Gavin Nelson // In-Studio Producer // @GavinNelson_WAV

St. Cloud, Minn. – Friday night, St. Cloud State who has been in 1st place in the NCHC since the beginning of November, lost a tough battle to the North Dakota Fighting Hawks in regulation with a final score of 5-3. The last time these two teams faced off together was in the first round of the Frozen Faceoff where the Huskies would beat the Hawks 3-2 with a goal by Zach Okabe.

A notable stat from last night’s game is Veeti Miettinen became the 39th member to join the century club where he would score on a PP opportunity in the latter half of the third period.

Starting in the 1st period, 7 minutes into the 1st period, an assist from Owen McLaughlin and a goal by Jackson Blake. North Dakota would continue the scoring streak at 19:53.5 where a goal from Garrett Pyke gave the Hawks a 2-0 lead. After our first intermission, in the first 24 seconds, an assist from Kyler Kupka would allow the opportunity for Mason Salquist to get the Huskies on the board to make the score 2-1. It wouldn’t take long until 13:15 in the 2nd on the Hawks PP opportunity, for his second goal of the night, Blake would make it 3-1 in favor of North Dakota.

The scoring would continue towards the middle of the 3rd period, and Zach Okabe would make it 3-2 for the Huskies The rest of the scorers on the night would be Cameron Berg, Veeti Miettinen, and Jamernik V, Louis on an empty netter.

The Huskies would go 1-2 on the PP and North Dakota would go 2-3 on their PP.

UP NEXT: St. Cloud State’s next series will be the weekend of January 26th & 27th as they take on the 19th-ranked (7th NCHC) Omaha Mavericks 11-9-2. Friday’s game is set for 7:30 pm CST and Saturday’s game is set for 6:00 pm CST. You can catch our pregame show 30 minutes before puck drop on 88.1 FM KVSC or online at KVSC.org.