St. Cloud State Spends Evening in Jail After Travel Troubles

St. Cloud State clinched the Penrose Cup, as the NCHC regular season champions, on Saturday evening with a 5-0 win over Nebraska Omaha. The title was St. Cloud State’s fourth regular season league title in seven seasons, and third in the six-year history of the NCHC.

But the most notable feat of the Huskies’ weekend was their bus trip home from Omaha, which turned harrowing thanks to a blizzard in southern Minnesota. The snow, combined with high winds, combined with a lack of physical geography to block said wind caused major snow drifts that shut down most majors roads in the southern part of the state.

The St. Cloud State bus did battle with two such snow drifts on Sunday, and the Huskies came out on the losing side. Assistant coach Mike Gibbons narrated the ordeal via Twitter:

The stranded team was eventually rescued by the Watonwan County Sheriff and given refuge in the one place that could handle the the whole team: the Watonwan County Jail.

The roads were eventually plowed enough to be passable and the team safely made it back to St. Cloud at 11:05pm, about six and a half hours after getting stuck in the snow drifts.

CBS Sports Net’s Dave Starman tweeted out Sunday night that St. Cloud State’s journey back from Omaha was reminiscent of Bowling Green’s adventure heading to Omaha for the 2007 CCHA playoffs. Though that trip did not include an evening spent in jail, it did take the Falcons a reported 47 hours to make the trip, and produced one of the most epic tractor rescue videos ever: