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St. Cloud State Stuns North Dakota 3-1

The #9 ranked St. Cloud State Huskies pulled into Grand Forks on Friday and Left on Saturday without a scratch.

By Matt Christians
Justin K. Aller

For the first time in four years, North Dakota was swept on their home ice of Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

Following a 3-2 victory on Friday, the Huskies scored 3 unanswered goals to complete their first Sweep of North Dakota in Grand Forks since 2006, stunning Dave Hakstol's team in a 3-1 Saturday night final.

Troy Stecher, who had an impressive 3-point weekend, put North Dakota on the board first with an absolute blast from the blueline while on the power play with just 1:20 remaining in the first period.  Nick Mattson recorded the assist and UND left the ice after the first period with the 1-0 lead.

At 6 minutes and 59 seconds into the 2nd period, St. Cloud State went to work.  Tim Daly scored a truly impressive goal by taking advantage of Gothberg's launch out of the net in order to cover the puck, but Daly pulled it back and buried it, evening the game at one.

Just 12 seconds later, Nic Dowd found the back of the net.  Dowd was coming down the left side of the boards and absolutely leveled Stecher, then skated out in front of the net where Jimmy Murray fed him the puck to which he buried, giving the Huskies the lead 2-1.

Kalle Kossila capped off the night's scoring at 9:35 in the third period off a beautifully crafted play by the entire line.  Jonny Brodzinski started with the puck on the far right, before hitting Joey Benik to his left, who found Kossila to his left, who pulled the puck to the right of Gothberg and slid it in.  And just like that, St. Cloud State went up, 3-1.

The weekend of January 29th, 2010 was the last time North Dakota was swept at home.  But what about before that?  One must look back to 2006 when Maine, Wisconsin, and Michigan Tech all found series sweeps in Grand Forks.

Scoring Summary

1st Period - UND (18:40) PP Troy Stecher from Nick Mattson

2nd Period - SCSU (6:59) Tim Daly from Nic Dowd and Jonny Brodzinski

2nd Period - SCSU (7:11) Nic Dowd from Jimmy Murray and David Morley

3rd Period - SCSU (9:35) Kalle Kossila from Joey Benik and Jonny Brodzinski

Notes

  • The game was sold out, with 11,882 fans at the game.
  • UND's Colten St. Clair was helped off the ice with an apparent lower body injury and did not return to the game.
  • SCSU's Ryan Faragher stopped 45 of the 48 shots he faced this weekend.
  • UND has now killed 28 power plays in a row since giving up a goal to Vermont.
  • SCSU have yet to lose a game in NCHC play (2-0-0).
  • The only teams that have yet to experience a season loss is St. Cloud State (5-0-1) and Minnesota (5-0-1).
  • SCSU is now tied for first place in the NCHC with Western Michigan and Nebraska Omaha, who also had weekend sweeps.

North Dakota will travel to Nebraska Omaha next weekend to face former UND coach Dean Blais and his Mavericks, while St. Cloud State will host Miami in what is bound to be a very good series.

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 ->