By Kyle Ginsbach/Assist. Sports Director/@GinsbachKyle

St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey battled to a hard-earned 4-3 over the Bemidji State Beavers at the Brooks Center on Friday night.

The theme of the night for the Huskies was youth. With three upperclassmen battling injuries, those being junior forward Adam Ingram, Senior defenseman Karl Falk, and junior defenseman Josh Zinger, the Huskies had no choice but to lean on their youth. While it might not have always been pretty, St. Cloud’s young guns found themselves in key spots in the game, and they delivered.

It all started with a rude awakening for SCSU. Bemidji state dominated the vast majority of the first period, at one point outshooting the Huskies 10-2. The scoreboard after the first 20 would suggest otherwise though. Austin Burnevik would be set up by Barett Hall in the dying seconds of the first, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead with 0.6 seconds left on the clock. Isak Posch, making his second consecutive start, would keep the Beavers off the board through the first 20 minutes, allowing the Huskies to head into the locker room with the lead.

That lead would disappear and reappear quickly. A little over two minutes into the second period, BSU forward Carter Randklev would put a puck behind Isak Posch for the first time all season, knotting the game at one apiece. St. Cloud State would respond six minutes later, with Austin Burnevik firing another puck past Mattias Sholl off of a turnover to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead. Two minutes later, that lead would double as Veeti Miettinen would set up Ethan AuCoin on an odd-man rush, making the game 3-1. However, the 3-1 lead is known as the most dangerous lead in hockey for a reason. Bemidji State would answer with two goals 34 seconds apart from Randklev and Eric Martin, tying the game back up. The damage would stop there though, with Posch and the Huskies keeping the game tied 3-3 heading into the third period.

After two periods of lopsided play, the final period saw both teams play their most even minutes of the night. It would be Thor Byfuglien, playing in his first college hockey game, to break the deadlock. With six minutes to go in the game, the freshman defenseman would find himself 1-on-1 with Beavers netminder Matias Sholl, and he’d win the battle. In one of the prettier goals you’ll ever see from a defensemen, Byfuglien went bar down on a backhander to give the Huskies the lead for good. The horn would sound six minutes later, giving the Huskies their second straight win to begin the season, and their fourth straight win over the Beavers. Bemidji State still has not beaten the Huskies at the Brooks Center since 2011.

After the game, Huskies head coach Brett Larson praised the effort of his younger players. On the team effort, “I thought everybody pulled their weight tonight, I don’t think we had any passengers. I thought every guy brought everything they had.” On his team’s resiliency after the rough start, Larson would add, “In the first period, they played like men, and we played like boys. But I was really happy with our response in the second.”

Up Next: St. Cloud State will play the second game of the home & home series against Bemidji State at the Sanford Center. Puck Drop for game two is slated for 6:00 p.m. with pregame coverage starting after the women’s hockey team wraps up their game, which begins at 2:00. Brian Moos and Alexander Fern will be on the call, where you can find the game online at kvsc.org, or on the main airways 88.1 FM KVSC.