The St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey team has struggled this season, but as of late has been playing stronger hockey to make the playoffs. This past weekend the Huskies part in the 4th and final North Star Cup down in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center. 

The Huskies began the tournament with a match-up against the Bemidji State Beavers. Jacob Benson got the Huskies on the board first just six minutes into the game on the power-play with assists going to Blake Winiecki and Jack Achan.

In the second period Winiecki got his name on the stats-sheet once again this time in the goal column. Nick Poehling and Mikey Eyssimont had assists on the goal that gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead. However, 10 minutes later the Beavers broke through on a point shot from Zach Whitecloud that beat the glove hand of St. Cloud goalie Jeff Smith. The scoring ended there and the Huskies took a 2-1 victory and punched their ticket to the championship game to defend their crown.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, they couldn’t replicate their championship success against the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. The Huskies got on the board late in the first period when Will Borgen buried a centering feed from Robby Jackson over the glove hand of Duluth goalie Hunter Miska.

The scoring halted until the opening minute of the third period when Alex Iafallo scored on an off angle to tie the game at 1-1. Extra time was needed to declare a winner. Just six minutes into the OT frame Kyle Osterberg scored from the slot to give Duluth their first North Star Cup championship.

The Huskies resume action February 3rd and 4th away at North Dakota. The next home series will be February 10th and 11th against the University of Miami.