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St. Cloud State Defeats North Dakota 3-2

The #9 St. Cloud State Huskies held on until the very end to defeat #5 North Dakota at Ralph Engelstad Arena on Friday night.

By Matt Christians
Justin K. Aller

Grinding down until the last few seconds ticked off the clock, St. Cloud State was able to hold on to the 3-2 victory despite killing a penalty in the remaining minutes of the game.

SCSU's Ryan Faragher and UND's Zane Gothberg were the night's starting goaltenders and both saw about the same amount of action throughout the game.

North Dakota's Drake Caggiula lit the lamp to begin the game just 3:10 into the first period via Troy Stecher and Gage Ausmus.  Caggiula came flying down the right side, putting the puck through SCSU defenseman Kevin Gravel's legs, and barely squeezed it by a waiting Faragher to give UND the 1-0 lead.

Caggiula's tally capped scoring through the end of the first period and all through the second period, but the game was anything but boring.

The Huskies flew into the third period, scoring just 2:36 in by Gravel.   Jimmy Murray did a complete spin down along the right side of the boards to protect the puck, and sent it to Gravel who was flying down the slot and buried the puck to put the Huskies on the board and tie the game.

Under 2 minutes later, Kalle Kossila buried a Ben Storm-rebound that gave St. Cloud State the 2-1 lead.  Andrew Prochno would tally last for the Huskies, which was the start of the edge-of-your-seat third period action.

North Dakota's Mark MacMillan scored off a Troy Stecher blast from the point, which put UND within a goal with under 5 minutes remaining.

St. Cloud State's Tim Daly took a minor penalty with just over 3 minutes remaining, which put UND on the power play.  Fortunately for the Huskies, they held on for the 3-2 victory in their first NCHC game.

Scoring Summary

1st Period - UND (3:10) Drake Caggiula from Troy Stecher and Gage Ausmus

3rd period - SCSU (2:36) Kevin Gravel from Jimmy Murray and Ryan Papa

3rd period - SCSU (4:32) Kalle Kossila from Ben Storm and Niklas Nevalainen

3rd period - SCSU (12:36) Andrew Prochno from Ethan Prow and Nic Dowd

3rd period - UND (15:39) Mark MacMillan from Troy Stecher and Michael Parks

Notes

  • SCSU's Faragher stopped 29 of 31 shots, while UND's Gothberg denied 27 of the 30 shots he faced.
  • Both MacMillan and Caggiula recorded their 5th points on the season.
  • The Huskies led in blocked shots, 21 to 9.
  • Both teams failed to score while on the power play.
  • North Dakota won 61% of the night's faceoffs.

Enjoy,

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Matt Christians covers Minnesota Duluth and the NCHC for SB Nation and College Hockey News. You can also give him a follow on Twitter ->