by Blake Theisen / Sports Director / @blake_theisen

A lot can change in three months. The St. Cloud State Huskies and Denver Pioneers are perfect examples of that.  

The Huskies woke up on November 7th winners of four in a row and off to a hot 8-2-0 start. The Pioneers had just lost their fourth in a row. They hadn’t scored more than one goal in three straight games, and they looked much like the same team that disappointed a year ago.

Fast forward three months and Denver has become the hot team going 16-1-1 since November 7th. They are flawless on home ice, and look poised to host the Loveland NCAA regional, just an hour north of where they call home. 

St. Cloud meanwhile has stumbled. The 8-2-0 start has turned into a pedestrian 14-9-1 record. They’ve set losing streak records in the Brett Larson era, twice, and have slipped to 6th place in the NCHC.

This weekend, the stumble continued. Denver dismantled St. Cloud 8-5 on Friday night and followed that up with a 22-save shutout of the Huskies on Saturday in a 2-0 victory. 

On Friday night, things couldn’t have started any better for SCSU. 

Zach Okabe opened the scoring just 3:38 into the first period. On an awkward bounce in front of Denver goaltender Magnus Chrona, Okabe found himself with a look at an uncontested 4×6 opening and took advantage. 

The good fortune continued for St. Cloud less than two minutes later. Okabe’s line mate, Jami Krannila drove wide as he entered Denver territory and cut to the center of the ice in front of Chrona to slip it past the DU net minder to push the lead to 2-0. 

Then, late in the first, SCSU’s Kevin Fitzgerald continued to bury the Pioneers with a power play goal to wrap up the first period.

That’s when the good times in Husky Land came to screeching halt. Denver, the nation’s best 2nd period team, awoke. 

After Nolan Walker received a 5-minute major for boarding just 21 seconds into the period, the Pioneers struck twice. Carter Savoie notched a pair of power play goals to pull the game within a goal. 

Denver continued to pepper SCSU goaltender David Hrenak. As the period wore on, so did the stress on Hrenak. The Slovakian goalkeeper made numerous game saving stops. Denver outshot SCSU in the period 18-3. It felt like Hrenak never got a rest.

“David really kept us in it,” said SCSU associate Head Caoch, Dave Shyiak. “On Friday night, he actually kept it close for us.”

Fitzgerald was able to extend the Husky lead near the end of the 2nd period. Fitzgerald came in on a 2-on-1 with Micah Miller, looked off his linemate and then whipped a wrist shot past Chrona, but the shift in momentum was short lived. Denver’s Brett Stapley answered back immediately to push it back to 4-3 SCSU. 

That’s when the collapse came full circle for the Huskies. Carter Savoie would complete the 2nd period hat-trick in the final minute of the period and sent Denver to the locker room with the Huskies right where they wanted them.

The Huskies collapse was in large part due to three things. Penalties, sloppy special teams and poor puck management doomed them from the start. 

St. Cloud took 25 minutes in penalties, including the Walker 5-minute major, a double minor on Luke Jaycox, and a ten minute misconduct to Easton Brodzinski.

The penalty kill allowed three goals, and the power play went 1-for-4. The power play was particularly worrisome for SCSU, as the “top unit” couldn’t find much chemistry without Nick Perbix and Sam Hentges who are gone at the Olympics.

Denver scored the first three goals of the 3rd period and the Huskies were out of it quickly. Krannila would add a goal with the empty net late for SCSU. However, the collapse in the final 40 minutes was too much for SCSU to overcome.

Denver out shot St. Cloud 35-9 and outscored them 8-2 in the final two periods.

Saturday night, the Huskies looked for a response. They shuffled their forward lines, moved around their defense pairings, and stuck with Hrenak in goal.

Give credit to the depleted Husky coaching staff, the shuffling worked, at least defensively.

David Hrenak continued his stellar play from the night prior, turning away nine first period shots to set the tone for game two. He would finish with 34 saves.

Both teams looked a bit slower on Saturday as the pace was dulled a bit. The Huskies forced Denver to the outside and didn’t surrender the middle of the ice like they had on Friday.

“Both teams were really tired because last night it was really really aggressive,” said Shyiak. “I thought we had the upper hand because they looked tired. Part of that is the game yesterday was so much body body contact, there’s more energy exerted so that slowed down both teams. Also, we had the puck more tonight. When you have the puck, you’re not defending, but when we had opportunities to defend, our guys did a real good job.”

They also cleared rebounds in front of Hrenak. Not allowing as many 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th chances like they had Friday.

However, it was a 3rd chance opportunity for Denver that broke the scoreless tie. Carter King gathered his own rebound and beat a sprawling Hrenak 2:49 into the 2nd period. 

Things continued to hold steady for both teams into the 3rd period. The Huskies hadn’t played particularly well, but they certainly didn’t play bad. However, the offense was nowhere to be found. 

Chrona, the reigning NCHC Goaltender of the Month, turned away the handful of good chances St. Cloud had. He was a large part of the Denver penalty kill thwarting SCSU three times.

“We just had to capitalize in some of the opportunities that we had,” said Shyiak following Saturdays loss. “We had a couple. A real good one on the powerplay, we had a two on one where we just missed – it was Veeti (Miettinen) and Jami (Krannila), and if we convert on those, maybe the outcome of the game is a little bit different.”

With Denver clinging to a 1-0 lead, the game still hung in the balance entering the 3rd period. The Huskies were in a spot to do something they hadn’t done all season: win a game when trailing entering the 3rd period.

That balance shifted when the Huskies took two penalties back-to-back, including another 5-minute major. Brendan Bushy got tangled up with Denver’s Bobby Brink below the goal line and was called for a boarding major that put the Huskies down a man for the rest of the game.

“Yeah, it [the penalty] did obviously [take the wind out of the sails]. You never want to take a five late in the game when you’re trying to make a push to tie it up,” said Shyiak.

Brink would get his revenge setting up Cole Guttman for a dagger power play goal to seal Denver’s 2-0 win. 

The loss means the Huskies have now lost four in a row for the first time in the Brett Larson era. 

Up Next

The Huskies will get a chance to turn things around quickly when top 10 Duluth comes to the Brooks Center on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow will be a longer day, obviously, it’ll be a day off,” Shyiak said Saturday night. “Then we will decide as coaches, do we give them Monday off? We will do something with our strength coach to make sure we get our legs ready for Tuesday against a rested Duluth team. I think the guys would be more excited about playing a hockey game and trying to get a win, than they would be practicing all week.”

The game is part of a now split series to make up the previously cancelled January 7/8 series.

Tuesdays game will drop the puck at 6:07 with coverage for the game being carried on KVSC. Pregame coverage will start with Josh Wheeler in studio at 5:40 with Blake Theisen and Jake Bedell.

News and Notes

Aidan Spellacy took warmups on Saturday for SCSU for an unnamed Husky that was testing an injury pregame. Whoever that Husky was, wound up playing.

The Huskies continue to lose when David Hrenak isn’t virtually perfect. SCSU has yet to win a game when allowing three or more goals.

According to College Hockey News’ Pairwise calculator, the Huskies would need to go at least 6-4-0 in their final 10 regular season games to finish 10th in Pairwise rankings. A 5-5-0 or 4-6-0 finish would leave the Huskies sitting at 14th and likely outside the NCAA tournament. If St. Cloud wants to guarantee themselves an NCAA tournament spot, they likely need to finish 7-3-0 or better – that would place them near 6th.