As if the St. Cloud State Men’s Hockey team needed anymore motivating taking on it’s bitter rival Minnesota, the Gophers came into this weekend’s series as the nation’s top team. The Huskies proved that polls didn’t matter to them as they knocked off the #1 Golden Gophers by a score of 4-3 Friday from the National Hockey Center.

Ryan Faragher was again fantastic between the pipes, stopping 40 Minnesota shots. He faced a barrage of shots in the third period with Minnesota mounting a comeback, but held the fort to give the Huskies the win.

St. Cloud found the back of the net early as junior captain Ben Hanowski tallied just under four minutes into the game. Minnesota would even the score on the powerplay, but the Huskies countered with a powerplay goal of their own from Cam Reid to retake a lead. St. Cloud also got goals from Nic Dowd and Jared Festler in the second period, and the Huskies jumped out to a 4-1 lead. The Huskies scored four goals on Minnesota’s Kent Patterson on only 18 shots.

The Gophers scored twice in the game’s final five minutes, but SCSU held on the for upset win. Minnesota would get revenge the next night at Mariucci Arena, beating the Huskies 5-0. Nick Bjugstad had a hat-trick for the Gophers.

St. Cloud State is now 6-6-2 on the season and 4-3-1 in the WCHA. The Huskies hit the road this weekend for series at Nebraska Omaha. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:07 Saturday, and 2:07 Sunday. We’ll have updates on our Twitter page.