By Kyle Ginsbach/Assist. Sports Director/@GinsbachKyle

St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey opened NCHC conference play on Friday Night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center with a victory over the Miami Redhawks.

The Huskies and Redhawks opened the first period of play in a slurry of uneventful, albeit even, action. After consecutive penalties seconds apart would bring the action to 4-on-4, Grant Achan would score a shorthanded goal as a brief Redhawks penalty expired, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Sophomore netminder Isak Posch would make a couple of big saves, allowing SCSU to take a lead into the first break.

The second period would be an ugly one for St. Cloud State. Despite Austin Burnevik doubling the Huskies’ lead early on an ugly goal, the Huskies would lose the plot completely. Max Dukovac would cut into the home team’s lead first, followed by the equalizer from Matt Choupani less than 10 minutes later, giving the Huskies their first blown multi-goal lead of the season. Even after spending the final two minutes of the period with their third powerplay chance of the game, the Redhawks would head into the final break tied with the Huskies.

The third period would be much of the same for the Huskies. Both teams would continue to generate little scoring chances and continue with the sloppy, hard-nosed play. Both Isak Posch and Redhawks netminder Ethan Dahlmeir would make the important saves when needed, sending the game to overtime. The five minutes of 3-on-3 action would be much of the same, with both teams unable to generate quality scoring chances. That would be true until less than seconds left on the extra period would see Grant Achan net his second goal of the game, sending the Huskies home salvaging two of the three points.

After the game, Huskies Head Coach Brett Larson had this to say about his teams performance against the projected bottom dwellers of the NCHC, “You go from that excitement of playing Boston College, the number two team in the country and wanting to knock them off, and I thought we gave them our best punch and played great. I think we had a little bit of a letdown tonight. I think that we weren’t where we needed to be, and Miami did punch us in the mouth, and they played really well, and I hope that wakes us up tomorrow.”

Up Next: St. Cloud State will play game two of their home series against the Miami Redhawks. Brian Moos and Carl Goenner will be on the call, with Alexander Fern iceside reporting. You can catch the game on 88.1 FM KVSC, or online at kvsc.org.