By Carl Goenner / Sports Director / carlgoenner.bsky.social / Duluth, Minn.

-The St Cloud State Men’s Hockey Teams head north this weekend for their first series of 2025.  The Huskies will face off with the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Friday, January 10 and Saturday, January 11 inside Amsoil Arena in Duluth Minnesota.

The St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey Team is coming off a bye week, but finished 2024 with a 2-1 win over St. Thomas. The UMD Men’s Team hosted The University of Alaska Fairbanks last weekend finishing with a tie and a loss.

The 11-7-0 Huskies are 4-4-0 in NCHC play but have only won 1 of their last 4 conference games. The Bulldogs meanwhile, are 6-11-1 overall and 2-6-0 in the conference but historically have had the edge over the Huskies in Duluth.  St. Cloud State is 80-61-10 overall against Minnesota Duluth, but 30-35-3 in away games. This weekend, the Huskies will look to get their first win in Duluth since January 28, 2023. 

Familiar Foes.

The games will be the 152nd and 153rd meetings between the two teams. After transferring to Duluth over the summer, this matchup will mark the first time that former Husky Joe Molenaar will face off against his former team. 

Molenaar is a former Alternate Captain at St Cloud State who spent 4 seasons with the Huskies. He played in 106 games earning 15 goals and 30 points.

Battle in The Dot:

St Cloud State is currently ranked 5th in the nation in faceoff win percentage much in part to the success of Mason Salquist and Tyson Gross.  Both Salquist and Gross rank in the top 50 in the NCAA in faceoff wins.  The Bulldogs have been great in the dot as well and rank 24th in the nation.  Along with being the leading scorer on the team, Dominic James is also second in the NCHC in face-off wins.  He has won 204 of his 364 draws for UMD, ranking him 16th in the NCAA.

Players to Watch:

Barrett Hall.

Hall has largely excelled in distributing this year but has now scored in two straight games and is coming off a season high 5 shots on goal vs St. Thomas. He has been a consistent member of the power play unit and with Burnevik back in the lineup, the chances of getting another point only goes up. Halls offense has continued to improve as well and he should be able to use his speed and great stick skills to create good scoring opportunities for himself or others.

Austin Burnevik.

Austin Burnevik leads the Huskies in both goals and points and has had a very impressive season. He will be playing in his first games back after playing for the United States in the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships and winning gold.  That’s as good of momentum that anyone could ask for and after not registering any points in the tournament, one could expect that he’s hungry for a goal.

You can listen to both games this weekend live on 88.1 FM, KVSC.  Carl Goenner will be on play-by-play, with Brian Moos on Color, and Alexander Fern down Ice Side.  Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM on Friday and 6:00 PM on Saturday with pre-game starting a half hour before.