Husky defense.
The victory improves SCSU’s record to 14-10-3, 10-8-3 WCHA, while CC moves to 22-4-5, 15-3-5 WCHA. The two teams will square off again on Saturday with a 7:05 p.m. start at the National Hockey Center.
