by Blake Theisen / Sports Director / @blake_theisen

Joe Molenaar sure picked a good time to have one of his best games in a Husky sweater.

The No. 10 St. Cloud State Huskies looked dead to rights early in the 2nd period on Friday night with No. 5 Western Michigan in town. With the Huskies trailing 3-1, the former Minnetonka Skipper flashed some high end skill with a hard-working pivotal goal. Entering down the right wing wall, Molenaar entered into Bronco territory with a defender draped all over him. He drew a penalty while working through a hook, and ripped a hard shot off of Western Michigan goaltender Brendan Bussi. The rebound popped right back to Molenaar and he batted it out of mid air like it was the home run derby into the back of the net.

Then just 50 seconds later, Spencer Meier tied the game at 3-3 off the ensuing powerplay that Molenaar created.

“You need someone to step up and create a spark,” Head Coach Dave Shyiak said of Molenaars game altering shift. “In the course of a game, you’ve got to grab momentum. After Molenaar’s goal, we started to grab it. We got that 2nd goal and then that 3rd goal. He fully got that spark going. He played a heck of a hockey game.”

That 3rd goal Shyiak mentioned came just a few moments later. Micah Miller used his lighting fast speed to dart through the neutral zone, shrugged off contact, and lasered the puck upstairs past Bussi to give the Huskies a 4-3 lead.

The Huskies looked like they had the Broncos on the ropes in the 2nd period and had numerous chances to push the lead to a pair, but they weren’t able to find another to stretch the lead.

The 3rd period brought on some familiar challenges for St. Cloud State. Just 54 seconds into the final period of regulation, the Huskies once again gave up a crippling 3rd period goal. Freshman Jack Peart had a freshman moment, which have started to become far too frequent for the Minnesota Wild draft pick.

Peart broke rule number 1: don’t blindly pass in front of your own net. Western Michigan’s Cedric Fiedler intercepted the pass, and threw a puck toward Husky goalie David Hrenak. Before Hrenak could react, Western’s Jason Polin had slid the puck by him to tie the game at four.

Now, the Huskies looked like the team that was reeling. Zach Okabe took a tripping minor, and just like that the Broncos were in prime position to retake the lead. But far too often, as many NCHC teams have found out, being on the powerplay against St. Cloud is more of a curse than a blessing.

With the Okabe penalty about to expire, the Huskies forced a turnover and Brady Ziemer sprung Jami Krannila for a short handed breakaway. Krannila went to the back hand to beat Bussi and restored a 5-4 Husky lead.

However, it was another crippling goal that would cut the celebration down before it even got started inside the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Jason Polin once again became public enemy number one in St. Cloud tying the game at 5-5 with just over five minutes remaining to force overtime.

Neither side managed to muster up many opportunities in overtime as a majority of the extra period was spent being played at 4-on-4 after the Huskies’ Easton Brodzinski took a penalty late in regulation. So, the Huskies were forced to the shootout for the second straight game.

Kevin Fitzgerald went first and scored first to open the shootout, and he would be the only Husky to score in the skills competition.

Western Michigan’s Max Sasson clearly watched the film from Hranak’s Tuesday performance in the shootout. He started wide to the right, cut into the middle of the ice, and ripped a shot low blocker side on Hrenak to win the shootout 2-1 and pick up the extra NCHC point.

The Huskies earned just one point, while the Broncos picked up two. St. Cloud now resides 3 points behind Duluth after Friday night in the NCHC and are ranked 9th in the Pairwise. In the eyes of the NCAA, the game officially ended in a 5-5 tie.

St. Cloud and Western Michigan return to the ice on Saturday night at 6:07 CT. Coverage for the game can be heard here on 88.1fm KVSC with the pregame show kicking off at 5:40 p.m.