By Carl Goenner / Sports Director / @carl_goennerpxp / Tempe, AZ

-The St. Cloud State men’s hockey team defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 4-1 on Friday night.  Tyson Gross was the games leading scorer, finishing with two goals and adding 1 assist.  St. Cloud State moves to 14-15-0 overall on the season.

The Sun Devils started fast and gained offensive control early on.  However, St. Cloud State kept them out of the goal and took momentum back.  SCSU’s Gavyn Thoreson was called for kneeing roughly halfway through the period, giving the Sun Devils a powerplay.   The Husky penalty kill successfully killed off the penalty and held ASU to zero shots on net.  Four minutes later, Arizona State’s Noah Powell committed a boarding penalty, giving the Huskies a powerplay of their own.  The Sun Devils kept the Huskies out of the net and the first period ended with no score on the board.

Just 1 minute and 48 seconds into the second period, St. Cloud State’s Nolan Roed committed a hooking penalty, giving ASU a powerplay.  Less than 45 seconds into the powerplay, Finn Loftus and Tyson Gross found themselves with a two on one odd man rush.  Tyson Gross netted a shorthanded goal, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead.  St. Cloud State held momentum until late in the period when Arizona’s Noah Powell scored.  He took advantage of chaos in front of the net and snuck a puck past Patricks Berzins and the second period ended with a score of 1-1.

The third period was very evenly played with both teams swapping offensive possession.  It wasn’t until the 13:49 mark of the period that Tyson Gross scored his second goal of the game, giving SCSU a 2-1 lead.  With two minutes and 38 seconds remaining ASU pulled their goaltender to gain a six on five advantage.  Verner Miettinen took advantage, stealing a puck at the blueline and scoring on a one man breakaway, extending the lead to two goals.  Less than 20 seconds later, Austin Burnevik scored an empty net goal of his own and the Huskies defeated the Sun Devils 4-1.

Brett Larson Postgame Quote: “I thought we just managed the game really well and I thought we didn’t just sit on a lead, we played hard and kept going.”

Austin Burnevik Postgame Quote: we know the potential we have and   I think for the most part we liked our game as a whole.” “We had everyone going tonight and we’re going to need that going into tomorrow.” 

The Huskies and Sun Devils will face off again tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m.

You can catch that game live on 88.1 FM KVSC with Carl Goenner on the call.

Photo credit: Bill Prout.